The Central Weather Bureau issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fanapi late Friday night and said the storm remains on course to become the first typhoon to directly hit Taiwan this year. Fanapi, 'sandy islands' in Micronesian, was 600 kilometers east of Hualien on Taiwan's east coast as of 11 p.m. Friday and heading in Taiwan's direction at a speed of up to 15 kilometers per hour, according to the bureau. In its sea warning issued at 11: 30 p.m., the bureau cautioned ships sailing in waters north, south and east of Taiwan to watch for strong winds and big waves caused by the storm. The typhoon is expected to move to within 300 kilometers of Hualien by Saturday night and bring occasional showers to northern and eastern parts of the island, before hitting Taiwan sometime Sunday, forecasters said. Packing maximum sustained winds of 144 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 180 kilometers per hour as of Friday, Fanapi was upgraded from a tropical storm to a typhoon Thursday night. 