Sand Island

EAST CHINA SEA — (May 30, 2021) Heading out at 9 a.m. on an overcast day, the crew of Knotty Girl took some friends visiting from the Shonan area of mainland Japan to a unique day trip island atoll known by locals as Chibii-Shi or Sand Island.

Seas were super flat and there was no wind as Dan, Kevin and I raised sails and motor sailed to the island group about two hours away from KG’s home port of Ginowan Marina.

Kevin’s guest Kayo was not feeling good the first half of the trip and when she asked me if regular sailors ever get sick, I reassured her by saying, “Yes, but they normally don’t openly admit to it or lie about it.

Once at Sand Island we dropped anchor in about 6 meters of water. This was Dan’s first attempt at participating in anchoring at a location that is not east to do so because of the reef and current.

We also dropped a second smaller reef anchor off the stern to help secure the boat. Once the anchors seemed set, we jumped in the water for a quick look see.

Kevin in the water.

At first the water was pretty clear but as the tide was heading out the water got cloudier. (see boat photo above).

As we motored back the cloudy skies opened up and we got totally soaked. 

I asked Kayo to drive the boat as I’ve found one “cure” for seasickness is to get behind the wheel and drive so you can “predict” the movement of the boat a little better.

That seemed to help as her spirits started to pickup and she appeared to start enjoying the wet ride under the protection of KG’s Bimini.