half full

femmebot:

Then the first wave came. Sugawara says he is used to seeing waves up to 5 meters high but this was four-times that size.

“I talked to my boat and said you’ve been with me 42 years. If we live or die, then we’ll be together, then I pushed on full throttle.”

“Here was my boat and here was the wave,” he says, holding one hand low and the other stretched high above his head. “I climbed the wave like a mountain. When I thought I had got to the top, the wave got even bigger.”

…

Trying to get back to Oshima, he had to navigate carefully past wrecked houses, boats and other debris that floated past him. The island of Oshima was in complete darkness; the only way he could find his way was with the guide of raging fires at Kesunnuma — 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

For twenty days, he has been making hourly trips to the mainland. For the first two weeks at least he provided almost the only connection with it. Without Sugawara and the Sunflower, the island would have been completely cut off.

He doesn’t ask passengers for money if they have none. Those that can, pay just 300 yen (US$3.5) towards fuel.

…

Sugawara risked his life for his boat and his island — one of the very few to ride a tsunami and to live to tell the tale.

(via Defiant Japanese boat captain rode out tsunami - CNN.com)