GSSR#42 – The End Of The Road


At the end of my last blog entry, we were sitting in Katsuura, hiding from an approaching typhoon. Luckily, the typhoon missed us. It turned, heading north along the coast of Japan, harmlessly.

 

We were all eager to reach Osaka, and wanted to get moving, but the typhoon had stirred up the ocean. We needed to give the seas a day or two to calm before we could get moving.

 

This gave us another day just to relax in Katsuura. I was bored and decided I wanted to jump on the train, just to see what other cities were around us. Roberta wanted to do some writing on her book about the Irish immigration, told through the story of her ancestors, so I talked Steven and Carol (Seabird) into tagging along with me. Katsuura is a small Japanese town that rarely sees foreign tourists. I was hoping that a bigger city might have at least ONE restaurant with a menu in English. We took the train for a couple stops to a town called ‘Shingu,’ and started exploring. Within a few blocks we found a restaurant, with a Japanese name, but a clear ‘Dennys’ look about it. We looked at the menu and there was no English, but at least it had pictures. I took a chance on what appeared to be fried chicken nuggets, but what they brought me was fried chicken feet. I let them sit and ordered some spaghetti that looked safe.

 

After lunch, we looked at our map, which was in Japanese, and noticed that the beach was only a few blocks away. We headed for the beach, but after walking several blocks noticed that the map didn’t seem to match our surroundings. After about 45 minutes of wandering through residential districts, Carol pointed out how funny it was that we had managed to find Japan coming all the way from the United States, but couldn’t find the beach from a few blocks away. We were receiving lots of strange looks from the people around us. This was a part of Japan few foreigners visit, and here we were wandering aimlessly through back streets. We finally found a 7-11 store, and showed the clerk our map. She pointed at our location, which was only a block from the beach. We started hiking again, and upon arriving at the beach we discovered a giant wall stretching for miles . On the other side we could hear waves. We made a half-hearted attempt to find a way to cross the wall, which didn’t work.

 

I saw a huge casino in the distance, surrounded by nothing but open fields. I wasn’t positive it was a casino, because the signs were in Japanese, but, it had that look. It had bright lights going in the middle of the day, and a packed parking lot, even though there was nothing else around and we were deep in the boondocks.

 

 

There was no taxi stand outside, so we needed to enter, to find someone to call us a cab. Inside, there were no blackjack, or craps tables, but there were acres of Pachinko and Slot Machines, with hundreds of Japanese captivated by them, even though this was mid-day, mid-week. The noise was unbelievably loud! Las Vegas casinos aren’t even in the same category noise-wise. We found a change-girl, and I tried to scream the word “TAXI” but with all the noise she couldn’t understand me. After a bit, she finally got the concept, and found a manager, who took us to a small room, where he had to look up a cab company number in the phone book. I then pantomimed that he should make the call. I wouldn’t have had the vaguest idea how to tell a cab driver where to find us, assuming he spoke English, which would be a bad assumption.

 

From Katsuura we were only 120 miles from the finish line for the GSSR. This works out to roughly 15 hours of running, at 8.5 knots. It was more than we could do in a day without running at night. Our Japan agent found a marina that would accept our boats, only 95 miles away, which would allow us to break-up the final run into a 12 hour day, followed by a four hour day. We liked the idea of arriving at our final marina in Osaka nice and rested.

 

 

We departed Katsuura at 5:30am, although I had to get up much earlier, We had tied up with a typhoon in mind, and it took me 45 minutes just to remove all the fenders and lines.

 

Our run went smoothly, although it was a relatively rough ride. We had consistent 25 knot head winds. Both of our weather routers had predicted a smooth run, but the weather gods had other ideas. To my surprise, the ride really wasn’t uncomfortable, and there was almost no pitching from the boats, although there was a lot of spray.

 

 

 

 

We also reached a new high for the number of freighters, 99% of which were coming straight at us. Our guess is that the typhoon had caused all the northbound freighters to hide in Osaka, and they were all leaving Osaka bay at the same time. Tina, on Grey Pearl, started counting the ones we could see out the window, and counted over fifty. These things are enormous and move fast. We decided our best chance to avoid them would be to move much closer to shore. Normally I like to run in deep water, at least a mile or two offshore, but that would be impossible. We ‘hugged the beach’ successfully to avoid the oncoming traffic.

