FUEL Ready to GO!

May 26. I headed out to Osaka by Shinkansen. Once I arrived in Osaka, I headed straight for Hokko Yacht Harbor. A team of volunteers from Kaientai went on their first round of shopping and the food was all piled up in the boathouse. I touched each item and confirmed each one. We will take everything out of the boxes and put them in ziplock bags to save space. Even the cup for the cup noodles take up space so the contents will be put into plastic bags. Some of you may think, then why don't we just take the instant noodles that come in bags? Well, with those types of noodles we would first have to boil water, then put the noodles in and let it boil for another 3 minutes or so for it to be ready to eat which means we would be using up a lot of propane. With the ones that come in cups, we only have to use enough propane for the water to boil then we can turn it off. It may seem like only 3 minutes but do it often enough and that's a lot of propane. The volunteers will go for their 2nd round for shopping at the end of next week and once it's June, we will start loading the yacht. When I arrived at the Aeolus, there were eighteen 20 liter plastic tanks and eight 18 liter plastic tanks tied together. A total of 504 liters. The Aeolus holds 110 liters so that totals to 614 liters of fuel on board the Aeolus. I don't think there has been any other yacht the size of Aeolus taking this much fuel with them to cross the Pacific. We need it all to keep the satellite machines for our live broadcasts and the 24 hour camera for the documentary running. At 3 pm, we borrowed an area at the harbor and had a BBQ. We had delicious meats and draft beer made by a member of Kaientai and had a great time. I planned this BBQ in an attempt to express my gratitude to all the volunteers from Kaientai who have worked so hard to help me but since I was on the road this morning, I ended up having to ask the volunteers to help get everything ready. Thank you once again. I know that for the next 2 weeks until we set sail, we will need the help of the volunteers from Kaientai, probably more than I realize.  

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/28/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

WHAT I CAN DO and What I Can't

May 28. This morning, we turned on the VSAT and INMARSAT systems on and were on standby for a live broadcast testing from 10:30 this morning. The INMARSAT phone rang so I picked it up. It was Shinbo-san saying; "Hello? Shinbo here!" The phone works fine. Now we are ready for interviews over the phone. Next, we tested to see if we can send video and audio over the VSAT. We were able to send video but not audio. They said that it could be due to unstable transmission speeds. Once it reached 200kbps, we were able to send audio as well.  I hope we will be able to reach triple digit transmission speed when we are out there on the Pacific. After having cup noodles for lunch on the yacht, Shinbo-san got busy listening to Hiki-san explain alternative methods of communication in case we have trouble with satellite communication. The amount of information was tremendous and I was amazed with Shinbo-san's ability to absorbe all that information. And the fact that Hiki-san thoroughly understands all of it to the point he can teach someone is incredible. Anything related to the engine or anything electrical, I have no choice but to have Shinbo-san handle it. I felt bad as I listened to them talk. I reminded myself over and over again that my responsibility is to do what I can to the best of my abilities. The code that I live by is to not dwell on things I can't do and focus on what I can do and give it my all. After Shinbo-san left, around 3 pm, we wanted to test the new SailSound and tried to connect it to the on board LAN but we were having trouble. We fumbled around for a while trying to figure out what was wrong and when we turned on the VSAT we finally got connection. With the new version of SailSound, you can set how many times you want it to read out the information on the menu using a function already available in the iPad or iPhone. I always think it's great when I am enabled to start doing things I couldn't do before on my own.  We returned to the boathouse around 4 pm and discussed the food items to load onto the yacht with the leader of the shopping team Mackie until a little after 7 pm. Thank you all for your help again today. I will be heading out for a live broadcast of 'Koji Tele Chu!' tomorrow at Fukushima Chuo TV. If you live in Fukushima, I hope you watch it!

Message from Headquarters:
A VSAT system will be on board the Aeolus for live broadcast and uploading blogs from the PC for this voyage. This will be our primary communication system (There is a huge dome antenna on the stern. In case we run into problems with the VSAT, we have the INMARSAT phone as an audio backup during live broadcasts. This will be our secondary communication system. And we will have an iridium phone that will constantly be connected to the two of them. This is our third and last communication system. 

The systems are all there to support one another and thanks to the technology provided by Furuno Electrics and others that allows us to use all this technology without a hitch, our safety is ensured. We will be commencing the final countdown soon. Thank you for all your support until now and hope you will stay with us on our journey. 

