We are underway again!

21 May We are underway again!

We are underway again!

Mvstarr.com/Location

We departed Wakkanai on Japan’s NW corner of Hokkaido at  0800,  May 20,2026.  Destination Aleutian islands and then Seattle.

Our route will be different from our 2023 passage. Rather than going up the East side of the Kuril Islands, we are going to run 600nm up the Kuril / Okhotsk  basin and exit thru a somewhat narrow pass at  49 57.6N, 154 42.3E into the Pacific. This pass at the top of the basin will have us within 1 nm of the Russian boundary line. Phew!

Along with Patrick Connor and myself, our crew are John & Karen Lattanzi from Honolulu and Clay Hutchinson, from the Kaneohe Yacht Club.

                                                                                                          Clay Hutchinson marking the chart

                                                                                                               John and Karen Lattanzi

John & Karen are experienced sailors having crossed the pacific in their own boat.  John is retired USCG officer and their kids are world class sailors winning national foiling championships. They joined Starr for 10 days of cruising earlier this year in Fiji.

This passage will be Clay Hutchinson’s 4^th ocean crossing on Starr. Prior passages included  2023 Honolulu to Guam, 2018 Honolulu to Unalaska Island, and Seattle to Hanalei 2019. Clay, Gail and their 2 kids sailed the So Pacific in 1994 and Clay published a dandy book on Amazon called Somewhere South, Sailing thru Polynesia, 1977.

Don Stabbert

This next section is written by Clay Hutchinson

I arrived at the New Chitose Airport (Sapporo) on the night of May 14 and stayed that night at the Airport Terminal Hotel. M/V Starr was berthed in the port of Otaru on the West coast of Hokkaido Island, about two hours from the airport. Don and Patrick took a train to meet me at the airport terminal. John and Karen Lattanzi had spent the previous week touring Japan and had stayed in an AirBnB for a night, then rented an 8-passenger van and met us at the airport. The first stop was Costco (yes, there is a Costco in Hokkaido). That was a good introduction to Japanese friendliness, politeness, organization, and efficiency. The store was organized the same as Costcos in America, so navigating the aisles was simple and Japanese efficiency made the process seem simple. We started with two shopping carts and soon realized that we would need at least three.

                             Patrick and Don with the 3 carts lined up in the Costco Japan

                                                  Don with the Costco receipt (Perhaps a Costco record?).

We were concerned that our van would not accommodate our luggage and the provisions but learned that John is a packing guru and had the van loaded to the gills in short order. Karen did an excellent job driving through the big city of Sapporo and onward to Otaru. We arrived at the Port of Otaru and spent the remainder of the day unloading the van, loading luggage and provisions aboard and stowing. We had to get a bit creative with placement of some of the provisions. We made pancakes for dinner.

                                                                                                      Tetris with the Costco supplies!

Related posts:

1082nm from Los Cabos, 09d 55.00 N, 122d 54.00 W – Friday, 23nd March, 2001 Mainland Coast of Mexico: Puerto Vallerta to Barra de Navidad – December 17, 2000-January 18, 2001 Seattle to Mexico – November, 2000 Seattle, Washington – September, 2000