 

 

Our proximity to shore did not shield us from the head wind. I asked Braun (Grey Pearl) on the radio if he remembered the last time he and I had slammed into a head wind, at the end of a major trip. He had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained. Five years ago, almost to the day, our two boats, Grey Pearl and Sans Souci, had participated in Nordhavn’s North Atlantic Rally. At the end of the rally, as we were coming from the Azores into Gibraltar, our boats had been side by side, pounding into much higher winds (50+ knots). I remember having the same feeling of accomplishment, and thinking it was fitting that the last ride should have a little excitement to it. My pictures, including the one of Grey Pearl above, from that ride have been featured in many ads, and on magazine covers. Once Braun understood the comparison, it brought back a lot of happy memories for both of us.

 

 

Arriving at the Suntopia Marina, our charts were very light on detail, but we had pictures from Google Earth telling us what to expect. I arrived first, and didn’t like what I saw. The marina entrance looked different than it looked on Google Earth. It was very tight, with an immediate turn to port just inside the entrance, and the sun was low, glaring straight into my eyes. As I entered through the opening in the breakwater, I would be making a blind entrance into the marina, in 20+ knot winds, while maneuvering to avoid rocks. Not my idea of a good time. I decided to back off and study the situation before entering. Seabird and Grey Pearl weren’t far behind, and Seabird agreed to be the brave one and try the entrance. Once inside they said it wasn’t bad, so Grey Pearl and I also entered.

 

Upon turning the corner, I immediately had a pond full of birthday-suited Japanese on my starboard side. This told me were still in Onsen/Rotenburo territory.

 

Seabird and Grey Pearl were positioning themselves to side-tie to the visitor dock (shown just inside the breakwater in the photo above), but a marina employee was running down the dock waving them off. We had been faxed the marina map, with the location where we should tie clearly identified. Instead, they now wanted us to enter the inner-harbor of the marina. A glance at their visitor dock offered the explanation. It had only a couple of pilings, and looked insubstantial. Together, the GSSR boats weigh 260 tons. The breakwater was very low. Our 260 tons pushing against a flimsy dock, in 20+ knot winds, was not going to work.

 

We now had three big boats, inside a very small marina, built for much smaller boats, being pushed around by the wind. Roberta had already put fenders and lines on the port side, and the end-cap I was being directed to required the fenders on the starboard side. When I’m driving the boat, Roberta is responsible for working the fenders and lines. Thus, either I had to spin the boat, in roughly its own length, or she had to move the fenders. She was not enthusiastic about moving the fenders, so I grumbled a lot, and spun the boat. Sans Souci is very maneuverable in tight quarters. I have twin engines, a bow and stern thruster, plus big rudders. It went better than I could have hoped and in minutes we were at the dock. Seabird had a reasonably accessible location. But, Grey Pearl, had a location that I wouldn’t have attempted. Braun did a masterful job of bringing the Pearl in, running only a few feet from dangerously shallow water. Overall, it could have been much worse. We were lucky the marina found a way to fit us in. Had they just said, “Sorry, but you have to leave,” after we had run 12 hours to get there, and with darkness imminent, it would have been a rough day.

 

The Suntopia Marina is in front of a huge hotel. Roberta and I decided to check out the restaurant, and were seated at a teppanyaki counter, where the chef cooks in front of you. Perhaps as an indication of the Japanese economy, we were the only ones in the restaurant. The menu was all in Japanese, but had only two options. The hotel concierge spoke a few words of English, and was able to explain that our choice was ‘beef’ or ‘beef and lobster.’ Roberta took the beef, and I decided to add the lobster.

 

To my shock, the chef appeared a few minutes later with a tiny shrimp-sized lobster on a plate. The lobster was alive, and not very happy about his impending fate. I couldn’t see killing him over his, at-most, one or two bites of meat. I indicated as best I could that I didn’t want him cooked, which seemed to upset the chef. He left looking somewhat disgusted, and returned with a plate of octopus legs! Argh. I’m not an octopus eater, which also didn’t go over well. I was afraid of what might appear next, so I started repeating “Beef only,” which made the chef and waiter think the waiter had incorrectly noted my order, leading to their having an uncomfortable discussion, and me feeling really bad. At some point in this conversation, I tried to say something to the chef, and he replied in French. He was Japanese, and didn’t seem to speak a word of English, but spoke French. Bizarre, but great news. I speak passable French, and Roberta speaks enough to get by. I was quickly able to clear all the confusion, and the chef was thrilled to be able to speak with us (and to have customers to serve). He supplemented the menu with garlic French fries, and even baguettes. We had a great time, and discovered he was just back from a couple years working in Paris.

 

The next morning, the GSSR slept in and didn’t depart until 10am. The winds had dropped completely, making our departure easy.

 

The last 32 miles of the GSSR were run on calm seas, in perfect weather. We dodged a few fishing boats, but overall it was a dream cruise.