To all of our supporters out there, we promise to upload videos and blogs every moment we can. We hope you look forward it. And of course, our broadcasts can be enjoyed in Hi-Vision.  Stay tuned to watch cutting edge technologies being used for the first time in the world!

P.S. It will be Shinbo-san that will actually operate them and believe me, it's not as complicated as you may imagine but in no way is it easy. Good luck Shinbo-san! LOL

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/28/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

IFDS Blind Sailing World & International Championships 2013

May 25. I visited Aburatsubo Boat Service in Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It was very quiet around me so I heard the sound of craftsmen doing maintenance work inside the yacht that was raised from the water. There was a 38 ft yacht, that made me think it looked like it could be Aeolus's big sister   docked near the floating bridge. Last September, before Aeolus was moved to Osaka, we had some major work done on her here. That evening, I was invited to the opening ceremony for the IFDS Blind Sailing World & International Championships 2013 that was being held at the Seabornia Marina. I had a great time with some old sailing buddies. Competing blind sailing teams consist of four sailors on a boat, two of whom are blind according to IBSA classifications and two of whom are sighted to serve as guides.  The helmsman and crew (in charge of the main sail) are blind sailors. One of the sighted sailor can not physically touch any of the controls and must verbally inform the helmsman the location and the heading of the vessels around them. The blind sailors listen to the information and maneuver the yacht to avoid crashing into other vessels.  The other sighted sailor is in charge of the jib. Teamwork is vital to these four sailors. They must work together to steer the yacht to find a spot at the start line and avoid collisions when the multiple vessels sail close together when they go around the mark. Talk about an adrenalin rush. Non-stop, heart pounding, breathtaking sailing. I just remembered people talking about how funny the start of a yacht race is. It's quite different from a car race or a 100 m running race because the yachts don't suddenly start racing in the water as soon as you hear "GO!".  The race starts with the yachts sailing parallel to the start line about 5 minutes prior to when the race actually begins and as soon as you hear the sound of the pistol go off the yachts cross the start line as fast as they can. If you pick up speed because the wind got stronger or if the tide pushes you forward and you accidentally cross the start line before the race starts, you have to return to the start line and start all over. So one moment you may think you are first in line at the the start line and the next you are last. Yacht races can be very dramatic. Back in 2006, I was part of a Japanese team for the blind sailing championships that was held at the New York Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Island. 3 team members from that championship were in the race today. A sailor I became friends with at the U.S. championships that I participate in every year was there too. More power to you all and I hope that everything you learned during practice will yield fantastic results. At the opening ceremony, I was introduced to Mr. Kojiro Shiraishi, a marine adventurer who has sailed around the globe 3 times and I was able to talk to him about my upcoming adventure. I also talked about Furuno Electric's NavNet Touch and how when connected to the iPad Mini, SailSound can convert the information to sound. Many of the blind expressed interest. I assume it's because there is no other system in the world that can convert this much information into sound. I am so proud and extremely grateful that I have been given the opportunity to use this system that was developed for me to cross the Pacific Ocean.      

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/27/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

APOLOGY and CORRECTION

                                

I'm sorry. Let me correct my mistake. In my blog in Japanese, I wrote the wrong character for the name of the legendary yachtsman, Kenichi Horie. I wrote '堀江健一’ when is should have been '堀江謙一’. I also made the same mistake on another piece I wrote. I deeply apologize for my error. 

I have a friend from my school days named Ken Horie and I have gotten so used to using his character for 'Ken' that I chose this character out of habit. I also have friends who have names that sound like sentences in Japanese that would translate into English as 'I'm climbing a stone wall' or 'A puddle of water'. OK, completely off course here.

The weather in Osaka is beautiful today. Why we are missing out on practicing in this beautiful whether is my question but we have our reasons for taking this day off. I also have to do a recording for our weather song on my Kansai local show 'Ce Matin' tomorrow so I have to practice playing the drums. I have been practicing since 8 am this morning and my right leg that I use for the bass drum is starting to cramp. The music score they handed to me me only a week ago is clearly something too demanding for an amateur to play so I'm about ready to give up. 

Two more weeks until we set sail for San Diego. I have a feeling there are more important things I should be doing right now...oh, well.

Originally posted by Jiro Shibo in Japanese on 5/26/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

The GIFT Part 4

                                     

Last week, the architect Tadao Ando invited me to dinner. I had an opportunity to have a meal with the legendary sailor Kenichi Horie-san, who has been friends with Ando-san for half a century. He said to me; "Shinbo-san, the cup of coffee you have on board is a magical cure to clear your mind and soul for an instant." and handed by some instant coffee from Starbuck's. when I told Hira-san this story, Hiro-san said; "I was contemplating whether to get those or not." So we were very grateful for the gift. Thank you very much. 

