sailing to Japan during coronavirus

[Colin_R]

My children live in Japan with their mother. Due to the coronavirus, Japan is currently not allowing foreigners in if they have been in any of 146 countries (listed here) in the previous 14 days. I am therefore exploring the possibility of taking 14 days to sail in.

If anyone has experience of sea travel to Japan under coronavirus restrictions, or could introduce me to someone who does, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Thank you,

Colin
London, UK

 

[Bilgediver]

Why not call the visa department of the Japanese embassy London +442074656500

 

[langstonelayabout]

Thought I’d mention. Assuming you are free from the virus and arrive in Japan and all is OK, that’s good.

if, however, you have the virus the last place you’ll want to be is on board a yacht you’re responsible for. When I had the virus my bed was the place I wanted to be and I had it mildly.

 

[Sandy]

My children live in Japan with their mother. Due to the coronavirus, Japan is currently not allowing foreigners in if they have been in any of 146 countries (listed here) in the previous 14 days. I am therefore exploring the possibility of taking 14 days to sail in.

If anyone has experience of sea travel to Japan under coronavirus restrictions, or could introduce me to someone who does, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Thank you,

Colin
London, UK

Might be worth contacting the Ocean Cruising Club as they may have a member who has done what you are planning.

From what I understand from other members that many places are enforcing 14 quarantine once you arrive, usually at anchor.

 

[jordanbasset]

My children live in Japan with their mother. Due to the coronavirus, Japan is currently not allowing foreigners in if they have been in any of 146 countries (listed here) in the previous 14 days. I am therefore exploring the possibility of taking 14 days to sail in.

If anyone has experience of sea travel to Japan under coronavirus restrictions, or could introduce me to someone who does, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Thank you,

Colin
London, UK

Out of interest where are you sailing from?

 

[HissyFit]

My children live in Japan with their mother. Due to the coronavirus, Japan is currently not allowing foreigners in if they have been in any of 146 countries (listed here) in the previous 14 days. I am therefore exploring the possibility of taking 14 days to sail in.

If anyone has experience of sea travel to Japan under coronavirus restrictions, or could introduce me to someone who does, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Thank you,

Colin
London, UK

If you're starting from London, you'll not be doing it in 14 days (I'm assuming you're not). The problem is, wherever you're planning to start from may be locked down to us as it is. It would have been helpful it they listed where they were accepting visitors from.

 

[Colin_R]

Thanks all.

@Bilgediver : I've been in touch with the Japanese embassy in London. They're better on the 'usual cases' (e.g. flying in) than specialist ones like this.

@langstonelayabout : point taken about getting coronavirus while at sea - and especially given Japan's experience with cruise ships earlier this year. (In the 1990s, I'd crossed the Atlantic on a Russian freighter, and wondered whether it would be *interesting* to have the experience of sea sickness. I think that I've become more sensible since then.)

@Sandy : thanks - I've written to OCC now, asking if they can help me get in touch with the member that you described.

@jordanbasset : at this point, there are still a limited number of countries I can get to by air from the UK. When I last looked, I could get to Guam, but the only possibility I found from there was much too expensive. I'm wondering now if Vladivostok is my best option.

@HissyFit : yes, agreed - this is why I'm looking for people with experience of this: I don't want to arrive to be turned back.

 

[HissyFit]

Hope you get it sorted soon. It is not good to be away from loved ones.

BTW, my 2nd cousin is an ALT in Nara. He's married to a Japanese lady and they have a young son.

 

[Colin_R]

Thank you for your help. @Sandy's suggestion that I contact the OCC got me in touch with Kirk Patterson, their Japanese Port Officer. On 14 October, after a two week crossing the Sea of Japan from Vladivostok during typhoon season, Kirk cleared us in to Fukuoka.

It was the trip of a lifetime, and would not have been possible without Kirk's extremely capable management.

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

What did you sail on?

 

[Colin_R]

@Hallberg-Rassy : the Tiburon, a Russian flagged Farr 44, built in New Zealand. It's one of five such hull designs in the world, the only fitted as a racer-cruiser. It sleeps 10; there were four of us.

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

You hitch hiked as a paying crew member on a Farr 44 sailing from Vladivostok to Fukuoka?

That does sound like some story.

I bet the Shinkansen to see your kids was an anti-climax after that. Quite a learning experience too. How much?

 

[Colin_R]

@Hallberg-Rassy : yes, it was a great trip - fascinating in some many ways: traversing North Korean waters by night, watching Russian political satire, hiding from typhoon Chan-hom, experiencing wonderful hospitality from strangers, and being appointed a cabin boy at age 49.

Yes, once I cleared Immigration, it was an anti-climax: it felt just like being back in Japan. (I was at supper last night with a running group in Tokyo: one of the questions was whether any of them knew anyone who'd been _infected_ with the coronavirus.)

I'm replying privately about the price, as I don't know whether it was a special deal for me or not, so don't know if the crew would want it in the public domain. It was surprisingly affordable: less than a new car. I couldn't do this often, but thought I'd rise to the occasion of the pandemic.

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure some "enterprising fellows" in North Korea could have arranged such a trip cheaper, however, I doubt the welcome at Japanese immigration would have been so welcoming. If you got caught.

May be on one of their regular shabu smuggling runs, or on their way to kidnap a Japanese schoolgirl?

Top marks for ingenuity, I'd have never worked out such a connection.

 

[Colin_R]

We were surprised, and relieved, when we got through North Korean waters without seeing a single North Korean vessel. (My captain had been forced into a North Korean port in 2016: https://csomaritimealliance.com/new...ussian-yacht-with-crew-in-neutral-waters-3705.)

I started from Russia as it was the only country (other than the US, e.g. Guam) that I could get into to start sailing from. If I'd been able to get into North Korea, I would have looked for a vessel. That would have really worried my family.

 

[Sandy]

Glad I could be of assistance. The OCC are a very helpful club.

 

[HissyFit]

@Hallberg-Rassy : yes, it was a great trip - fascinating in some many ways: traversing North Korean waters by night, watching Russian political satire, hiding from typhoon Chan-hom, experiencing wonderful hospitality from strangers, and being appointed a cabin boy at age 49.

Is that the type of legal political satire, where Putin mocks is opponents, or the stuff that could get your captain an eternity in Siberia for you mentioning it?

 

[Colin_R]

Is that the type of legal political satire, where Putin mocks is opponents, or the stuff that could get your captain an eternity in Siberia for you mentioning it?

No, it was vicious political satire in which the mayor is corrupt, the governor is corrupt, people are appointed to cabinet positions to line their own pockets, the FSB (state police) are buffoons. It's called House Arrest: the English language reviews of it online that I read all asked the same question I was: "how can they do this?" The answer, I think is: (i) Putin is not corrupt or incompetent; his aides say that he likes smart people; (ii) the FSB get their man in the end.

It was shown on a Russian TV station called Domashniy. As it turns out, I have a Russian friend who teaches film studies in Montreal. When I mentioned that Domashniy had this great show, her reply was: "I doubt it". Domashniy's known for daytime schlock TV. And, yet, there it was.