 

 

Along the way, we witnessed this Discovery-channel moment, a mother freighter nursing one of her offspring. Quite touching.

 

 

The photo above shows our final turn into the Bellport Ashiya marina. As soon as we entered, the GSSR would be over.

 

 

L to R. Braun Jones, Steven Argosy, Ken Williams, Carol Argosy, Tina Jones, Roberta Williams, Shelby (official GSSR mascot) 

 

Here we are registering into the marina a few minutes after arrival. We hadn’t planned to all wear our official GSSR clothing, it just worked out that way.

 

 

Our first few hours in our new home were quite confusing. I had requested a diagram of the marina, prior to our arrival, with our slips indicated. As we entered the marina, we were immediately flagged down from onshore and routed to completely different, and scattered, locations within the marina. An hour later, we were asked to move again, and then another hour later we were asked to move yet again. Our boats are the largest boats in the marina, and once the management saw us, they puzzled over where we could safely be put. We also hit power issues. The shore power in Japan is only 200 volts, and it is 50hz. At our request, we were moved to the same dock, but the voltage dropped under 190 volts, and then we started blowing the breaker for the entire dock every 15 minutes. Ultimately this was solved by moving Sans Souci to the other side of the marina.

 

It’s a beautiful, new marina, and the staff has been very helpful. One young lady that works for the Bellport Ashiya Marina speaks good English. The marina has a haul-out facility, and a maintenance yard. I was also pleased to see that they are set up to accept used oil. This is a great place to be for the next six months!

 

Our next challenge, which we’re still working on as I type this, is to resolve how we will take care of our boats during the six months that we fly home to the United States. Steven and Carol, from Seabird, will be on their boat for some portion of that time, but Roberta and I will not return to Japan until next April. If all goes well, our boats will sit here, happy, and alone, for six months without needing much attention, other than occasional washing.

 

However, there are some things that need tended to in our absence. There are likely to be times when the power goes out. Sometimes, this will be a breaker on the boat, sometimes on the shore power pedestal, and sometimes, it will be the whole dock. Recognizing when the power goes out, and then resetting the right breaker, needs to be done by someone. The boats need a good wash from time to time. The bottoms need cleaned, by a diver, since we won’t be here to move the boats to a haul-out facility, and since the water is warm this needs done every month until winter sets in. The engines and generators should be started from time to time. The toilets should be flushed, and the watermakers should be run. It’s not a lot of work, but someone has to do it. The marina does offer these services, but our boats, particularly my boat, are much larger than the marina is accustomed to. My sense is that most of the boats around us will be hauled out over the winter. Whereas, our boats can’t be hauled out, at least not here, because of their size. And, communications with the marina, should something go wrong, will be difficult.

 

I think we have it all under control. I spent a couple of days looking into hiring someone to come live in Japan and watch our boats. I also looked into finding a local management company. After getting an interpreter involved, I discovered that the marina offered more services than I first imagined, and would be willing to handle most of the work. I discovered, via Google, a local interpreter, who we all like, who agreed to be our point of contact with the marina. Through him we have someone here in Osaka, who speaks perfect English, and can monitor how our boats are doing, and give us a good channel of communications to the marina. He doesn’t know boats, but is smart, and we’ll train him on what he needs to know before we leave town.

 

Roberta and I fly home to Seattle in two weeks, where we’ll face a mountain-sized stack of unopened mail. Before we go, I’ll spend days going through the boat to identify any maintenance that needs done, and spare parts that are needed. I’ll then work through the interpreter to see what work can be done here, but expect I’ll need to send maintenance people from the U.S. Fortunately, this was an amazingly good year. Sans Souci is a complicated boat, and we ran it nearly 7,000 miles, a chunk of which was in rough seas. Impressively, nothing broke. Last year, on our Costa Rica run, the boat was new, and there were some warranty issues, but this year, the boat has run flawlessly. I’m sure I’ll find a few things, as I look around, but overall, not much will need to be done. Prior to our departure Roberta will clean the interior of the boat and make long lists of inventory items to be brought back next year. 

 

Shelby will be the most complicated part of our departure. She has been officially imported into Japan, and will now need to be exported to the United States. We need an export permit for her, and we need to have her change planes in Hawaii. There’s a lot of paperwork, and bureaucracy to be worked through.

 

Complicating the process, next week is ‘Silver Week’ here in Japan. Virtually all business will grind to a halt, as the government imposes a five-day vacation for everyone. The newly elected government is on a mission to reduce productivity in the hopes that it might cut unemployment. Think I’m joking? Read this article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aktJRPqjCvmo Our interpreter made an interesting comment when he mentioned that the Japanese mentality is, “Live to work, Work to live.” There is a very strong work ethic here, which I have tremendous respect for, although the Japanese government sees it differently. Perhaps they should Google the French experiment with a 35 hour work week?

