WE did it! With the help of others I windsurfed round the four main islands of Japan. For the final hops the weather and sailing conditions were glorious. The planning - from beginning to end - was last minute but somehow everything fell into place: 14 months after departing from Onjuku beach, I landed there again to reunite with Paul, Shizu, Aika and Eurika. To mark the spot "WELCOME HOME JONO" had been drawn in the sand. Alongside that stood Yumiko - beaming - and her presence made the welcome party complete.

Much of this journey has been a fight against wind and tide. Just a week ago, it seemed that I was at least three weeks away from closing the loop of the circumnavigation. A double dose of typhoons could easily have prevented completion. In actuality, I got lucky with the weather. A string of days with settled weather and kind south-westerly winds set up a trio of crossings that now puts me one short hop away from Onjuku, where the journey began.

No movement for a few days as we let big seas calm down. Before that I had a very satisfying trio of days.

Groundhog Day section. Wind is a distant memory. Every day since forever is paddled in part or in full. Trickles of breeze come and go, and are almost always on the nose. I no longer stow the paddle, since it will soon be needed again.

A great run yesterday down to Kushimoto, the southernmost tip of Wakayama Prefecture. This comes after 2-days-previous when I only made 4 nm, before nearby thunderstorms and my own tiredness advised as early stop; and yesterday when I put the hours in, but the very light headwinds limited progress to about 9 nm.