Yup, you read that title right. A Yamaha WaveBlaster lost by Tomomune Matsunaga from Fukushima, Japan, during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami washed ashore in the Johnston Atoll, about 700 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. Amazingly enough, the ‘Blaster stayed afloat the 3,300 miles from Fukushima all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
Found by Danielle Lampe, an intern doing a bird survey for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, discovered the PWC this past May; and now, thanks to some help from Chris Woolaway, the Hawaii coordinator for International Coastal Cleanup, Matsunaga is getting his ski back free of charge.
According to a report by DailyMail, “Woolaway called on a friend who reached out to the captain of a Japanese boat, the Fukushima Maru…. The captain, Shigeki Kuwabara, agreed to transport the jet ski and, on Sunday, when the boat left Honolulu for Japan, the craft was hoisted aboard, set to reunite with its owner on November 11 after another long trip across then Pacific Ocean.”
Matsunaga, who lost his home and nearly all of his personal possessions back on March 11, 2011, was elated to hear that his WaveBlaster had survived. Matsunaga, who lives in temporary housing in Iwaki City, has not disclosed any plans for what he will do with his PWC when he gets it back.