 

And, with that the GSSR has come to an end…

 

 

 

Actually, to be technically accurate, only the first leg of the GSSR has come to an end. At our ‘victory dinner’ we talked about the future of our group. Whereas at the beginning of our cruise no one wanted to commit to our group hanging together when we reached Japan, now, no one wants to think about cruising in this part of the world alone. There is a lot of complexity, and together we can accomplish things that would be much harder alone. It was unanimously agreed that we would keep cruising together.

 

It was also agreed that we would continue to call our group, and our voyage, the GSSR. This makes no sense, given that GSSR stands for Great Siberian Sushi Run, but we decided that we don’t care. We all own lots of clothing that says “GSSR” and we don’t want to buy new clothes! Plus, we all love the little polar bear logo, and don’t want to give it up. We are henceforth going to pretend that GSSR stands for (G)rey Pearl, (S)eabird, (S)ans Souci (R)un.

 

We discussed our next year’s route a bit, and still haven’t arrived at any conclusions. We suspect that China, Okinawa, Taiwan, Japan and Korea are on the agenda, but no decisions have been made. There are many topics which need researched:

 

1) What countries can Shelby get into without quarantine?

2) When is the best cruising season in each country?

3) We will need some work done on the boats sometime next year. Which country has a good haul-out and maintenance facility?

4) Where is the safest place to leave our boats at the end of the next cruising season?

 

Our current plan is to finish up next year’s cruising in Hong Kong, and have all the boat maintenance done there. There has also been discussion of Singapore instead of Hong Kong. We are also talking to the Nordhavn factory (Ta Shing) in Taiwan to see if they have any ability to do maintenance, or could refer us to someone in Taiwan. We have six months to build a plan, and a lot of research to do.

 

Here’s a brief look at some stats from the trip:

 

– Distance: 5938 nm
– Fuel consumed by Sans Souci: 10,751 gallons
– Average Speed: Not tracked, estimated at 8.9 knots
– Stops made (to anchor, or moor): 45
– Hours underway: Not tracked, estimated at 667
– Hours of seriously heavy seas (Force 7 or greater): 0
– Hours of heavy seas: (Force 5 or greater): Under 24
– Hours of serious fog with under 100 yard visibility: 0
– Hours of fighting adverse current: Not tracked, but we seemed to get a push as often as we were held back. Overall, we think our nickname as the ‘wrong way gang’ is unearned.

– Days of fog: Estimated at 14. However, the fog usually only lasted a couple hours, and I don’t remember any days when it was so thick I couldn’t see the bow.
– Marinas or anchorages with Internet WiFi after we left the Alaskan Inside Passage: 0

These statistics need some explaining….

 

If you do some math with the numbers above it appears that Sans Souci achieved only about .55 nautical miles per gallon. We carry 3,000 gallons, so this implies a range of only about 1,600 nautical miles. However, this is not the whole story. We ran the generator almost non-stop for nearly four months. There has been no shore power at most of the places we have stopped. If you subtract out our 2,200 hours of generator run time, at an average of 1.25 gallons per hour, then fuel consumed by the main engines was only 8,001 gallons. This puts my nautical miles per gallon at .74, which yields a range of 2,250 miles. Trawlers, such as Sans Souci, are very efficient at slow speeds, and become fuel hogs at higher speeds. At 7 knots, I could easily run 3,000 miles, but as the speed increases Sans Souci’s fuel efficiency goes down. One of the best things about our unique approach to crossing the Pacific, was that we could run fast when we wanted to, without worrying about range. I should also note that Grey Pearl and Seabird consumed half as much fuel, partially because of their lighter boats, and partially because they did not run their generators non-stop.

 

I should also point out that no one should be lured into thinking that because our statistics are so pretty, that this is an easy trip, and that they should jump into whatever boat they might own and head west. This trip is a big-league adventure, and one that should only be attempted by certain people and certain boats. We had highly-skilled crews, on true blue-water-capable boats, with months of careful advance planning, top quality weather routers, crew who had local knowledge of the Bering Sea, the patience to sit still when we didn’t like the weather, and a fair dose of good fortune. This trip must not be underestimated. We did a lot of things right, and have a good trip to show for it. If others decide to try this, my advice would be to really think it through, study what worked well for us, and hope for the same luck we had.

