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What a difference a day makes, or in our case, two days.
Two days ago, we caught a fish. This was a “reel” team effort. He was a big Dorado, over 3 feet and about 35 pounds. He took up half of the cockpit while flopping around. Jimmy claims we caught it because he spit on the lure, which Hawaiian fishermen believe gives them good luck. Megan, the real fisher-person on board, was optimistic enough to put the line out, so she deserves much of the credit. I also deserve some credit, because I decided that the fancy pink lure that was the hot color for catching tuna around Oahu was not working for us, and put the good old cedar plug back on the line. As I said, a team effort.
A fish needs to be dressed quickly, so it can go to dinner. I had been talking about sharpening my knives for awhile now, but there was always some other thing that had to be done first. This fish got me motivated to get out the old sharpening stone and olive oil and get to it. In the meantime, Megan got the Listerine and put the Dorado to sleep; the alcohol kills a fish instantly. We then had to move the jerry cans to open up the spot where I dress fish on Avion, on an area of non-skid surface, outside the cockpit. I have been studying how the Kewalo Harbor fishermen dress their fish on the docks over this past winter, so I just knew how to dress this big boy. Cut the head off first; open and clear the guts; open up the anus to the tail; then cut out the spine, or the back fin; then slice off nice big hunks of meat. Then went down to the galley and rinsed off the blood. I cut the meat into cookable fillets, and put them into zip locked bags. In about 30 mintues, we had at least ten pounds of nice fresh fish in the frig.
We had some sail changes to make, that took priority for the next two hours. The conditions were getting heavy, and there was too much pressure on the mast and rudder to go overnight. I decided to drop the sails, and clean things up. so, I was the first to cook-up a piece of our fish. My favorite way to cook fish is in butter on a frying pan, which I did. Life was good,a nd I went and did my three hour shift with good energy.
Yesterday, Jimmy and I cooked a proper fish meal for the whole crew. Fish, onions and pineapple, smothered in mayonase, covered with tin foil and baked for 40 minutes. Jimmy learned this recipe in Lahina years ago. We also decided to make a coleslaw with cabbage and pineapples, since the Pineapples on board are in that perfectly sweet state that demands being eaten. The challenge was preparing all this food while sailing in heavy conditions, with a modest but variable heel. One person could not do it; or rather, it would take one person a long time to do it (cook). Jimmy was game, so I offered to help. Basically, I cut stuff up, and Jimmy put it in the pan, in the right sequence. Doesn’t sound like much, but it was a true act of teamwork. Needless to say, the fish was delicious.
As I just mentioned, we cooked while sailing in heavy conditions yesterday. To be more specific, “heavy” meant windy, bouncy and wet. The waves were 4 to 5 feet, and wind was 16 to 20 knots. These conditions are nothing special to an ocean sailor, but yesterday the combination of wind, waves and the angle of our heading also made it wet. An occasional wave would splash the bow at such an angle as to push a wall of salt water up into the air, and then the wind would blow it back into the cockpit, where one or two of us would be sitting while we drove, and drench us. We wore our Gortex foulies to stay dry, kind of. The water found it’s way down my neck, through my wrists and down my arms. My pants were just soaked though. Jimmy put up his special built-in head covering, to protect his head from the water. I just wore one of my old Red Sox hats and ducked behind the bill to protect my face and cover my glasses, sort of. As soon as I would dry them off, another wave would hit. It was a grin and bear it kind of wet sailing. It would have been more fun if it was not also growing colder during the day. We have crossed Latitude 30 now, which means that we have left the warm climate of Hawaii behind (Lat 21).
Another big event yesterday was refilling the fuel tank. It took three jerry cans, or 14 gallons (minus a third of a gallon per jc). We had used the engine for exactly 40 hours, at that point. So, we now know for sure that we can get 13 hours per jerry can. At an average of 5 miles per hour, we get 65 miles per jerry can. We have ten jerry cans left for a total of 650 miles of motoring. So far, we have needed to motor for a hundred miles at a time, twice, and we are now motoring again. There are secondary advantages to motoring, like running the refrigerator and the Dometic freezer unit, charging up the batteries, and devices like cellphones, computers and headsets. Megan, the economics major, says we have enough fuel to run the motor for 10 hours a day, so we are good. If she thinks so, then we are.
