THANK YOU Kuroshio

June 12, 2013 12 PM N 35.24 E 140.43 Cloudy Winds:Northeast 15 knots Wave height: 2 m with some rolling waves. Off the coast of Kujukurihama, 12 miles to Choshi

　As I blogged yesterday, it was a day of survival. The day before that we were swept away a couple of miles north by the waves in Enshuri even though we were in the rhumb line(the line that connects the vessel to the point of destination). The weather forecast says a typhoon that was heading towards Kyushu is not heading in our direction and winds from east and northeast will continue for several days. Ugh! The winds are blowing from the direction we are heading to. With yachts, facing your destination, if the winds are blowing from the side or diagonally from behind, we would be able to proceed straight. However, if the winds are blowing from ahead, the yacht will zigzag left and right and we lose a considerable amount of speed.  And what's even more inconvenient is the yacht will be rocked up and down and sideways. I think many of you have been on trains where you are walking and the slightest jolt sideways makes you lose balance. Well, it's worse on a yacht. When the yacht is being hit with winds going 25 - 35 knots it takes a lot of effort to even hold yourself upright. Even simple chores like changing clothes or walking with a cup of coffee in your hands can be exhausting. I'm a slow mover as it is and it makes me even slower. So we struggled with the head winds but as soon as we passed Bosohanto, we started to pick up a little speed. The Aeolus is facing the direction of 110 degrees but is moving at 85 degrees. Wow! We're doing a little over 7 knots (about 13km/hr). We must be riding the Kuroshio that's in this area. We are all very excited with the speed. We were just talking yesterday after hearing about the approaching typhoon that we may have to take shelter at a port and if we do, we may not be able to head out of Onahama on the 16th as scheduled but the Kuroshio came to our rescue. 82 more miles. As I was writing this it looks like the speed is dropping and we are down to 3 knots. We'll do what we have to do. Sailing is full of surprises, both good and not so good.

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 6/12/2013
Translated by SWIS Project