 

When I asked at our victory dinner what the best thing about the trip was, everyone agreed immediately that it was the people. By this I mean all of the people, the boat owners, the crews, the mechanics, the weather routers and more. A lot of people, and companies, contributed to make this a successful trip.

 

Here’s a look at the people who crewed on the various boats:

 

Sans Souci

 


L to R: Jeff Sanson, Kirt Ahlquist, Roberta Williams, Ken Williams, Shelby, Bill Harrington


John and Nova Heuer



Chris Williams


Ray and Karen Hoffman


Sandra Williams

Seabird


Steven and Carol Argosy


Carol and Wayne Watjus


Diane and Mike Simmons

Grey Pearl


 




Braun and Tina Jones

 




Kell Achenbach, Wayne Davis, Pat Davis

 

 


Mort and Allyson Taubman

 

 

Grandson Will

 



Sake San


Invaders from space

As I mentioned, I owe a huge thank you to all of the people who did the excellent work on Sans Souci.

 

 

 

Sans Souci had major upgrades and repairs done during the off-season. Jeff Sanson, who also crewed on Sans Souci, led the effort. Anyone needing work done on their boat, in the Pacific NW, who needs their boat delivered anywhere, project management or boat management should contact Jeff (Jeff Sanson, Pacific Yacht Management, Seatle, Wa, 206-855-7960). Pacific Yacht Management is incredible. In addition to his own staff, Jeff managed several local subcontractors in Seattle, including Delta Marine, S3 Systems, Hatton Marine, and Emerald Harbor Marine. Major electronics upgrades, including my absolutely amazing Internet system, were done by Ed Harvey, Harbor Tech systems of Vancouver.

 

I must also call attention to some real heroes who took calls 24 hours a day during the trip. Steve Bradburn from Furuno was my expert on everything Furuno. He personally trained me on the use of Sonar, and Navnet 3d. Greg Mallory of Hatton Marine took questions on anything electrical. Brett Jenes from Emerald Harbor answered all my a/c questions. And, David Wright of American Bow Thruster answered many questions about my hydraulics.

In Russia, and in Japan, we used ‘agents’ to do our ground work. Our Russian agent was Sergey Frolov, from http://www.siberianadventures.com, and in Japan, we used Kazuo Furuno, at Interocean Shipping (http://www.interocean.co.jp). Both were excellent and made customs clearing and immigration as easy as could be, plus took care of our moorage needs.

 

Anyone going to the Aleutians should seek out Bill Harrington. Having him along was one of the smartest decisions we made. It made a huge difference having him along to guide us to the anchorages, and WWII artifacts. It also helped that we were able to look him in the eye, when the seas were roughest, and say, “You’ve seen worse than this and survived. Haven’t you Bill?” And, of course, having Bill along in the Aleutians, where he has a lot of friends, made us ‘golden’ in places like Sand Point and Adak (where I should also thank Cynthia and Joe Galaktionoff who were exremely helpful.)

I must also call attention our weather routers, ‘Weather Bob’ and ‘Weather Rich. ‘We had two going at all times, and these guys deserve awards for the work they did. Bob Jones at Ocean Marine (www.oceanmarinenav.com) and Rich Courtney who isn’t really a weather router, although he is a professional weathercaster, who works for NOAA. Rich’s familiarity with the Aleutians was a big help. Both Bob and Rich took our calls and emails 24 hours a day, and I can’t thank these guys enough. 

And, I can’t forget to thank our friends John and Gloria Buchan, and Kent and Pam Williams, who threw a huge party for us in Hoonah Alaska!

 

And of course, there is all of you. Whereas technically, it could be argued that the trip would be the same with or without the blog, I would argue that the blog does make a huge difference. In addition to the morale boost we all get from reading your questions and comments, there are some very real positives. All of us have noticed that because our blogs are so widely read, when we call a mechanic, a marina, or anyone that offers marine services, our calls get answered much faster. I’m sure we would get good service one way or the other, but vendors knowing how visible the GSSR is certainly helps. Also important: Many of you have pitched in with good ideas and reference information for us, both as comments to blog entries and in private emails.

 

Lastly, this really does mark my last blog entry for a while. I might post something from time to time on the website, but unless something interesting is happening, I won’t be sending emails. You are encouraged to check my website (http://www.kensblog.com) from time to time to see if I’ve posted anything. Also, if you find yourself missing the blog, you can always buy my two books: http://www.lulu.com/kenw

 

We’ll be back on Sans Souci in April 2010. Until then, thank you all! And, see you next year.

