A few years ago in the Sailish Sea, Mandolyn accidentally wandered into the Whiskey Gulf military testing zone during a naval exercise. We had failed to check the schedule, and also forgot to turn on our VHF that day.

Friends on a boat nearby heard some pretty stern hails for Mandolyn on VHF channel 16, but we didn’t realise our mistake until we noticed a navy ship charging towards us.

It was like the old saying: “You know you messed up when there’s a battleship bearing down on you.”

Embarrassed, we managed to exit the situation without any exchange of ammunition. That episode would be good practice for our trip from the Philippines to Japan, through another militarily spicy area, the South China sea off Taiwan.

We’d been watching the weather for weeks looking for the first window of the season that would allow us to make the four day journey. The window appeared at the end of April and off we went.

On day one of our journey, we were still close to the Phillipines when the Chinese military conducted a suprise live fire exercise just south of Taiwan, not too far from where we planned to be the next day.

On day two, just north of the Philippines we encountered strong west bound currents, pushing us towards those more politically exciting waters. It was a slog to stay as far east as we could. For a day or so we had to bash to windward through uncomfortable seas, sometimes running the engine if we couldn’t make enough progress.

These conditions lead to the largest wave we’ve ever taken into the cockpit, which landed squarely on West. All we could do was laugh.

On day three we read that the Japanese Navy had sent a battleship cruising through the Taiwan Strait, to flex their own presence in the region.

That same day we spotted a battleship on the horizon ourselves, just before we heard the approaching thunder of an unmarked helicopter, which performed two slow circles around Mandolyn.

Sarah and I weren’t sure how to behave under possible military observation. Is it ok to take a picture? Yes, but just be non threatening about it. Umm… ok. Should we… surrender? No, what if it’s just a sightseeing tour? It would be ridiculous if we surrendered to tourists.

The navy and/or tourists flew away without incident.

After four nights at sea we arrived at Ishigaki Japan. Home to an impressively well armed coast guard fleet and one vending machine which dispenses goat sashimi.

We made it! Another successful passage and not even a slap on the wrist from the super navies of the world.

Tune in next week for what not to buy from a Japanese supermarket.

A few photos…