Today, we are now motor-sailing again. The wind is in our face, so we have taken down the sails, turned on the motor and let the auto-pilot drive. The boat is bouncing around, but generally flat, so we can move around and cook some food for breakfast. I just sent off our position report to Rick the Weatherguy. He is providing us with a route consisting of waypoints every two or three hundred miles, with updates every third day. I can download and analyze the GRIB files, but he has deep experience guiding boats through daily changes in weather patterns. We are happy to have him working with us. I might as well share it with you, to finish off this blog posting. It is dry and technical, but full of fun facts. Enjoy…
Current Position at 6:10 AM is as follows:
Lat 28’39.960
Lon 154’02.084
Conditions:
We took the sails down yesterday afternoon and motored overnight. Boat speed is a little over 5 knots. There is a light wind from the west (250) at 8 to 10 knots, but it is variable, and while we could sail to it, we would not go very fast or far. The sun is out, and the sea state is calm.
Notes:
We are heading north. It is nice to have the boat be flat while we motor. I hardly even noticed the sound of the engine anymore. It is running smoothly at 2000 RPMs. I cooked a pretty tasty meal in the pressure cooker last night; steak with onions and carrots, and rice. Crew said it was good, but they would say that about anything hot. I expect the winds to fill in from the west today, but be variable, and swing around to the northeast. Could be some squalls and rain. Might try to sail, but could just continue to run the engine through it. Will have to refill the fuel tank soon, it is just below half (22 gallon capacity).
Tom
s/v Avion
We have already lost track of time. Today is the span of time between your last 3 hour shift, getting some sleep, and when you are up next in the cockpit for 3 hours. Driving a boat for 3 hours is intense, as there is no road ahead, just a general heading desired and the tradeoff between the wind and the waves. Sometimes they do not let you go in the direction you would prefer and you just have to take what you can get. At least out here in the ocean, there is no traffic to contend with. We are alone already. No signs of civilization, other than some trash floating by occasionally.
We had our first equipment failure. It is no critical, but we considered turning back, as i is not trivial. The starboard (right) side running back attachment poibnt to the mast snapped. The conector is a piece of stainless steel, and it just broke in half. It may have been cracked for awhile now, as they was some browning around one side. Fortunately, the running backs have two points of contact with the mast; the checkstays attach mid-way, and provide a secondary adjustment point. So, my analysis is that the checkstay can take the load when we are on a starboard tack. The port side running back and checkstay are fine, so we will be able to make port tack and sail east at some point with no issues there. The only concern for now is sailing north. We have some risk, but it is manageable, nd we might be able to repair it if we have light winds for a day or two.
We have seem all conditions already, blowing like snot (30 knots plus), 20 to 25 knots (wet), and today, 10 to 14 knots of light wind. The prediction is for very light winds ahead, and we will have to motor. We were happy to have the boat be flat and dry for awhile today. Megan cooked a wonderful breakfast. We dried our foulies. Jimmy came up into cockpit with his board shorts, Spinlock PFD and no shirt. I got out my big sun hat. Megan used the sprayer to rinse off the salt. When the wid came back in the afternoon, we were ready.
Okay, enough for now. I am due up in the cockpit to start my shift. It might be Monday soon…
We are in the Pailolo channel in 30 knots of wind, boat speed is 8.5 knots. We have the second reef in and the #4 jib. Avion feels good, and we are happy to FINALLY be underway. San Francisco here we come…
We have run into a number of people who sailed to Hawaii and decided to stay. It is easy to understand why. Last August, we decided to stay for a couple of months, and that turned into staying for the winter. We have sailed to six of the eight islands of Hawaii, and had very rich experience, but just scratched the surface. We are tempted to stay longer. The question lately has been, why leave? The answer to that question is that we live in the San Francisco Bay area, and we miss our family and friends there. Plus, the return trip is the last big unknown of this adventure. I have never done it, so I am motivated to get this experience under my belt. It is not a race, so the dynamics are totally different. We can relax and sail in cruising mode, slowly and deliberately.
