On Our Way to Okinawa-Day 7
11 April 2015 | Western Pacific
Jim
I have just completed the longest and possibly the most humorous Iridium Satellite telephone call ever! A vessel is required to give the Japan Coast Guard 24 hours notice of arrival and at 9AM, we had 24 hours to go. I had a number provided for Naha, Okinawa JCG that I found on Noonsite.com and I called rather nervously. The first person spoke no English and put me on hold. The second spoke no English and put me on hold. Charming Japanese music in the background. The third spoke some English and we were off. By the time this call was completed, the Japan Coast Guard had enough information to keep track of Let's Go! day and night. We were warned by sailors Tom and Vicky Jackson to never give the JCG your email address with which they would continuously hound you and this is the one thing they do not have. But they do have our phone number and they have our MMSI number. The latter is a unique identification number for Let's Go! and is linked to our AIS (Automatic Indentification Ship) transponder that sends out our position every thirty seconds. Once he had this, the officer entered the number on his computer up there in Tokyo or wherever he was and I heard him exclaim, "ah, Let's Go!". They have us now! So why was it humorous? Language, what else. I can see this is going to be a whole lot of fun. Finally, Iridium said "that's enough" and dropped the call. But soon I had a call from the Japan Coast Guard in Naha, Okinawa explaining that I should call on VHF one hour before arrival, that is is okay to go to Ginowan Marina (a "closed port") and that they would arrange for Customs and Immigration to descend upon us. So, all good and we know for certain that if we ever have a situation, the JCG knows where to find us. Back on the sailing front, we had to motor sail again last night but are sailing slowly and comfortably along. I am beginning to wonder if the bad weather we are expecting is going to happen at all. The barometer stays high, the wind is light and there are only fair weather clouds in the sky. I finally rigged up the Go Pro on the solar panels on top of the OVNI arch and we are primed to take a video of our arrival and the onslaught of officials. This should be good!