The SIRENA Story
Kannonzaki – “On the Rocks”
Click HERE to see the route of this perilous journey
August 17th, 2003.
The rain and unseasonable cold of this last week did not discourage
my hope that the weekend would allow some sailing. Saturday night I slept aboard, listening the steady beat of
raindrops on the tent fly above the open hatch. I awoke at dawn but the gentle rocking of the boat and the cool breeze sent me back into
dreamland for another 3 hours.
At 9 am I motored out of the marina, the weather was
overcast but nothing wet falling from the sky.
The forecast called for 10 knot breezes from the North-East until mid
afternoon when they would shift and blow from the South. The low tide was estimated to be at about
13:30 and so the plan was to run with the
wind and the tides as far South as I could go, check out the Kannonzaki
coastline and then catch the favorable tide & wind conditions back in the
afternoon.
Out of the marina, I raised the sails and sailed a straight broad reach all the way
down. At 11 am I watched Sarushima
pass along the Starboard side, the lighthouse on Kannonzaki coming into view
straight ahead. The plan for today
was to find a good sandy shore to beach Sirena for the first time. I wanted to explore the area a little as
well as scout out a good place to overnight, which could serve as a base of
exploration for future trips to the Southern part of the Miura peninsula, also
a place close to public transport where I could take on or let off passengers
who didn’t want to cruise with me all day.
Having sailed almost to the tip of Kannonzaki, I tacked and followed the
coastline Northwest, looking for Hashirimizu beach, as on the map. I could see a sandy beach approaching on
the left, but there was also a maze of concrete seawalls and blocks to navigate
to get to it. I dropped the sails and
started to motor in, careful to avoid the rocks that the lowering tide had
exposed. In anticipation for the
beaching, the keel arm was uncleated and noticed it started to move gently up
as I ran over something soft. I
noticed that the water was really getting shallow, I could clearly see starfish
and some rocks at a depth of less than one meter. I could see other yachts at anchor on the other side of a
seawall, but the question was how to get in there? It got progressively shallower and the keel arm would bounce
up and down as it was touching bottom.
I was still 200 meters from the beach and did not want to get stuck
there as the tide was still going out, so decided to turn around and look
elsewhere for a place to land. Going
out in the same way I came in (I thought) I was very surprised and horrified to
run into a rock, stopping Sirena and lurching her up and slightly
sideways. I cut the motor and moved aft
and this caused her to slide backwards into the deeper water. But I think this backward motion had caused
the keel to dislodge. The keel arm
had come down hard into the wooden casing top, imbedding the tackle a good
centimeter into the wood, right in the middle of the keel case. I decided to sail to Sarushima Island,
where I could anchor in shallow water and inspect the keel below. Sailing upwind proved very difficult,
however apparently due to the odd position of the keel, I could not make any
headway. Even sailing a reach I would
notice that I was sliding off leeward.
So I dropped the sails and motored the 2 or so miles up to Sarushima.
At 13:30 I approached the left side of the swimming beach
at Sarushima, I was greeted by a guy
on the shore giving me the ‘batsu’ sign.
This is the Japanese body language for ‘no-good’ and is made by crossing
one’s arms in front of the face. You
see this a lot by parking lot attendants when their lots are full, or
shopkeepers when they’ve closed for the evening. Having anchored in the same place twice before without problem, I
couldn’t understand, but I tried to explain
in my best Japanese that I just needed to stop to fix my boat. I dropped anchor and seeing that he wasn’t
going to scare me off, he disappeared after a while. Jumping into the cool
water I felt around the keel and discovered that the mooring line attached to
the bow had jammed into where the keel was stuck, forward in the casing. I tried to free the keel and line, but all
my efforts would not get it to budge.
After about an hour of trying and getting nowhere, I was ready to move
onto plan B which was to purposely ground the boat on the keel to try to push
it up, or at least cut the rope. But
before trying that, I unscrewed the
wooden keel case cover, and had to chip away around where the tackle had become
imbedded. Once I got that off I was
finally able to pry the rope out immediately the keel dropped straight down the
slot. Fortunately we were in waist deep water so it never fell
completely out. It was quite an effort
to get the keel back up and in the correct position, but I gave it my best shot
and finally got it up. I was
exhausted, and had some minor cuts and scrapes on my hands and back from the
barnacles that had accumulated on the hull.
Sirena also had some rather ugly gouges torn out of the wooden keel case
cover but we at least we were back in business. I looked at the clock and it was almost 16:00. I was hungry and I could smell the Yakisoba
being cooked from the snack shop on the
beach, but I was not in the mood to meet my ‘Batsu’ friend and get in an
argument. Also, the Southerly wind
which the weather forecast had promised did not materialize, the wind was still
a steady 10 knots out of the Northeast, and so it would be a long beat up home,
with the arrival time getting close to sunset, so I raised sails and glided
off.
I listened to the symphony of the cicadas on Sarushima fade
away until it was replaced by the sound of rushing water. It was good to be underway again. Mother Nature gave me a gentle shower of
rain, which washed the saltwater off me and down the cockpit drain. I sailed very close to the USA Naval
Housing at Yokosuka, and met two Catalina 22’s flying the USA yacht ensign,
their skippers obviously Navy men.
Both boats seemed to be as interested in checking out the Potter as I
was in them. However, I had no time
to dawdle as I was now in a race with the clock to get back before dark. I fired up the trusty Suzuki 2HP, and
motor sailed straight up straight north for about one hour. At 17:45 with the overcast skies and some
fog it was already getting dark. The
buoy lights came on and I was grateful for the efforts I had taken to memorize
the ones close to home. At 18:30,
pitch dark, I motored into the marina.
To recap the trip;
*-It was the farthest and longest day of sailing yet. Good steady wind was a pleasure to sail in.
*-I learned to be very very careful of unfamiliar
coastlines. I think I will go for a
swim down
at Hashirimizu
beach to scout out the best way to approach it for next time.
*-Using the keel as a depth detector didn’t work very well
for me.
*-Now I can say from personal experience that barnacles are
sharp and a free hanging keel is heavy.
*-After a long hard day on the high seas, a shower and a Caramel
Frappiato Grande at Starbucks is
like heaven.