We waited to the May to return because this is the rule of thumb among sailors for returning to California. The primary source of this “rule” is Jimmy Cornell, who wrote the bible for cruisers, “1,000 Cruising Routes of the World.” The historical pattern is that a large high pressure pattern settles into the eastern Pacific region, in May, which is then sailed around or through, depending upon where is settles.
For a boat making a trip from Hawaii to SF, this usually means sailing due north from Hawaii to about the 30th parallel, and then starting to work to the northeast, while avoiding the middle of the Pacific High, where there is no wind. By the 38th parallel, it is usually possible to head due east. The last 500 miles to California are the most challenging, as it gets cold again, and the pressure builds into strong winds and rough seas. We will see what happens this year.
We are planning to leave Hawaii later this week, around May 25th, from Lahina. We are going there to pick up Jimmy Laing, our third crew member. We know Jimmy from Alameda, where he is a woodworker and cabinet-maker. He helped Avion pass the Pac Cup safety inspection by making an emergency tiller. While working on that project, he told us that he had lived in Maui in his twenties, and had offered to help with the return delivery. When my brother said he could not make the three week commitment, we called Jimmy, and he immediately said yes.
We have been focused on preparing Avion since April. The boat is in good shape, overall, as we have fixed any issues as they came up. But several critical path projects did emerge in PAril that had to be addressed. I found two cracks in the rudder. We were very fortunate to find Jim Maynard of PDF-Hawaii. His crew dropped the rudder, repaired it, and installed it again within 3 weeks. Avion was well designed, so the rudder could be removed while still in the water, without having to do a haul-out. Jim also invited us to sail on his boat, Wasabi on a Friday Night Beer Can Race, which we won. (See previous posting.)
We have completed a number of other less significant repair projects, such as a replacing a ball valve attached to a through-hull that feeds salt water to the head. This was a high risk project that I was able to complete over 3 days. At the start of this project, I knew the the head had failed, but it was not clear why. I took apart all the plumbing for the outflow, and did not find any blockage. I then discovered that the intake to the head was blocked, and finally found the cause was a closed ball valve; the handle had broken off in the closed position. After the new ball valve was in place, the head still would not pump properly, due to a small vacuum leak in the pump handle, that I had taken apart. I had to buy and install a new head. Oh well, this is mission critical for a 2,000 mile trip, so I am glad the head failed while at the dock.
The pennant for the radar detector chaffed though, so the radar detector fell to the deck. To fix it, one of us had to go up the mast. Megan volunteered. She went up in the Spinlock harness early in the morning, while conditons were calm. After installing a new block, she went up the mast and did a visual inspection. She found no issues.
The Yanmatr diesel engine was ready for a tune-up at 480 hours. I finally found a Yanmar authorized representative and bought multiples of the critical parts, like filters for fuel, oil and air, the impeller, water pump belt and oil.
A big part of planning this trip is the decision about how much fuel carry. One must be prepared to motor through light winds, if they cannot be avoided. The rule of thumb is to carry 100 gallons on the return trip, but my plan is to carry a total of 90 gallons. I figure this is enough to motor for about 1,000 miles. Avion’s fuel tank only holds 20 gallons, so I carry 6 jerry cans in the aft lazarette, for a total of 50 gallons. I have purchased an additional 8 jerry cans, to add another 40 gallons. I installed 1×4 stapping that connects 3 stantions, on both port and starboard, and will stack the jerry cans on the high-side rail for ballast.
This past week we have been organizing the boat, and provisioning. The trip should take between 16 to 18 days, so we need a fair amount of food and water for 3 people. We also need to have plenty of space available. To lighten the load and open-up space in the sail locker, I will ship back the sails we we are not using, and anything that we have gathered during our stay that is not necessary for the return trip. DHX Hawaii will ship a 4x3x6 foot palette for $479, and it will be in Oakland by the time we return.
Since the weather this year is unpredictable, I have contracted with a professional weather router, Rick Shema. His web site is TheWeatherGuy.com. He will help us in many ways, including a preferred departure date, provide a route for the first 5 to 7 days, monitor our progress, and provide updated route suggestions every every three days, or as needed. This significantly reduces the largest single risk we face, of sailing into a storm, with heavy wind and waves. There is currently a cut-off low floating around that requires special attention.