 

Thank you,

Ken Williams

www.kensblog.com

Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci

 

PS I asked Seabird and Grey Pearl for any pictures they wanted to contribute to this final blog. You can see the pictures they sent, by clicking the links below:

 

Grey Pearl – http://www.kensblog.com/aspx/m/569850

 

Seabird – http://www.kensblog.com/aspx/m/569847

 

21 Responses

  1. Jack:

    I emailed you offline with my cell phone number .. and, am removing your email address from the site, so you don’t get spammed… (not by me, but there are some sneaky people out there).

    -Ken W

  2. Ken,
    Would you please contact me concerning Sans Souci I
    It would be most great full.
    Thank you,
    Jack
    reillyjack@b…

  3. Congratulations on the crossing! Hopefully you are enjoying your time in foreign lands. Just a techie question if I may. Being a diesel powered boat with the fuel polishing system that it has, is water a problem in your fuel? I drive semi’s and this is a common problem in our fuel. To maybe keep the system cleaner, I was wondering if Howes diesel treatment would work in a marine application? It helps to remove water and send it out the exhaust, thus keeping filters cleaner for longer with better mileage also thrown in. Do you think that by going with a wet exhaust system, instead of the dry stack, contributed to your temperature levels in the lazerette and engine room? It seems that a dry exhaust system would vent heat better since heat rises and the stack is taller than a thru hull. Love the blog, and you don’t rant. I rant but throw in some humor and puppies on my blog. Loved your games! Great entertainment and laughs! Keep us informed of the travels. Love your honesty on the Nordhavn company and suppliers. Makes me sure that they are the best company to buy a boat from someday. The 75 EYF is amazing! Love the interior. Wouldn’t guess that it was a fishing boat from those pictures!

  4. I was a big fan of your company and recently found your blog and enjoyed reading through it. I recently moved back from Japan after working there for several years and can recommend the Okinawa area for your continued tour next April. The landscapes are absolutely stunning and often you can have the beaches completely to yourself at times. Throw in really friendly locals and fantastic food and it’s a great lot of fun. I don’t know if it could hold a boat the size of yours (beautiful boat by the way, whats the top nautical speed?) but try the Zamami a little west of Naha for a very secluded feeling and uninhabited surrounding islands.

    Also, on a funny note the Pachinko parlors your found on your walks don’t technically allow gambling since it is illegal in Japan. The winners at such establishments can often trade their winnings for prizes at the store or take them around to a side area and trade them in to a different business for cash, thus exploiting a nice loophole in the gambling law.

    Your droll musings on the new Japanese government and their enforced holidays are also spot on. If you would like some real amusement read about the new first lady of the country. Hilarity will ensue, I promise.

    Thad

  5. Hello Ken,I am now back in Japan and I would like to see you at Ashiya 26th before you leave Japan.Please contact me by e-mail.

  6. Noriuki:

    Is is funny that you are in Seattle (where I live) and I am in Japan (where you live)…

    Roberta and I leave Japan on the 27th. When you get back to Japan, send me an email (kenw at kensblog.com (http://kensblog.com) ). Perhaps you can drop by the boat. We are at Ashiya.

    -Ken W

  7. Hello,my name is Noriuki who live in Japan and the ower of Grandbanks52.I am right now in Seattle for the boatshow and heard about your voyave with Nordhavin.I am fan of of the boat and I would like to see you in Japan.So please contact me, I am getting back to Japan after 24th of September.

  8. Roberta and Ken : I want to say a personal Thank you for all the importunity’s that you have provided for my company and myself. The adventure to Japan was awesome and you both showed me that you both are great Captain and crew combination. You really impressed me that you can do anything on your cruise around the world on your boat Sans Souci. We have traveled over 8,000.00 miles together in the last 2 1/2 years and never once did we ever have a situation when you both did not step up to the occasion. Sans Souci have proven herself and has taken her crew safely to some pretty far away places. I look forward to any future opportunity to help you on your Journey.

    Thank you

    Jeff

  9. Alan:

    You’ve asked an interesting question, and it is why I put the disclaimer in my last blog entry.

    We did have an easy trip, for the most part. We never saw winds above 60 knots, and even that was very brief. We did have one day where the ride was bad enough that we considered turning back, but overall, it was a trip most boats could have done.

    The problem though is that if your boat can’t handle a situation, then it doesn’t matter if you are in that situation for 100 miles or 10,000 miles. It’s kind of binary. You are either safe or your aren’t, and when things go wrong, they go very wrong, very quickly.

