April 27, 2008 - Fun on a Hobie Wave

Change of plan today; Mr. Neilson kindly invited us for a sail in his Hobie Wave. Haven’t been on a catamaran in some time and it was nice to get back to the sense of space the boats give. We had very light offshore winds from the northeast for the first couple of hours but once the winds swung round coming from the south, the boat hummed along really nicely at 9km/h in conditions the Sea Martin would have moved at 5-6km./h

Simon was with me and fell asleep on the trampoline. However as the winds increased so did the chop and the water splashed through the trampoline ruining sleeping conditions.. Simon was well able to take the helm tacking and jibing with ease. The boat has back rests and at one point it was like sailing around on a sofa. My one criticism off catamarans in the past was sitting on the trampoline – the back rests really helped.

Hitting the beach without centerboards was great and the tillers popped up nicely in two stages, so steerage was never a problem. The way it handled the landing and the robust construction makes the Wave a great candidate for beach cruising. Worth noting that although there is heaps of space onboard, and the boat can accommodate 4 adults, lots of water splashes through the trampoline requiring gear to be put in waterproof bags.

By the time we arrived at the club the boat had already been rigged, but de-rigging took 40 mins and would have been quicker if Neilson-san hadn’t been distracted by me. Marinebox100 have nice storage arrangements and systems for raising both the mast and boat.

All in all, a great day out!

April 12 & 13, 2008 - Beach Cruise to Mitohama

April 12, 2008 - Saturday


Arrived at Zushi at 7:30, Stuart’s boat and tent were on the beach. Changed into my sailing gear and waited for the club to open. Winds were light from the east and conditions looked good for our first beach cruise of 2008.

Set off at about 09:30 in light but gusty winds, flat seas and overcast skies. As usual there were a number of nets to navigate around but seaweed presented a particularly difficult hazard requiring us to divert from our preferred course on at least three occasions .

Arrived at Miyahama at 12:30. Stuart landed first and before I set down, was asked to move to the other end of the beach by an angry fisherman . We pulled the boats up the steep beach and set about exploring.

We checked out the dinghy sailing club on the north side of the beach - nice club, really friendly people. When we mentioned we had sailed done down from Zushi they reacted like we'd arrived from another continent. Later we checked out some potential campsite locations at the west end of the beach but decided we had selected the right end of the beach (near the angry fisherman) to begin with, so we picked up our gear, leaving the boats behind and trekked back to towards the south end. We popped into the Mitohama Hobiecat Fleet; great day for sailing but no one was out or about. I wasn’t impressed.

We also checked out the local small but beautiful Shrine - its at the end of an avenue of tree, many of which appear to be tropical.

The beach at the other end turned out to be the perfect – sheltered, private, flat etc. We selected spots to set the tents and then realized we needed beer. Some bikers camping nearby took pity on us and gave us a couple of cans before we set off in search of a convience - the 50 round trip significantly impacted Mitohama's ratings.

It being a little early in the year for a beach trip, we had decided to cook on the beach rather then forage for food. I brought some pasta and some sauce but didn’t bring salt or oil because it I thought it was ‘un-camperlike’. Needless to say the pasta was stogy but served a purpose. Later the bikers asked us to join their camp fire. There six guys had more camping gear than I’d ever seen – tables, chairs, cooking stuff and a great looking inverted pyramid shaped barbeque. They cooked for us and we wiled away the evening around a campfire.

April 13, 2008 - Sunday
It rained overnight and the next morning we woke to howling winds and grey skies. After another feed of stogy pasta and sardines followed by hot coffee. I received a call from the sailing club warning us that the wind was going to pick up and strongly recommending that we get back ASAP. Following a lengthy debate over whether to run the jib or not, Stuart suggested that it would be a bad idea – great decision! My thoughts were that I should run it and get home quicker, Stuart could already see that catching wind wasn’t going to be a problem – the challenge was going to be handling the overpowering gusts, or as he called them, bullets.

We set off and immediately ran into problems with seaweed – well I ran into problems, Stuart kept a safe distance away. Once we’d exited the bay we were sailing dead against the wind and started a 5 hour tacking session. I messed up at least half my tacks but managed to recover every time. As time went on the winds held at about 10 – 12 m/s and I got used to the conditions but not overconfident. There were moments when the waves seemed to come at us from 3 different directions but as long as we had steerage and were moving forward we were able to stay upright.



Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos or even glance at the GPS (or change its batteries!) so, the visual record is a little light for the Sunday leg of the trip.

By the time we returned to Zushi the Marinebox sailors had given up for the day. I was shattered but it felt great to look up at my dry sail.

April 5, 2008

Temp: 17 deg C

Wind: 3 – 6m/s from the northeast and late from the south

Sea Conditions: a little choppy outside with some waves mid afternoon.

Visibility: Clear to Enoshima.

Comments: Had Simon along today, sailed over to Hayama beach with Simon at the tiller for most of the day. The wind picked up eary in the afternoon and we sailed about in the bay.

Today's Route

March 29, 2008

Temp: 12 deg C

Wind: 3 – 5m/s from the north

Sea Conditions: flat in the bay, choppy outside with some waves mid afternoon.

Visibility: Clear to Enoshima. Squall over Enoshima in the afternoon

Comments: Had the jib up and got back to the bay as the wind picked up. Reached 9mph.

Sailed thought the beacons at Najima straight into the wind.

Forgot my windproof jacket and paid for it as the wind got stronger - wore a short sleeved wetsuit. Eventually had to come in due to the cold just before 3:30.

Route

Video

March 23, 2008

Temp: 18 deg C

Wind: 5 – 3m/s from the north

Sea Conditions: flat with lots of seaweed at low tide on the north end of the beach. Fishing nets covering about 30% of the bay!

Visibility: Clear to Enoshima


Comments: Managed to squeeze a second day of sailing in this weekend. Richard was out and we went as far as Najima together. Wind dropped off early in the afternoon and moved round to the east.


Route

March 22, 2008

Temp: 15 deg C

Wind: 5 – 3m/s from the north

Sea Conditions: flat with lots of seaweed at low tide on the north end of the beach. Fishing nets made things difficult in about 30% of the bay.

Visibility: Clear to Enoshima with the white peak of Mt Fuji in the background

Thought it was wetsuit weather but temperatures topped out at 15 deg C by mid afternoon, ie. ‘sweat suit’ conditions.

Winds were forecasted to blow between 3 and 5m/s but there was a point where we were becalmed. Nice flat sea conditions with an offshore wind from the NE to begin with, swinging round to the SE later in the afternoon.

Lots of dinghies out and beginner level windsurfers

Video

Route

Feb 9, 2008

Temp: 2 degrees C
Wind: 2 - 4 m/s
Sea Conditions: choppy but no real waves
Companions:

There were some wind surfers about today but I appear to have been the only sailor mad enough to go out in the cold. Stayed in the bay as I was on my own but managed to get about at a fair clip, 7 - 9 mph according to the GPS unit.

The fishermens nets are a lot closer to shore this time of year - forcing me to leave the bay when there are a lot of windsurfers around, or to stay close to the shore where the wind is gusty.

Tacking and gibing definately became more difficult as I got colder - will probably leave the jib behind next time I go out in these condidtions and bring some heat packs. Filming was difficult in the gusty condidtions, so I took some photos of the club afterwards.