Cruising the Southern Islands of Japan, Yoron Island. ABSOLUTE PARADISE!!

Cruising the Southern Islands of Japan, Yoron Island. ABSOLUTE PARADISE!!

Coming into Moadu and there’s a lot of I guess they’re barges or fairies there and that’s how close we are to the land and we’re still around 3 400 m deep over this side. Uh there’s a lot of mining going on. There’s about 20 ships pulled up there. Look at that for a bridge. It’s about 2 km long and it just goes out to this tiny little island. Probably got about 500 houses on it. So, we’re going to go and anchor over near those little islands there. Looks spectacular. Japanese government seems to make bridges between islands and across little canals and all sorts of things. Must be a massive expense, but it does connect all their islands and make sure that people can get around well. Wow, this looks pretty fishy. But we’ll see. Birds going everywhere. Beautiful water. Lure going off. Arriving at Yurond Island. It’s a small island. It’s 30 nautical miles from the tip of the northern tip of Okinawa. It is very, very cute. Looks beautiful. old guy over there sitting on the step came over to say this was fine and we’re welcome and he’s glad we’re in Euron which is lovely. Um we’ve got four fenders up so far and two fender boards and Russ is just uh setting up a third fender board because uh we’re at high tide now. Um it’s probably going to go down about a meter and a half. So, we need to have our setup suited to that change in water level, which is always tricky, but it’s part of the deal here in Japan. Oh, little girl. Oh, what do I this? [Laughter] [Music] We’re tied up in this nice fishing harbor in Yuron Island, which is just about 30 nautical miles north of the tip of Okinawa. um and tying up against these concrete walls. There’s about a meter and a half tide tide range. And you can see there when the water goes down there’s oysters and stuff. It’s near the top of the tide at the moment. It’s got about another oh 60 cm to come up. So this is what we have. So, we’ve got a length of timber, a hole drilled through the center of the timber with a rope on it. Um, and then some fenders inside that. So, as you go up and down, the board moves up and down. And you can see here this middle one, it rubs on the concrete wall. You can see it moving up and down there. Um uh it’s quite a trick cuz it rub and it get caught on the oysters or rubs up and down on the fenders and then you know it’s worn our fenders a bit there as you can see. Um the the timber does take the brunt and then we’ve got another square fender inside the two round ones so that they don’t roll around too much. Um, so we got three setups of that. This is a big chunk of timber we found on the beach floating. Drilled a hole. Put a rope through. You can see how much the timber is rubbed onto the wall there. It’s probably worn about 10 mm off the width of the timber at the moment. that you’ve got to have your ropes set up with enough lag for the boat to go up and down a meter and a half. So, you don’t want it getting really tight when uh the boat goes down or really loose when the water comes in. Uh that’s the fender. That’s the setup we’ve got at the moment. It’s working quite well. Um, these little tie up points are not bad here, but you can see this rope. It’s been rubbing on the was rubbing on the concrete wall. So, um, this one down here, we’ve put a bit of pipe for the rope to rub on. But what all these other fishing boats have, they have a back anchor, so they can tie their boat away from the wall. Um, which is pretty neat. But normally most of these spots you got to pull up. Um, you just got to take your choice. There was another harbor. You see the size of these walls? There’s a another boat harbor just over there and it had a small floating dock and that’s where we were advised to go. We went over there and there’s two boats already tied up there. So to come around here and take what we could get and see those fishing boats over there. That was another option where we could have tied up. But the way the wind was going to be blowing it here, it was going to blow us off the dock. You can see at the moment we’re getting a little bit of swell roll in cuz we are right at the near the entrance to this harbor and that adds to the wear and tear on the boards and the fenders as well. But all in all, it’s a pretty cute little spot. Um, very convenient. We just, uh, used the crane up top there to put our pushies down on the warf. It’s a bit of a trick getting off the boat sometimes, depending on the tide. At the moment, it’s not too bad. It’s only 40 cm down to the boat, but when it drops right down, um, this part of the boat, our side gate, um, it ends up about, uh, 50 cm off the wall. So then we can step up onto the boat on the side. Um, but they have recommended that we get a a ladder or something. Some places the wall is, you know, maybe 2 m off the boat up on to the top of the wall. So, they’re