BESA finally owns a boat.  On the weekend of the 9th, three brave members set sail from Odo Yacht Harbor in Fukuoka, Japan aboard Ambitious, a 22 foot Catalina.  While the trip was far from easy, they did manage to make it back to Haeundae Marina relatively unscathed, albeit a bit wet a wee pale in the face.

The trip started with the skipper, Mark, arriving in Fukuoka early in the afternoon to take care of the ugly customs work which was barely finished at the 11th hour.  Soon after, Jason and Andy, his trusty but a bit green crew arrived... very drunk and determined to drink even more.  Unfortunately for the skipper, their determination proved unstoppable and was contageous.

So what do you do with three drunken sailors?  Well, we were fortunately dropped off safely back in our boat to slumber off the spirits from the all-night-affair.  Unfortunately, it was too great of a task for any liver to burn away the huge quantity of alcohol in the limited time.

Our passports had been stamped by immigration to leave by 6am.  At 8:30am, 10 minutes after we awoke, we finally started our 8 horsepower yamaha outboard and left the harbor.  The original plan was to motor out for a few minutes, raise the sails and let the wind do the rest.  However, our plan did require wind, and we could see clearly from the glass like appearance of the sea, there was no wind.

So we continued to motor out untill our little primary gas tank ran completely dry.  Fortunately we did have a secondary tank that was double the size of the primary.  Unfortunately, we could not locate the pump to get the gas from gas tank A to B.  Pouring directly from one to the other meant a few drops would make it into the other tank and the rest would end up on our cockpit floor.  We knew a pump existed because it had been seen the night before, but after almost taking the boat apart, no gas pump could be found.  We did, however, have a water pump.  Not exactly made to handle gas, but with a little impovising, we were able to get the primary take about half full.  Finally, after being in the hot sun for over an hour, we were underway again.

And of course, shortly after the whole pump ordeal, the wind picked up and we didn't need the gas after all.  From that point on we had a pretty smooth sail.  The winds were a steady 8 to 12 knots with waves about 1 to 2 meter high.  Seemed ideal until the skipper realized that the wind was coming from the wrong direction.  For weeks the winds had been coming from the south.  Now the wind was from the north or north-north easterly.  This would make a direct line over Daema Island (Tsushima to the Japanese) almost impossible. 

As it turned out, we missed our planned aproach to the island by quite a bit.  This forced us to take up the shoreline of an unfamiliar island at night.  Not the best scenario by any means.  This also meant that our arrival would be delayed by 5 or 6 hours.  The only bright moment to all of this was that we came upon some really cool phosfluorescent plankton.  It was the first time for Mark and Jason to see this brillian show of nature.  The boat was completely surrounded by bright sparks of green which left a glowing trail behind our stern.

As we made the turn over the northern tip of Daema Island, the seas became increadibly rough.  The wind picked up past 20 knots with gust over 30.  The seas double with the occasional 4 or 5 meter wave bearing down on us.  The crew furled the jib until only a fraction of it remained.  The boat started to take on water with every wave that crashed over the deck.  Then a very scary moment occured.  The port side top shroud, one of the wires that keeps the mast from tumbling over came loose.  Ambitious had been on a starboard tack for the majority of the trip which left the port shrouds quite slack.  The shaking eventually loosened the turnbuckles that held the shroud to the bolt attached to the ship.  Normally a cotter ring or pin is in place as a safeguard from the turnbuckle coming completely apart, but we didn't have them in and of course, the one time your don't take to proper precautions... well you all know Murphy's laws.  Because the boat was still on a starboard take, the shroud was not bearing any load so the crew simply screwed the shroud back in place and disaster was averted. . . for the moment anyway.

We continued on our couse knowing that the seas could indead turn very ugly.  We also knew that land was only a few more hours away.  Just as we started peering out for the land we knew was straight ahead, a crack was heard.  With the sound of the waves and wind, the break was more felt than anthing else.  Mark was on helm at the time and immediately look over the stern to see a small crack had formed on the back edge of the rudder blade.  He quickly had Jason take over the helm and jump to the mast to take down the sails when. . . a much bigger cracking sound was heard, this time the wind and waves had no chance of drowning out the unmistakable sound of a rudder tearing apart.  Disaster had finally struck.  But fate was not finished with the crew yet.  The crew quicly took down all the sails.  Not an easy task when waves were pitching the boat way past the rail-down mark.

After some trouble, the engine started and we were under power again.  However, the engine would completely submerge with every wave so confidance wasn't high.  The crew members tried to get the attention of some boats that were passing by but no one seemed to care or pay attention.  Mark made some calculations and figured they had plenty of gas, but would the engine hold... that was the question on their minds.  An emergency rudder was fashioned out of a spinnaker pole, floor board and some old line.  It would be used in case the engine became flooded by water. 

Finally, a lighthouse beacon could be seen.  Never had a lighthouse looked so good.  The crew was almost home.  The little engine slowly took them into the Haeundae marina where loved ones along with customs officials were waiting.