In terms of communications while on the ocean, I have an Iridium satellite phone on board that can make phone calls, text and send emails though Sailmail (WDG346 AT sailmail DOT com). I will also use a SPOT tracking device to give people a way of monitoring our progress. I will put the SPOT tracker URL in a sepatate post.
We are at a point where we are down to the last few major tasks, like cleaning the bottom, getting diesel, refilling the propane tank, and a last stop at Wedt Marine for odds and ends. On Tuesday, we hooe to take our good friends Hal and Laurie out for lunch, as they loaned us their car for 5 weeks. We expect to leave Kewalo Harbor on Wednesday, and sail to Lahina to meet Jimmy, and then work with Rick to determine when to leave. I expect to make one more posting before we leave. Once underway, I will make an occasional update to the blog using email (no pictures). So, stay tuned…
We enjoy being in Hawaii for many reasons. The obvious reasons include the incredible location, weather, the welcoming people, and being able to sail a lot. One of the more subtle reasons include the role Hawaii is playing in the daily political psychodrama of the Trump Era. The reason that the Hawaii Attorney General led the effort to block Trump’s travel ban was not just the minor impact on tourism (75% Japanese), but the historical experience of being attacked at Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent internment of the many generations of Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii into camps. Hawaiians know that a travel ban based on religion or national-origin is not legal. But after an Hawaiian judge issued an order to “ban the ban,” Attorney General Sessions complained about a “judge from an island in the Pacific” overriding Trumps’s Executive Order, Hawaiians were rightfully defensive and angry. Sessions knows Hawaii is a state, and even voted to appoint the judge who issued the injunction. He chose to negate both the state and the judge, following the lead of Trump when a judge does something he does not like.
We are currently in Honolulu. Today is May 1st, and we are actively planning for the return trip to SFBay. The single most important, critical-path task is repairing the rudder. This motivated a trip in mid-April, to test and monitor the condition of the rudder. I had discovered two parallel cracks in the rudder, during normal monthly cleaning of the bottom. I wanted to see if the cracks got worse during an easy trip with low stress, with in sight of land. We got a slip in Lahina for a week, and then went to Lanai before returning to Kewalo.
We sailed to Maui around Lanai. This is a more southerly route, and somewhat longer, but provides a better heading into the prevailing trade winds. We had a slip reserved in Lahina for a one week, and we wanted to get there in one day. We left at 7:40 AM and arrived at 8:30 PM, in the dark. I would not recommend sailing into Lahina in the dark unless you had done it before; the mooring field is rather large and one must avoid boats that are swinging around with no lights.
Time is subjective. The one week on Lahina flew by, mainly because we decided to practice surfing. We borrowed a surf board from a boat-neighbor in Kewalo, and brought it along with us. There is a regular wave pattern south of the Lahina harbor breakwater, that we could paddle to in 10 minutes. We had taken surf lessons there and wanted to try it on our own. We also took long walks and in the evenings, I, Tom went to the big, historical Banyan tree, behind the courthouse, and did some tai-chi with the tree.
Megan went out on the surf board first. She caught one good wave, and came back after an hour rather excited about her progress. The next day, she went out again, but at some point, a big wave rolled her, and the board hit her in the lower lip. She came back and gave me the board.
My big insight was that in order to surf a wave, one must first catch a wave. Toward this tactical objective, I was assisted by a fellow surfer. He said, “We are all beginners,” and offered some practical advice. He said, “Push the board forward when it is about to catch the wave, and then pull yourself forward, back to the middle of the board; then just hang on.” I tried this andf immediately felt how the surf board is sucked into the face of the wave, and becomes stable. I studied this for several waves, then tried the technique of pushing the board forward, pulling myself back up to the middle. It suddenly worked. I caught a wave and rode it, on my stomach. Forget standing up, I just steered the board to avoid hitting other surfers as I blew by them, all the way into the little beach. I repeated this about 10 times. Mission accomplished. I had been out an hour and a half, and thought I would try to catch one more wave. For a long time, there were no waves, the then a series of big waves were visible in the distance. When they got to me, they were bigger and stronger, and I was rolled deeply into the water. My glasses were knocked off my face. When I surfaced, I knew my surfing was over for the day.
