Cape Sata (Extreme Southernmost Point)

While I dry out after a wet 24 hours, and instead of procrastinating about what to do today, I'll update on recent good progress.

The big news is that I got round Cape Sata. This is the southernmost tip of mainland Japan, at the end of the Ōsumi Peninsula which itself forms the east side of Kagoshima Bay.

Two good days with northerly wind got me to the Kagoshima Bay crossing. It was late in the day to take on a major obstacle, but the wind was good, and rather than think too hard I just sailed straight for the Cape. Had I known that a 2-metre Pacific swell was hitting the ocean-facing side of the peninsula I might have been less gung-ho. Fortunately, and as expected, there was a small port to dive into once round the end. As could/should have been expected, there was a lot of water movement around the Cape: water pouring out of Kagoshima Bay, the powerful northward-flowing Kuroshio Current, and those heaving ocean swells all interacting in curious and spooky ways. Glad I only have to do that once. Of the set of extreme points (East, North, West and South - in that order) this was the most memorable.

Either side of the Cape my stops have been far from konbinis due to remoteness, but the coastline has been stunning. Before the Cape I stopped at the diminutive Akine Port, that has a claim to fame as a James Bond filming location. I got a good feed there at a restaurant (very lucky find) and in the morning a local donated some rice balls.

Beyond the Cape, the Ōsumi Peninsula (east side) is as remote as anywhere I have sailed in Japan, but by bizarre coincidence I met a British guy called Marcus who lives locally with Japanese wife, children and three border collies. Marcus's son - Mireya (sp?) - popped back to the mountains and came back with a camp stove and ingredients to cook my up a steak, served with salad from their garden. Bloody brilliant! Mireya also works in the konbini at the next "major" town, and when I eventually arrived there (one day later) Mireya was at the counter with a bag of food ready for me. Bloody brilliant again! Put that man forward for a "Lawson" Employee of the Month Award! Remarkably (from my perspective, and not counting his father), I was the first Brit that Mireya had met.

Marcus himself claimed to not like people, and to have little faith in humanity. Of course, we all have our weaknesses, but he should look at himself to see that humanity also has a lot of good. In the morning Marcus detoured my way while taking his daughter to school, and the little girl delivered a goody-bag of breakfast with a shy but heart-melting smile.

Today... we'll see. I don't much like the forecast, which warns of 30 knot gusts, and I am too far from the ocean proper to observe anything useful, though I can imagine that it will be quite rough!