One meets interesting people when you have plans for a sea voyage. There is Linding from Taiwan. Nice guy, he purchased a boat off of eBay. He has no sailing experience other than what he has picked up the last few months of practicing on his boat. He plans on sailing to Taiwan/ Japan, with his wife, also new to sailing. They are leaving in June for Mexico. There is a high chance we will meet them out there since we are going the same route about the same time to Japan/Tawain. That should be fun. I met him at the Blue Pelican, and great place for parts and connections. He brought on a big discussion about should he attempt the sail from S.F. to Tawain with zero sailing background or training.
Ishiro-san is from Japan. I had heard about him from a neighbor I came across at the boat show. He has sailed from Japan to the States. Also from the States to Japan. He has experience. He has sailed almost the same route we plan on taking. Ishiro-san came to the Zenboat at the boat show to visit Yoh -Sensei. I missed meeting him do to some person talking my ear off below deck, while he was there. Linding had met him at him his marina and made the arrangements for me to meet him. I had heard form Yoh Sensei this person had a very spiritual “nature”. I was interesting chatting with him a bit.
The three of us met on Ishiro-san’s boat. We shared a bottle of wine I brought and chatted. Ishiro -san gave us the run down on a couple of places/countries where there have been reports of problems as far as cruisers getting things stolen. Also some other misc route tips. It was a nice gathering to chat about the passage. Which now is almost around the corner…Yosh!
Are you planning any longer test sails before you leave?
Something like down the coast to Monterey and back? Some people will just sail out the gate for a day or two and then return to get into the rhythm of overnight sailing and standing watches, etc.
By: o docker on May 22, 2012
at 5:17 am
Depends on the time. I want to do a shortie out of the gate; out on an ebb, back on a flood. Also a over-nighter at Angel or TI. if time down to 1/2 moon and back… otherwise just a slow trip down the coast as a shake down and live training.
By: Zen on May 22, 2012
at 5:34 am
A shakedown cruise is a very good idea…as is taking the zenamaran out in some heavier weather intentionally to get a feel for how she deals with it and how the reefing systems work.
You need to find out if any of the systems are not right before you take off on the big trip. This was the mistake Heather O’Neill made on s/v Flight of Years. She set off without doing a shakedown cruise and a day out of port got locked out of the boat’s cabin because her locking system was poorly designed. She had to hack a hole in the cabintop/companionway to get back into the boat and was injured at some point in the process and the injury scuttled her solo circumnavigation attempt.
By: Adriftatsea on May 22, 2012
at 5:57 am
The plan is to spend a day blue watering in June. Ride the ebb out ride the flood back.
By: Zen on May 28, 2012
at 12:08 am