After the week in Lahina, we motored over to Lanai, because there was no wind. We discovered a friend of ours from Kewalo, on a boat in the slip next to us. He is a professional Captain for a high-end charter company, in Lanai for several days. He was always friendly. One day, he was supposed to go fishing, but had to work. His fishing friends had a successful day without him, and gave him several big slabs of Ahi and Mahi. He gave us what he could not eat. We BBQ’d and savored the fresh fish.
We stayed active snorkeling, reading books, and monitored the weather forecasts daily. There was no wind expected for several days, so we just waited. When the GRIB files finally showed a moderate wind, we decided to make the run back to Oahu. The day started with light winds from the south. After noontime, the wind died, so we started the motor. After an hour, the wind shifted and filled-in from the north. We tacked and I turned off the autopilot to drive. Suddenly, the wind gusted to 16 knots and we were going fast enough to shut off the motor. The rest of the day, the winds held steady at 18 to 24 knots, and we made 7 to 8 knots of boat speed. Overall, it was a perfect opportunity to test the rudder; moderately strong winds within sight of land.
After returning to Kewalo Harbor, I dove and took pictures of the cracks in the rudder. They both seemed larger. I called the designer of the rudder, and he gave me the name of a guy to work with on the repair in Honolulu, Jim Maynard of PDF. Jim was very responsive.. He came over to the boat to evaluate if we could drop the rudder while the boat was in the water. We determined that the rudder structure extends above the water line, so we made arrangements to have two guys come to pull the rudder on Thursday. By noon, in two hours, the rudder was out and in a truck on the way to PDF.
Jim invited us to crew on his boat, Wasabi, in the Friday Night Beer Can race. We both went and had a great time. Wasabi is a fast boat, sailed by a bunch of competent sailors. We shot out the channel, and then headed east for the Diamond Head bouy to windward. On the way back, we popped an asymmetrical spinnaker. A squall came from off-shore, with a blast of wind; we caught it and shot ahead in the mix of light rain and wind. Coming back into the channel to the finish line, we caught a full downpour. In Hawaii, rain is warm, and we did not really care. We did care about crossing the finish line and hearing, “Wasabi, three pitchers.” We went right over to the Hawaii Yacht Club, tied up, and someone went to the bar to collect our prize. We then headed back to the Waikiki Yacht Club, where the crew proceeded to put up a canvas roof. We then celebrated our victory.
We are now focusing on returning to CA in late May. Just in the past few days, we have heard about 3 boats making return trips or “deliveries,” to California, so we were wise to wait for May. Meanwhile, life here in Kewalo Harbor is entertaining. For example, the fleet of commercial fishing boats is starting to catch larger fish. I stopped to watch how one large tuna was cut open and prepared. I am ready to catch our next tuna.
The rudder will be finished this week, and might even be installed by Friday. The repairs are done and being glassed. It was a good thing I found these cracks, as they went deep.
Once the rudder is installed, and a few other minor projects completed, we will head over to Kaneohe Yacht Club for a test run. More to come…
When a favorable weather wind finally opened up last weekend, we decided to sail to Kauai overnight. We needed to sail for 12 to 14 hours over 100 miles, and I prefer to enter a new harbor for the first time during the daylight. We left Sunday afternoon, and motored for several hours to clear the south-western tip of Oahu. When the wind stabilized around 15 knots, we set the jib and the main for a beam reach and settled into 7 to 8 knot boat speed.
In the evening, a big full moon rose behind us from the east. While the full moon dimmed the starts, it illuminated the waves and made being in the cockpit easier. Around 8:30 PM the wind started gusting up to 22 knots, and we put in the second reef to keep the boat flat and comfortable. We cooked up some little pizzas, and settled into our two hour watch schedule at 9:00 PM.
