We Made it Back SAFE & SOUND

It's freezing! It's FREEZING!

Great work Shinbo-san! Hiro maintained his positive attitude right to the end. (From Head Office)

Hello everyone! We made it safely back to Hokko Yacht Harbor around 9 am this morning. What a sharp contrast to yesterday's beautiful weather...the temperature started dropping rapidly, especailly after sunset. Golden Week (a week where April 29, May 1-3 are official holidays in Japan)  in May is coming up soon but it still feels like winter. We knew it was going to get cold so we were dressed for it but when the wind is at 13 m and it's raining, the temperature feels like 5℃. I had 4 layers of pants and 6 layers of shirts but it was COLD! The Chagayu (Japanese tea rice porridge) that Hiki-san made for a midnight snack was the BEST! With sea sickness and the cold, the director who came on board with us said he thought he was going to freeze to death and that he never wants to be on a yacht again. The thing we have to be most careful about when sailing in Japan are the fixed fishing nets. We really struggled with them. The L-shaped dots that suddenly appear on the radar, what is this? Can we get passed it? No, we have to change directions and avoid it. It was a fixed fishing net for seaweed which was about 2.7 km by 2.5 km. Once we got to Hokko Yacht Harbor we ate some warm delicious curry. This overnight training was really productive. Thank you everyone for your continuous support.

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 4/21/2013
Translated by SWIS Project