Today's Report
Sep. 15/11 1300
JST
Position: 33°30'N, 139°47'E
Remaining to
Yokohama: 90 nm / 99.9% finished, (ETA: Sep. 17)
Nicole BMW
Shuten-dohji III is on schedule to reach Yokohama Saturday, with weather and
winds cooperating -- but just barely. Saito-san has never sounded as upbeat as he has the past
several days as the anticipation builds.
In Tokyo and
Yokohama, media arrangements are being made, with two of the six main TV channels
sending camera crews, and several major newspapers, and at least one foreign
one, planning to send news teams.
Saito-san will meet
up with Magellan Major, the spotting boat that saw him off on October 2, 2008,
at the official start line at Kenzaki Lighthouse.
The weather continues
to look quite favorable over the next 48 hours, expected to be cloudy and fair
on Saturday.
There IS an area typhoon, in fact TWO but the first and bigger one (Roke) has moved sharply west and does not present a problem.
There IS an area typhoon, in fact TWO but the first and bigger one (Roke) has moved sharply west and does not present a problem.
The second smaller
one, No. 19, is closely following Saito's path but he will be in Yokohama
before it nears Japan according to projections. It has only appeared on the
weather screen in the past 8 hours.
 |
| Two typhoons shown in 36-hour projection |
Next week's forecast calls for rain & thunderstorms for
Yokohama from Monday or Tuesday straight through to next weekend. Typhoon No.
19 is projected to veer to the east before it reaches Japan, but Hachijojima
looks like it has at least some chance of getting clobbered as early as
Tuesday.
So a day or two later departure date might have caused still
another drawn-out delay.
Please note that the arrival time Saturday has been moved up 30 minutes.
Arrival Date &
Place:
10:00
a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Saturday, Sept 17, at Minato Mirai Pukari Pier, Yokohama
Following the
welcome, NBSDIIII will move to the jetty at nearby Elephant Nose Park where she
will remain for the rest of the three-day weekend.
