Slow Boat to (near) China

Day 7. Quite a lot has changed in the past 48 hours. After 4-5 days of big seas and big winds, everything has calmed. Seas are much calmer and winds have died down, so much so that we have been "motoring" on a diesel engine to help us get to Okinawa. That is typical during sailing trips when there is not enough wind to effectively sail the boat. This boat can sail with very light winds, but not out of certain directions, so we have been motoring at a very slow speed.

Some of you have asked about our routine on the ship and how we cover our watches. We are using two, 2-person teams. I (Mike) have been standing watch with Gary, a seasoned boat skipper. The other team is the boat owner and captain (Joe) with another crew passenger (Neal). We stand 6 hour watches back and forth. Within each watch, only one person needs to keep an eye on the operation while the other can relax, or even sleep on a bench near by. Sometimes two people are needed for sailing adjustments, and it's overall safer to have two people ready to act. When off-watch, we usually crash in our beds. It's a 24/7 operation.

You may be asking "What about Jennifer?" Well, that involves some news we are ready to share. Soon after we departed and hit bigger seas, Jen got seasick. Neither of us expected it because of our prior experiences, but it happened. Jen was essentially down for 4 days trying to survive and get fluids and nutrition. Thankfully, she is recovering now that the seas are better. But this experience has made us decide to NOT continue on this journey across the Pacific Ocean. We will be getting off the boat in Okinawa.

Although we now know Jennifer is susceptible to seasickness, and we can take some precautions, the fact is that we do not know if those precautions will work, and we would have been VERY remote in the Pacific Ocean. Not the place to have a medical emergency occur. It's a risk we are not willing to take, and we don't want our boat crew to have to worry about it on the journey.

I considered continuing without Jen because I committed to the boat owner to help on this transit. And although my presence would have allowed the others to get more rest during the voyage, they still have crew enough to do it. I feel bad about not continuing, but I had to be honest with myself that I didn't want to do it anymore without being able to experience it with Jen. There was also some risk of not getting back to the US in time for a planned trip with friends in September. So our cross-Pacific voyage will end in Okinawa.

If we can, Jen and I hope to spend some time in Japan while we are here and before flying home. Land-based travel sounds good! However, due to customs rules in Japan, we might have to go right from the boat to the airport and fly home (it's complicated as to why that would be, so I won't try to explain.) We plan to be back in the United States in 1-2 weeks depending on how long we can stay and visit.

We want everyone to know that we are SAFE. Jen is getting better and we are looking forward to our arrival in Okinawa sometime around July 16th. I will continue to blog updates about our journey, and if we stay in Japan we'll have more to share from there.

Thanks everyone! Love and Peace.