On this note, I decided to read 'Alone on the Pacific' authored by Kenichi Horie again. As I read it over, I realized what an intense voyage it was. This book contained a list of the items he had on board and for example, the list of clothes was like this;  

Clothing

 (Pants) 5 pairs. All jeans.

 (Long Johns) 80 pairs. So he can just discard after each use.

 (Belts) 3. 2 extras in case 1 falls into the water. 

Etc., etc...there were at least 20 different items on the list. You'd think a belt would be one of the last things on his mind but it shows how much thought he put into creating his list. Unfortunately, all these items he stocked were drenched in seawater only a week after he set sail when the bottom of the boat filled with water. 

Even more surprising than that was the fact he calculated 0.5 liters of purified water a day so he only had a total of 68 liters of water on board. Back then, they didn't have bottled water so he poured tepid water into plastic bags and again within a week the bags were torn, the water spilled out and whatever he managed to save ended up getting moldy so he survived the rest of the trip with rainwater and beer. His story sounds more like stories of someone being stranded after a shipwreck. 

Compared to Horie-san's voyage, we are blessed. We plan to have 90 days supply of water where we should be able to use 2 liters per person a day. We also have man's greatest invention the plastic bottle on our side so we won't have to worry about the water going bad so as long as we make it to San Diego within the scheduled 2 months, and we may even have enough to wash our hair with shampoo right before we enter the port. 

 Horie-san said something very impressionable.

 "Crossing the Pacific is a feat that every man should accomplish at least once in their lifetime."

 You know, I get what he's saying but...

Originally posted by Jiro Shibo in Japanese on 5/24/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

Shinbo-san is IRREPLACEABLE

May 22. Today I was interviewed by Braille Mainichi, a Braille weekly for the blind by Mainichi Newspaper. The interview who got on board with us was very sensitive to motion so although the winds and waves were gentle the interviewer got sick and we had to cut the interview short in the middle of sailing. I feel so bad for them. I imagine they can't say no to an assignment just because they get motion sickness. We had another guest on board. It was Wakihama-san, a female announcer from Yomiuri TV who is know by a select few as the person who Shinbo-san would pass the baton to should Shinbo-san not be able to make the voyage. Apparently, there was even a newspaper article with comments from Shinbo-san and her picture in it. Her hobby is scuba diving and just the other day, she went diving to celebrate using her 900th oxygen tank so her passion for scuba diving is admirable. Currently, she is also passionate about sailing dinghies and she sails at public yacht harbors. I hope everyone out there can find a public marina so that they can try sailing. I want to get rid of the biased opinion in Japan that sailing is an indulgence for the rich.

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/23/2013
Translated by SWIS Project 

Ahoy! Female Announcer CLIMBS THE MAST!

May 20th. We had another interview with Ce Matin today. Danette Davis from Blind Sailing International (BSI) joined us on the Aeolus from the U.S. The plan for this episode was to have the female weather forecaster Saito-san climb up to the tip of the mast before we head out and have another female announcer Yoshida-san cook while we sail. As Saito-san climbed up the mast with her safety harness on, I could hear her yelling "I'm scared! I'm scared!" The mast on the Aeolus has a little stairway so it's easier to climb than most masts but I imagine it must have been very scary for her. She was up halfway when I heard her scream "NOOO! I can't do this! Don't make this do this!" We all yelled back up at her "Yukino-chan! You can do it! Don't give up!" and urged her to go on. She screamed all the way up and screamed all the way down but she did it. Apparently she's not afraid of heights but she said climbing up to the top of the mast was a completely different experience from standing on the roof of a tall building. We headed out of the port to do some sailing. The weather was lovely and the wind was very pleasant. The perfect day for sailing. As soon as we raised the sail, stopped the engine and started sailing, Saito-san started feeling a little seasick. What a horrible day it must have been for her. First, they make her climb up the mast and then she gets seasick. Yoshida-san went into the cabin and to cook and something smelled delicious. Yum...and it tasted as good as it smelled. Do you want to know what she made for us? Then watch Ce Matin on May 29th around 5:50 am. As for the people who live outside the Kansai broadcasting area, I will blog what it was on the 29th. Stay tuned!

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/21/2013
Translated by SWIS Project