Having laid low the past five months following the enormous success of the Great Siberian Sushi Run, Ken and Roberta Williams have announced Part II of their exciting journey…only this time, the “Siberian” will be noticeably absent from the trip. The duo, who will once again be cruising in company with their GSSR cohorts, Braun and Tina Jones on Grey Pearl and Steve and Carol Argosy on Seabird (both Nordhavn 62s), plan to depart next week and continue exploring East Asia. Ken loosely outlines the itinerary in his popular blog. Stops will include severa Japanese cities including Hiroshima and Fukuoka followed by a visit to South Korea minus the boat (due to complicated clearance requirements). They’ll continue to explore Nagasaki and Kyushu in Japan then head south along the Ryukyu Island chain. They’ll clear out of Japan at Ishigaki bound for Taiwan to visit the Ta Shing factory which built their Nordhavn 64 and 62s before winding up in Hong Kong.

Williams admits the itinerary is slightly (okay, considerably) less ambitious than last year’s 5,200 nm trek, which included crossing the Bering Sea, that got them to Japan in the first place. “Our journey this year ‘should’ be much easier than last year,” writes Williams. “In aggregate we’ll be cruising just over 2,000 miles, and with the exception of the long passage from Tawain to Hong Kong there shouldn’t be any overnight passages. This should be an easy trip in good weather (I hope!), and very different from last year’s GSSR cruise.

“That said, I’m not expecting our trip to be boring. Very few boats have cruised these islands, and I’m sure we’ll find much of great interest. As we get closer to departure I’ll talk a bit more about all that we expect to see and the challenges that I foresee.”

Armchair cruisers can once again follow along with all the participants via their blogs: Sans Souci’s www.kensblog.com; Grey Pearl’s http://greypearl.talkspot.com and Seabird’s http://www.seabirdlrc.com.

-JMS