Vancouver Hybrid Club Night – Sailing to the Heart of Japan

Nick Coghlan had been curious about Japan ever since his father, a veteran of infantry fighting in Italy and Greece, confessed to him a dread of being sent to the Japanese front when the war in Europe ended in the Spring of 1945.

Finding themselves in New Zealand aboard their Vancouver 27 – Bosun Bird – Nick and his partner, Jenny, decided to indulge that curiosity by sailing north through the islands of the western Pacific where memories of the war still linger, to the home islands of Japan.

This is no ordinary cruising destination. The formalities can be baffling and almost every bay has a fishing harbour at its head, which means you rarely have the opportunity to anchor; typhoons are a real risk. But the hospitality offered to the very few foreign “yottos” that venture to these waters is astounding, and cruising the bucolic and depopulated islands of the Inland Sea offers a rare glimpse of old Japan.

Nick and Jenny will briefly describe their approach via Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Micronesia, but their presentation will focus principally on their fifteen months in Japan.

Presenters

Nick and Jenny Coghlan immigrated to Canada from the UK in 1981. They almost immediately acquired a boat – an Albin Vega 27, Tarka the Otter – and, after a trial run around Vancouver Island, set off from Maple Bay on what would become a four-year circumnavigation of the world. Later, finding themselves boatless and bored in Cape Town (South Africa), they bought another 27-footer – Bosun Bird – and sailed her home to BC, with breaks for work. Their itinerary took them across the South Atlantic to Brazil, through the stormy waters of Patagonia and across the South Pacific a second time. From New Zealand they sailed north through the western Pacific to Japan, where they cruised for fifteen months before heading to Kodiak, Alaska and back to BC.

Nick’s day job has been as a Canadian diplomat. Both he and Jenny were awarded Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross for their role in evacuating Canadians from South Sudan under gunfire, in 2013. They now live a quieter life on Salt Spring Island.

Nick and Jenny maintain a sailing blog (www.bosunbird.com), and he is the author of three sailing books: Winter in Fireland; Sailing to the Heart of Japan; and (coming up in 2025) Under Wide and Starry Skies: Fifty Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled. Nick will have a few copies of ‘Sailing to the Heart of Japan’ available for sale ($25) at club night.