Hokkaido

Jono's diary - 2/3 Oct.

After a day off at Embetsu, a front rolled through on Wednesday morning with a deluge of rain, and the stiff southerly wind switched to an equally energetic north-westerly.

As usual, I am playing catchup with events. Unfortunately there are breakages to report, but I'll leave those for the end. Let's start with something more uplifting: an adventure within an adventure, the Shiretoko Peninsula.
 

Windsurfing round Cape Ochiishi on the Nemuro Peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan. On this leg I set sail from Kiritappu, about 20 nautical miles away. Although I stayed well offshore en route to Cape Ochiishi, twice the wind failed completely. I was tossed about like a cork, unable to make progress, and in a bit of bother to say the least. It was a big relief when this bit of wind arrived to get me past the Cape. The footage is a single take (a bit ugly and raw in places, but authentic!) The board is a Unifiber Proteus Raceboard and the sail is a Loftsails Switchblade HD 8.5m.

Having negotiated the port city of Kushiro, I stocked the barrel with a few extra supplies. At one o'clock the fog cleared and I sailed zigzags for 3 hours, making 2.7 nautical miles, before being becalmed again and having to paddle to reach the small port of Katsurakoi.

Before I sail today, a quick few paragraphs about Cape Erimo and the village (Erimomisaki) of the same name:

I am taking Hokkaido as a polygon to be tackled a face at a time. For a while, progress on the face leading to Cape Erimo seemed slow going, but then I conceptualised the task in mountaineering terms. Each day sailed (or sail-paddled) I nudged forward to a base camp nearer to the summit. A day with relatively favourable winds, but a most uncomfortable swell, contributed a 34 nm run. That got me in range (if not in sight, because visibility has been poor) of the pinnacle.