4 WATERPROOF BAGS of Clothing

June 4. Today I went to Nippon Lighthouse to get some Braille stickers and Braille writing machine this morning before going to the harbor. I wanted to label the bags that are filled with clothes and food. As soon as I got to the harbor, Shibo-san joined me for an interview with someone from the Kansai version of Yomiuri newspaper. Shinbo-san will be writing an article for them every week. I hope all of you living in Kansai will have a chance to read it! We checked each extra pieces of rope and we separated the ones that we will load onto the Aeolus and the ones we won't be taking with us. Ropes can get pretty heavy when they are long. I bunched up 5 pieces of rope and carried them on my back to the Aeolus but by the time I reached the Aeolus, I was exhausted. Now we have back ups for every type of rope in case any of them tear or breaks. I've been asked before if the ropes for the sails ever break and to be honest, they rarely do. However, we do have to be prepared for any situation. Safety comes first in this project so we are prepared for everything we can think of. It's a huge risk we are taking so I am so grateful that we have so many people working so hard for our survival. As I mentioned before, Helly Hansen has donated many things to our project. We have 5 different pairs for rain wear alone so I am certain we will be fine in any weather. We also got deck shoes, Tshirts, reefer jackets, pants, fleece and many many more. I touched everything to memorize the items so that I can easily find them during our trip across the Pacific.  I put the Tshirts and reefer jackets into ziplock bags and marked them in Braille. When I put them all into waterproof bags, it totaled to 4 bags and all of them are the same shape so for the ones I assume I will be opening and closing a lot, I marked them with a short piece of rope. This will help in identifying which bag has what quickly. By the time I got everything into the bags and left the harbor it was already around 9 pm. I am very grateful I was able to get everything I needed to get done today without incident. Only 3 more days until we head out of Osaka. Hiki-san is worried that there are still so many things left to be done. Please pray for us that we will be able to head out of Osaka smoothly and as planned. Thank you!

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 6/05/2013
Translated by SWIS Project