A 10 days cruise
Sailing for 10 days in these waters and visiting 8 major city ports was the basic plan for the cruise. Noby Kobayashi, the X-Yachts dealer in Japan, joined the cruise as skipper of X-482, “Maki Spirit” owned by Mr. Yasuyosi Oda. Mr. Oda was in charge of the cruise himself. A cameraman, journalist and TV crew were also present on the trip to put together a guidebook, DVD and a TV programme of the cruise in order to promote Setonai-Kai.

On the 22nd July, the first leg of the cruise began, leaving Wakayama-City to reach Naruto, famous for its narrow channel and strong current, which leave their marks by the large whirl pools. The destination of leg two was Takamatsu, the entrance to the city of Shikoku-island. The highlight of the third leg to Oumishima was the famous legendary fortress island used by the navy in local history. There, a large bridge connects the mainland and Shikoku. Leg four to Matsuyama was made immensely enjoyable by passing through many narrow channels intersecting the small islands. Even these little, quaint islands were found to be inhabited by small, local fishing villages and tiny ferry boats that were connecting them to the larger islands.

Promoting World Class Tourism
To encourage tourism in the Inland Sea Area of Setonai-Kai, three times America’s cup winner, skipper Russell Coutts was invited to join a cruise in late July of 2003.

Setonai-Kai is a bed of water lying between the mainland and Shikoku-Island, which includes over 3,000 attractive islands. Even through the eyes of Russell Coutts, who is familiar with an endless array of beautiful waters worldwide, believed that he had not yet been introduced to an area of natural beauty that held such an obvious potential for world class tourism.

Miyajima Shrine a world heritage site
Very memorable sailing was encountered on the fifth leg to Hiroshima, including a visit to Miyajima-Shrine, which has been praised the third most beautiful place in Japan. Both the shrine of Red gate and a main pavilion are lying in these shallow waters. Miyajima is now designated as a national treasure and a world heritage site.

Leg six was to Onomichi, an old town port, facing another island with a narrow channel dividing the two. The next leg was to Ushimado in the prefecture of Okayama. Ushimado is a popular resort area known as the Aegean Sea in Japan. Moderate climate and plenty of miniature islands in front of the town provides the visitors with a comfortable atmosphere. The final leg was to sail back to Nishinomiya. Nishinomiya is recognized as Sail City, owing to the fact that one of the biggest marinas and yacht clubs are found there. This city is also famous for their Sake brewery which features in local history.