Sailing

Tokyo Bay 7/6/08

After prayer and breakfast, I ran about two miles down the hill to the water’s edge. There I met Mr. Kyokuta and the crewmates: Ta-ke-san, a man with glasses, beard and competitive sailing racing experience and Tak, a beginner sailor in high school, who just spent the last school year in Ohio. We sailed on Matty II, a boat of about 15 yards in length and powered by two large sails and an engine for take-off and landing. To speak of the boat’s strength and durability, Mr. Kyokuta told me that he bought it from a man who sailed it from France to Japan.

We set off in a cloudy morning with the smell of coming rain in the air. The waters were dark grey as we set up the sails and entered the torso of the bay. The offshore waters were filled with traffic: fishing, sailing and coast guard boats. Because of this I was taught that all sailors have to remain aware at all times to alert the skipper of coming traffic.

The clouds began to clear and I was given control of the rudder. I quickly learned of the complications of boat steering. The skipper must direct the boat through changes of the direction and speed of the wind, oncoming traffic and the waves that they produce. He must keep the boat going straight and go with the wind at all times. A little mistake will lose the momentum and cause the crew to rotate one of the two sails to the other side of the boat.

When I took control, I immediately pushed the rudder too far and then pulled it too far, causing the boat to make a 180 degree turn. I learned that to prevent this, a skipper must counter a strong move, and quickly push or pull the rudder half way in the opposite direction. I made it out of the traffic and past Sarushima (monkey island), an island off the coast of Yokosuka city that has no monkeys, and into the clear. I smiled in joy and handed the rudder back, having a slight understanding of how to use it, but still without much skill of using the wind. No matter how poor I did, Takesan and Mr. lifted doubt with encouraging comments.

I was then taught how to tack and jive, two methods of reversing the sails to the other side of the boat. The first 5-7 times I tacked, my performance was less than satisfactory to Mr. Kyokuta and we tacked and tacked until I got it 100% correct. This was quite tiring and nauseating. While the others ate lunch in high spirits, I sat quite uncomfortably thinking of how I would never sail again.

But the clouds had burned off and the sun had come out, and I fought the seasickness by staring at the sparkling waves. I did this for awhile and began to feel a lot better and appreciate the beauty of the bay and the green hills that cut into its waters. As we turned back to the north, the afternoon sun was making the waters glow silver. It appeared to me as Speech and am sorry to say that it could not be captured by a camera.

As we landed I felt much better about the whole experience. I patted Takesan on the back and shook his hand, making some of the first real physical human contact since I arrived in Japan. He invited me to go again next weekend, and I told him that we would surely go again. I then walked back up the hill, sunburned but stronger.