We made good time. We could see the Nawilili Harbor light directly ahead, as wellas airplanes taking off from Lihue Airport. First light broke around 6:00 AM. We dropped the sails and came into the harbor under motor around the two breakwaters with a cruise ship in the distance behind us. We found the slip the Harbormaster had said to take, but it was occupied, so we went into another slip nearby, and secured the boat by 7:30 AM. It was a good sail.
After napping and resting, we walked the two miles from Nawilili Harbor up to the town of Lihue and went to a great little saimin noodle shop for lunch, recommended by a friend of Megan’s. We returned and spoke with the Harbormaster about the slip and got permission to stay where we had tied-up, so we could relax.
The next day, Tuesday, was Valentine’s Day, and my gift to Megan was to rent a car for a week. In the afternoon, we drove up to the Wailua Waterfalls. We then headed back to Lihue for Valentine’s dinner at JJ’s Broiler, sitting at an open bar. The fish in Hawaii is amazing, in whatever form you order it.
On Wednesday, we did errands, found the Kauai Beer Company for lunch, and played tennis in the evening on some public courts with good lights. Megan is getting to point where she can rally consistently, as long as I hit it to her forehand most of the time. The evening was warm and there was no wind, so we both got a good sweat going. The local tennis team was hanging out on the other court, after their practice session, and one friendly lady approached us and started a conversation. She was interested that we were sailing around Hawaii for the winter and wanted to know all about our experience.
Thursday morning, we drove up and into the Grand Cannon of the Pacific. We picked-up a hitch-hiker at the road into the park. He was a recent computer science graduate from the Czeck Republic and we chatted non-stop for an hour or so, until we got him to his campground.
Thursday evening, the marina started jumping with activity. The Nawilili Yacht Club holds their Beer Can races on Thursday evenings, and the second race of the season was about to be held. We were invited to sail on two boats, and Tom elected to take the second offer, from a boat named Fast Company. Megan tried to fit in one more errand, but missed the start, so Tom went off without her. Fast Company is an Olsen 30, a boat that is very sensitive to the wind, with an experienced skipper and crew, but clearly Tom’s adroit and timely moving ballast was the difference maker. One boat finished ahead of us, but we got the horn at the finish line for first place (adjusted for handicaps).
On Friday, we found a kayak shop that would rent an ocean kayak to us that we could put on the roof of the rental car, and thereby explore two rivers, on our own, without a guide. We did the Wailua River in the morning, then came back to the boat for lunch and a nap. The Hule-ea River flows into Nawilili Harbor, so we launched the kayak in the late afternoon and paddled upstream from the boat. Both are fairly large rivers with forks surrounded by mountains, but we preferred the Hule-ea River as it was quiet, full of birds and fish.
On Saturday morning, we found a Farmer’s Market and bought a bunch of local foods. We then went south to the blow hole. The waves were not strong enough to make the hole spout, but you could see the potential. I guess one of the previous owners of the property had thrown some dynamite into the original blow hole, as it used to spout up to 200 feet high, and salt water sprayed over whatever he was growing. I had been there with Adrienne, and my sister Amy and borther-in-law Danny. It was our last vacation before the Alzhiemer’s took over, and what I really remembered were the feral chickens running everywhere (all over the island). After the blow hole, we found a sports bar for lunch and shared a nice Sierra Nevada IPA.
On Sunday, we drove up to the north coast to the fabled towns of Hanalee and Princeville, and beyond to the trail head to the Napali Coast. It was overcast and cool, around 70 degrees. We found the pier in Hanalee, and walked out to the end. A couple started a conversation; they were from Kansas City and their daughter was hiking the Napali Trail with a friend. She is a nurse on a sailing research vessel, and loves to sail. We told her our story, and they were quite excited and asked lots of questions (as most people do, when we share our story). Apparently, she wants to marry a sailor; Megan advised the mother to tell her daughter to move to San Francisco, as the ratios are good for female sailors.
Now we are looking at the weather for the trip back to Oahu. I told the Harboarmaster we would depart on Tuesday, but the front that came though today has shifted the wind back to the east, and it will be heavy for a few days. We might not be able to sail until Thursday or Friday. Oh well, such is life when cruising and living on your boat. We will have to rough it out until then. The couple from Kansas had been on a whale watch and had seen whales, so maybe we should sail around Kauai to see whales off the Napali coast. Stay tuned…
We spent the first week of January in the port of Lahina to enjoy time with Megan’s sister and her family and their friends during their vacation in Maui. We had a slip for eight days, so Avion was accessible and we were able to sail on short notice.