    To be specific, I’ll mention Fleming. Great boats, and I almost bought a 55. They are a good coastal cruising boat, and they are fast. I suspect a Fleming could do most of this trip fine, if they are careful about weather. However, on the day we received the worst weather, we had a clean weather report. We were nailed by surprise. Had we been on lesser boats, we would have been in deep trouble. I don’t know if Fleming could have handled those seas or not. My guess would be that Fleming would advise against taking their boat into that situation.

    And, I’ve also hit bad days when coastal cruising. Bad weather is not unique to the Bering Sea. I got into trouble with my power cat a couple times; once in the Bahamas, and once in the Georgia Strait. There are times when you can be lured into taking a boat places it shouldn’t be, and when the weather turns against you…

    To directly answer your question, larger semi-displacement, and even planing-hulled, boats do cruise successfully. Larger yachts, 100+ feet, do it often. If a boat is a large heavy boat, and the seas aren’t crazy, anything is possible.

    The other thing to focus on is redundancy. Unless a boat is designed from the ground up as an ocean crosser, it will not have things like redundant auto pilots, engines, props, gps, radios, epirbs, liferafts, generators, etc. If the seas are flat enough, none of this matters. But, if things go wrong, and you don’t have redundant systems, and the seas are angry, it can get ugly quickly.

    So… I always tell people, “Optimize the boat for what you do 99.9% of the time, not .1%”. If most of your cruising is coastal cruising, in reasonably good weather, buying a Nordhavn might be overkill. If you do need to do a long passage someday, you can always use Dockwise for the long part, or pick the best weather in the best season.

    I’m biased, but I wouldn’t worry about speed. Most of the people I know with 15 knot semi-displacement boats, cruise under 10 knots anyhow, because they would rather burn 5 gallons an hour, than burn 20.

    -Ken W

  10. I was intrigued by your stats on the distribution of heavy sea days vs. light sea days. Is it all conceivable that you could have done this trip in a larger boat with a semi-displacement hull? Do the passages requisite in this current journey mandate full-displacement? The reason I ask is that the vast majority of your travels are costal cruising, apart from the Atlantic Rally and the current trip. Is there such a thing as a fast trawler, or is that a misnomer designed to mislead the unsophisticated? Would you make any alterations in your current hull design?

  11. Chris Hallock:

    Great questions! As you noted, I am going to go back to doing a more technical blog. When we’re cruising, my blog gets enormous distribution. Because of the wide distribution I try to be very careful in what I say, so as to not confuse or offend anyone. I also try to stay away from things that are perhaps to complex for non-boaters to understand.

    When we’re not cruising, I like what we had going prior to the GSSR, a small, but serious, group of people with random and open discussion.

    I’m still thinking about what to do, but my current thinking is to use a slightly different format. Look at: http://kensotherblog.talksp (http://kensotherblog.talkspot.com) (which might respond at http://www.KensOtherBlog.com (http://www.KensOtherBlog.com) by the time you read this). I’m thinking to use a message board format, and see if I like it. The KensOtherBlog.com (http://KensOtherBlog.com) website will be independent of this site, and have its own mailing list. I’ll post to it randomly, as I think of things to say, with much smaller entries, and less attention to detail. And, hopefully because of the format, others will develop a leadership role, and say something intelligent, to stimulate conversation, when I have nothing clever to say.

    As to the generator…

    I ran the small generator 95% of the time. In the Aleutians, we weren’t running air conditioning, so if anything we were underloading the generator. I’ll comment more on this over on the kensotherblog site once I get it going. Since we’ve been in warmer weather, I’ve been using the 25kw more, because we’ve been using the air conditioning, and also because the 20kw needs an oil change, and I’m being lazy.

    -Ken W

  12. Hello Ken,

    Again, congratulations on the journey, enjoyed following it and dreaming while sitting here in my cubical and on the sofa at home… I hope that some of the technical discussions will come back now, during the “off-time”. I do enjoy following along and wish you and Roberta and all the GSSR families the best and can’t wait to see you guys back next year.

    I hope to hear more about the “This isn’t a boat. It’s a [bleep]-ing video game!” as Bill H put it. Any upgrade / enhancement plans to Sans Souci while in Japan over the winter? It seems that your similar to me, and wants the newest and coolest things from the electronics standpoint. I have looked at larger boats even some of the used Nordhavn’s and the electronics in them really date them, but you couldn’t tell it from the outside. You have to stay on top of things, however you don’t want to be a beta tester for some of the companies when they release the products to early to market.

    So based on the 2200 hours of generator time, which did you run the most, the large or smaller one, although they are much closer in size now to each other?

