Our group waiting for the stragglers. LtoR: Yu, Wato-san, me, Hide, Marimon, & Hana (our crew member for the day).
After lunch, we hiked up a hill behind the church. We found an old Christian graveyard.
My packed lunch from the ship. Onigiri (rice balls), some japanese pickels, a fish on a stick (no, not a fish stick; fish ON a stick), and a fish paste thingy on a stick. Guess your food game, anyone?
Before we climbed to the church. Wato-san, Yu, and Nao..."the boys". Wato-san and Nao are brothers and both spoke a little English.
The boats we took to get to shore. We had to put them together like a puzzle and then inflate.
Back view of the church.
Inside the church. It may be Catholic, but it's very Japanese. You take your shoes off before going inside!
The church from the picture! Aosaga Urakyokai is the name...I don't remember what that means. It was built in 1910. Nagasaki is the area of Japan with the longest history of Christianity.
Akogare anchored in the bay of the Goto Island of NakaDori Shima.
Planning our day trip. We get to go ashore!
We went to sleep and woke up here...nice!
The permanent crew of the Akogare. The flash is covering up Tono, one of the two young women officers on board.
Going under the big bridge in Nagasaki. You can't even see the top! It was SO foggy!
The ship scouts (or something like that) prepare to salute us as we embark.
Me chillin on the deck. Max was up in the rigging taking the picture.
The foggy morning we left.
The Koreana, another ship at the festival, leaving Nagasaki
Captain Aki (2nd from left) at the closing ceremony. We all stood in a special area for crew members right up front.
The info board
Docked at Nagasaki
Akogare in Nagasaki bay
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The main mast and the mizzen mast.
The fore-mast with the 3 yards and the fore gaff.
Preparing the trainess to go aloft. Make sure those safety belts are tight!
Climbing the fore-mast. One trainee is climbing down. The toughest part of the climb is just below the platform where the ratlines are like climbing on the underside of a ladder. There are no safety cables either, so you've just got to do it.
The Bowsprit. Those who didn't want to climb the masts got to crawl out on the bowsprit to watch.
Up on the bow, I'd just climbed up to the Lower yard. We all have the baseball cap type helmets on as well as the yellow safety belts ( that you can't see here).
I think I can see my house from here...looking out on Awaji.
That's my bridge! I've never seen it from this angle before. On the left is Awaji Island and the right is the mainland island, Honshu. The longest suspension bridge in the world!
Captain Aki gives a position report and shows the wind currents of the area. The chart has our course mapped out with positions every 15 minutes. So cool! I want to know how to do that!
A view of Kobe from over 100 ft in the air!
Holding on for dear life, but still having fun! You always have to pose for a picture! We are standing on a rope that is only about 2 feet below the yard, making it very difficult to keep your balance. We do have our safety belts on that are cliped to the safety line directly behind us.
Looking down from the T'gallant. We're about 28 meters high, about 92 feet.
The trainees up on the square topsail and lower sail. The topgalant group already climbed down.
The Knot Master. I met my match. He knows way more than I do, but I was able to stump him! We were challenging each other with types of Bowline knots and he didn't know the Spanish bowline. Well, I didn't know it either, but I looked it up and then showed it to him. :)
Some of decorative knots works of the master.
An amazing work of knots.
A couple crew leaders. They have their yellow belts on because they're about to climb up and secure the sail (tie it up).
A couple more crew leaders.
We met with our group one last time to share our thoughts on the weekend. I understood most of what was said, but when it came to my turn, I couldn't put in Japanese what I wanted to say. I said it in English and Jun-kun, our leader, said he got chills! He was a riot.
Captain Aki giving his farewell speech which, in accordance to Japanese custom, was quite lengthy.
