Book Review - Cruising Japan to New Zealand

Created by sue. Last modified on 2009-09-08 15:57:36
Topic: Books,Charts and DVDs
Countries: Japan, New Zealand, Palau (Belau), Philippines

Cruising Japan to New Zealand
By Tere Batham
ISBN 1-57409-182-4
Published by Sheridan House $29.95
www.sheridanhouse.com

After an unplanned stay of over two years in Japan, Tere and Michael Batham decided to sail their 47 ft steel ketch "Sea Quest" back to New Zealand, but rather than taking the shortest route they made a point of calling at many out of the way places.

Heading east from Macau, they called at the Philippines and Palau, then threaded their way through Micronesia to visit such remote atolls as Euaripik, Ifalik, Lamotek, Satawan, Ant and Oroluk. Tere’s colourful description of such rarely visited places and the isolated communities who inhabit them shows an insight that is all too often missing from other cruising narratives.

Some of those highlights were tempered by the odd mishap and the author is very candid in describing the problems that befell them, a couple of them serious enough to put the yacht in real danger had it not been for Michael’s technical skills and talent of improvisation. There are some valuable lessons to be learnt from such emergencies, as budding voyagers may not be aware of this aspect of cruising life and the price one must be prepared to pay for sailing well off the beaten track.

One other important lesson is to choose one’s crew carefully as shortly before leaving Japan, Tere and Michael ended up with an uninvited guest, Miki, a young Japanese woman who had never sailed before and was entirely unprepared for life on a sailing boat. While some of Miki’s weird behaviour and tantrums may sound almost funny to an outside observer, Michael and Tere’s attitude towards their stubborn and often sullen crew can only be described as saintly and most readers would wonder why they didn’t get rid of their troublesome crew at the first opportunity rather than put up with her until their safe landfall in New Zealand.

A couple of years later, Tere and Michael set off on a new adventure, a voyage that is yet to be completed, so one can only hope that before too long this highly enjoyable book will have a worthy sequel.