mitusima

mitusima3, originally uploaded by vibromama.

A light current and tailwind the next morning helped us on our way to Mitsushima, the northernmost point of the archipelago. The current quickened as we approached, and we rode through several sets of moderate tidal rapids. Had the weather not been so calm and settled, these interesting islets, rocks and shoals would not have been easy to reach. As it was, under nearly calm conditions, nature did throw us one surprise: the current ran the opposite way from what we expected. Even now it's unclear to us how the Sea of Japan, a sizeable but nearly land-locked sea, can have water streaming into it while its level is dropping, and vice versa. Anyway, this surprise turned out to be to our advantage since we originally expected to current to be against us.


Landing on the largest islet we loitered for a while around the lighthouse enjoying views of the shoals exposed briefly by the ebb tide. The scene looked strangely quiet and peaceful. Departing, we enjoyed looking through the calm surface of the crystal-clear sea onto the multicolored rocks and seaweeds in the shallows below us, and among them numerous fish and other creatures of all shapes and sizes going about their busy lives.