    Thanks,
    Chris Hallock

  13. Thank you Chuck!

    For those who might not recognize Chuck Benton’s name, he is a legend in comptuer game history, and in my personal history. Chuck provided the inspiration for the computer game series “Leisure-Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards”, which made me a fair chunk of money. Chuck wrote a text-based game, on the Apple II computer, a very long time ago, called ‘Softporn’. It wasn’t at all pornographic, and would at most be a PG-13 if it were a film. However, the name, and the fact that it was a very humorous game, got a lot of attention, and I sold a huge number of copies. So many, that we re-released it several years later, with graphics, and a new name, and went on to sell millions more copies.

    And now, you know the rest of the story…

    -Ken W

  14. I received the following question, from Marv…

    “Thanks for sharing your adventure. One silly question; Assuming that you had a fresh water hot tub did you empty the hot tub between crossings or have a water tight lid? “

    That’s not a silly question! …

    I am very careful to drain the hot tub prior to getting underway. This is important because of weight. If it’s a calm day, then it is a non-issue, but it is impossible to accurately predict calm days. And, if we are caught at sea, with the boat sloshing around, then the water in the hot tub will also shift. Weight that high on the boat, moving around, reduces stability. The hot tub holds around 150 gallons of water, which is around a thousand pounds.

    Sans Souci has the ability to make 60 gallons of water an hour. In port, I fill the hot tub with dock water, and at anchor, I just run the water maker for a few hours.

    I have forgotten to drain the hot tub a few times, and nothing bad happened, but it should be drained. I now have a checklist I use to start the boat, and draining the hot tub is on the list.

    And, of course, on the ‘dropping the anchor list’, there are also entries for ‘fill the hot tub’ and ‘pop the cork’. Grin.

    THank you,
    -Ken W

  15. Ken et al,

    This has been a blast to follow, congratulations on a wonderful adventure! You’ve provided a superb example of what good people, equipment, planning, and attitudes can accomplish; an example that the rest of us adventurers and adventurer wanna-be’s would do well to emulate! Good show!

    Chuck Benton (computer games author from ‘the good old days’ with Online Systems, and USCG Master)

  16. Thank you guys so very much for your fantastic E-Mails to all of us. I know that I shure felt like I was right there with you. The GSSR is and will be followed by a lot of us into next year and beyond. All of you take care and have a nice respit at home. Thanks again and god bless.

  17. John S.

    Good question… There are a few things that I would do differently.

    1) I bought my Japan charts (the paper ones) from a company in the United States. The charts were not great, and many important charts were missing. I should have ordered the charts from Japan. I will order a complete set of charts from Japan before I start cruising next year.

    2) I bought a hundred or so GSSR t-shirts to bring on the trip as gifts. They were gone in the first few weeks, and since then I haven’t had anything great to use as gifts. Japan is a gift-giving culture. It would have been nice to have some giveaways of some sort. This was also true in Dutch Harbor and the Aleutians.

    3) We underestimated the potential for weather delays. Our original plan had been to spend a month cruising in Japan’s inland sea, however, the trip here to Osaka took longer than expected. This is despite great weather overall. Had this been a ‘bad weather year’ we wouldn’t have gotten here before bad weather set in.

    4) I should have carried spare parts for my vsat unit. It hasn’t broken, but I was thinking about it yesterday, and realized that if it had failed, I would have been in trouble. I have the Fleet Broadband as my backup, but the Fleet Broadband is prohibitively expensive. If the vsat had failed, it would have been a much different trip. I’ll bring spares next year, perhaps a completely redundant unit.

    5) I’ve been using hose for anti-chafe. I have now decided it is really annoying. Instead, I should use the firehose woven material. I’ve switched several of my lines to it, and am much happier.

    6) ??? I can’t think of anything. Overall, we did things right. I can’t think of anything I didn’t that was wasted money or effort. If I think of anything else I’ll post it here.

    -Ken W

  18. Hi Ken, Roberta, Shelby, and the rest of the GSSR crew!

    Wow! What a journey. Hard to believe its over already….where has the time gone?

    Now that the trip is completed, I, and many others I’m sure, will be at a loss for vicarious adventure! 🙂

    Ken, looking back, what, if anything, would you have done differently, had you been given a crystal ball and were able to preview your entire trip prior to actually taking it the way you did, and then now set off on your voyage? (I hope that makes sense….)

    Looking forward to next years blogs…

    – John S.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Be the first to know when

the game releases!

Plus, receive special insider, behind the scenes, sneak peeks and interviews as the game is being made. Don’t worry. We will not spam you, and we will not flood your box with too many emails.
 — Ken Williams

Credits     |     Video produced by: Rock Steady Media     |     Teletype photo: Arnold Reinhold     |     PDP-11 photo: Trammell Hudson