How easy is it to be functional on 4 or 5 hours sleep a night? Not very I am thinking as I look all around for the coffee cup I put down a minute ago. We departed Ogi, Sado Island, about 51 hours ago and we are now through the strait that separates Hokkaido from Honshu and are making our way East to Cape Erimo where we will turn NNE for Kushiro, Hokkaido, our last stop in Japan. This leg has been another good run starting out with a warm front that brought rain of course but also some helpful westerlies to blow us quickly up the west coast of Honshu. Then, the sky cleared while the westerlies continued to provide a sweet run through the strait with wonderful views of both islands in uncharacteristically clear visibility. The night brought a ship dodging exercise where shipping from all over the world converged to slip though the narrows after their great circle passages across the Pacific. It has become cooler during the night, much cooler. We will need to get used to it after a warm six weeks. Just before John and I headed off to Greenland and points east in 2010, I asked a Beaufort canvas awning maker to make an enclosure that would zip onto the spray dodger so that we could get some protection from the cold when sitting up in the cockpit. It worked a charm and now, when the sun rises, it is a little greenhouse of warmth that even circulates below. Of course, its not really cold yet but the sea has become quite cold and when the wind blows from behind at night, brrrr. So the greenhouse is useful even now.(Just one cruiser note: As we came up the northwwest coast of Honshu to enter the strait, we had current against us of up to two knots between Fakoura and Kadomari. Unexpected and bouncy with the wind against the tide. At the cape that protects Kadomari, the current became favorable as expected).xxx