quite big walls as you can see. Um, all these places, they know how to protect themselves. uh doesn’t matter whether it’s a tiny little island or a big one. They’ve got concrete walls and uh to stop the mighty sea coming um wherever we go. But they have been living with typhoons for thousands of years, so I guess they know what to do. Oh, off the boat here, Margie. Can you put these on the top? Thanks, daddy. But as I told you, 27 inheritance, he’s the one. We’re bound to the bound to the god. Yeah. And then we’re not supposed to walk uh the center. Because the center is the way the god Yeah. Are you are you Christian? Yes. So ignore. Oh no no no. I can appreciate. So this is the one my land built. And this is hibiscus. Yeah. That’s the island. Wow. Did he build all these windows? All the Yeah. Can we take photo? Of course. Don’t need to take pictures. And you the shrines and temples they don’t use uh nails and small parts they have to use uh nail but they have to conceal the nail like this. Yeah. Concealer with this concealer. And this the the go inside the gate inside this room. So this room is always closed. Okay. So it’s special ceremony just special ceremony they open. And what are all these? These are a charm to protect you if you have this this type of ben. All lined up. Okyaka area is about five types for taxes. Wow. Hi house this time and tie house and roof house stone come here to look. Wow. Childhood toys. Uh-huh. Instinct gauge. Uhhuh. Insect gauge. Oh wow. Can you do that again? I I make now 5 minutes. Orange bamboo in water. Dish. Ah. Okay. When you eat what is this? Oh fish blood. Eat the birds. No no no just here. No river. This island. No river. Very no river. 97 m island. No river. And there all people where water first time. Ah rain. cows drink water potato roof used for the roof. This will this side house this size house 20,000 many many many from Okinawa 70% from Okinawa 30% from putting wheat bean vinegar brush You got this side. Another type. Old house. Another types. Sec. And this tile roof house. Two types. Old house. Two types. How old is this one? Uh, nai. No. No. 100 each. Zero. It need zero 120 years. Yeah. Ruies the roof under size. 15 years ago you change. Okay. Under size make on their own not by by hand and me. My grandchore. Oh wow. Acid. Acid. Acid. Very effective. Very strong. Wow. Beautiful. How to boil? Yes. [Music] Boil. We saw um at the fish co-op in Yuron. Oh, hundreds. Yes. Tokyo saka factory factory. Send to cut make s. Okay. Very expensive. More banana. Uhhuh. Sugar and squeeze sugar for drinking. Uh, no. I make brown sugar. Okay. All those here. Cow or horse. Oh, round. Squeeze. I just said grub. Natural guys. Is it this this cutting? Yes. Uh brown brown color. Okay. Brown color. That tree is yellow color. Yellow. Yellow yellow color. Yellow color. Well, this is Japan. It’s where it was in the wit Sundays. It’s a very overcast, windy day. Look at that. Heat. Heat. Look at the butterflies. You ready? Mhm. [Music] I should have say hello. Hello I’m so happy. Okay. You want to have a look up top? Up here. [Music] How much? [Applause] [Music] Try try the captain chair. Thank you. [Music] I’m eating. I’m eating pickled shellots. Where do Japanese people? Where do my house? How long? [Applause] Okay. Yeah. I’ve seen the shop. There’s a shop place here that says, you know, this Have a look around the boat. Happy birthday. [Music] It’s [Music] [Music] She don’t You don’t [Music] [Music] [Music] You

We left Yonabaru Marina and headed north, along the western side of Okinawa. After lots of searching we found a good anchorage on the north of Motobu Island, near the big bridge. We then headed to Yoron which is a round island, just north of Okinawa. We managed to tie up at the sea wall at the main fishing harbour and met some local people who came to see the foreign boat. We cycled around the small island several times and loved the quiet agricultural centre of the island and the many beaches around the edges. We visited the Cultural Village and met the owner who is third generation there. His wife used natural dyes to colour linen and to make table runners and many other products. He proudly talked about his mother who wrote the local Yoron dialect dictionary – obviously a smart and passionate woman, who sadly died recently at the age of 93. Tommy and his wife chatted to us about the fishing harbour and local activities and we invited them to our boat the next evening. He brought Utchen his friend who is a local guide, another friend who is an Italian trained opera singer and another friend who is the best local Sanshin player on Yoron. They brought loads of food and drinks and we had a mind blowingly delightful night with these lovely Japanese people. Tommy came to our boat and insisted on cleaning the bottom of our boat for 2 hours – what amazing people! They all came to wave us goodbye the next day and it was sad to leave such a friendly special community.