avionbianca   Blog for s/v Avion

Day 1 (7/30/2014) 8:51 A.M.  Hawaii Time (2070 Miles to San Francisco Bay)

Though the week long stay in Kaneohe Yacht Club has been fun and eventful we are all ready to head back home.  Angie arrived back on the boat last night at about 11:30 and Nico made it back sometime after that (he has made some local friends) and we all had a good nights sleep.  This morning has been spent preparing for departure by cleaning up the boat and stowing everything from food, plants, clothing and gear.  Yes plants, we are taking back 2 special plants from some sailors that raced the Pacific Cup back in 1998 and are still here but plan to return back to San Francisco soon.  In exchange for taking their plants we were able to get a pickup ride to the fuel station to top off the remaining 13 fuel jugs.  This gives us a total of 160 gallons which should be able to allow us to motor over 300 hours.  Are plans are to only run the engine if we can not make 4 knots under sail.

The route we plan to take is a little different than the downwind run we had for the race.  The normal Pacific High which is the engine for the trade winds blowing out of the East, Northeast is a little obscured by a series of four tropical lows south of Hawaii and large Low just south of Alaska.  The High is week so the winds right now shows more of a motor boat ride than a sailing experience.  But of course that is the conditions now, who knows what they will be like in 3 weeks.  We have capability of obtaining weather information both by Sat Phone and by Single Side Band Radio, so we will be constantly monitoring the conditions.

Our planned route is to head North by Northeast on a starboard tack.  The rule of thumb is to stay on starboard tack until the wind dies then head east under power to cross the high then catch the winds on the eastern side of the high to take us to San Francisco Bay.   Our plan is to keep a close eye on the weather on the coast, this can be treacherous.  The recommendation is to either make a run for the coast to avoid maj0r weather coming or hang out in the comfort of the high waiting for weather on the coast to dissipate.

We have plenty of food and water to last over 3 weeks and plenty of fuel.  No body ever complains about having too much fuel when the arrive.  The last thing we want is to be stuck 100 miles offshore not able to get into the bay because the wind has died or we need to power through heavy seas.

I will update once we are underway.