One of the lest accessible cruising grounds for Europeans and Americans, the Japanese islands hold a special allure just because they are so far off the beaten cruising track. Although an island nation, yachting has never been very popular in Japan. They are a nation of fishermen and their harbors, coastal villages and marine customs are not favorable to itinerant cruisers who want to hop from harbor to harbor at will. Nick and Jenny Coghlan, who are cruising the Pacific aboard their Vancouver 27, sailed to Japan and had many strange and interesting encounters. Their story appears in Sailing Today.
“Everybody had warned us that the Japanese love paperwork. So as Bosun Bird, our Vancouver 27, worked her way northwards through the islands of the western Pacific, every so often we’d crank up the Iridium satphone to find out what we needed to do before entering the country. By the time we reached Guam, the American territory and military base that was to be our jumping-off point for the 1,400-mile crossing to Kyushu, we were getting desperate.” Read more.