We took her family out for two sunset whale watching cruises. We also enjoyed several visits to the vacation resort area of Kaanapali, as well as dinners in downtown Lahina. Here is a picture of Megan and Suzie.
Megan’s brother-in-law, Craig is a semi-professional photographer. He used a specialized Ricoh camera to take a fascinating 360 degree photograph of Avion with 9 people on board.
Link to 360 degree picture of Avion
We did see whales, but I did not catch any pictures of a whale, since you pretty much had to be looking in the right direction in order to spot one. Here is a picture of Ann pointing out a whale.
Megan and I sailed to the small island of Molokini on Tuesday afternoon. Molokini is the remant of a small volcanic crater, now popular for scuba diving. We were on the water for eight hours so we had time to see many whales, including an incredible tale slapping display that went on for about 5 minutes. (Note: See previous post for a 59 second video of the whale slapping his tale). According to some recent research, this is an attempt to communicate: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/why-whales-leap-air
We had fun discovering some deeper Lahina history. In particular, we enjoyed the Old Prison Museum. It had an original 30 foot whaling boat from which the real work of harpooning the whales was done, along with the all the gear. The prisoners were free to go into the courtyard during the day, to eat, walk, smoke and play games together. The diary of a young sailor from New Bedford indicated it was much easier than life on the whaling ships, as they were allowed to buy food, smoke, play games, accept visits from guests, wander around a courtyard and hang in the shade of big trees. We also took our first surfing lessons (Megan stood up here first time; Tom needs another lesson).
The day this vacation was over, we sailed over to Lanai under the A-3, asymmetrical spinnaker. Craig got a good picture of Avion from the 11th floor of their hotel room, just before he checked out.
The moderate winds (10-14 knots) along the coast of Lanai were ideal for practicing our gybes (a turn while going downwind). We did five gybes successfully, but the last one one went wrong, so we just socked it and motored into Manele Bay.
We have been to Manele Bay several times, and know our way around. We immediately went snorkeling and that night enjoyed sharing the coals of a nice hot barbecue while cooking our dinner.
After a two day rest, we sailed back to Oahu. The winds were too mild to sail (4 to 6 knots), so we motored the whole way back and let the autopilot drive. As we were clearing the western tip of Lanai, we were joined by a bunch dolphins for about 15 minutes.
About two thirds of the way back, on the western side of Penguin Bank, we saw many whales diving and jumping. Some were very close to Avion, and several appeared to be cutting in front of Avion’s bow, so Tom took the tiller and slowed down, in case of the need to avoid a collision. However, they seemed as aware of us as we were of them, as nothing happened. We just enjoyed the show, including one whale jumping and spinning around in the air to get a good look at Avion.
Once we returned to Kewalo Harbor, we relaxed and took a long walk. We were very happy to have time with Megan’s family, and pleased to be back in Oahu, our home for the winter.
We are now talking about sailing to Kuaui, a trip of 100 miles. We have a few repairs to make, but once completed, we will start watching the weather for a sailing window. Stay tuned…
We stayed for the winter, in part, to see the whales in Hawaii in the winter months. We saw them starting yesterday, during a boat ride with Megan’s family and friends at sunset. We saw them spouting as they come to the surface to breathe, breaching – when they jump out of the water, and flipping their tales as the dive. But today, we sailed to Molokini, a small cater south of Maui, and spent eight hours on the water, and saw much more whale activities, up close and personal. In particular, one the way back to Lahina, at sunset, we heard and then saw, rather close to the boat, a whale thumping his tail repeatedly, for some unknown reason. Megan caught a video. Take a look. More to come…
We have been planning a trip to see the lava flowing into the ocean on the Big Island since we decided to stay in Hawaii for the winter. Our preparations included monitoring the USGS Volcano web site, http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/ and weather on several sites including WindyTY.com, and the Pacific Briefing Package from NOAA.
The island of Hawaii is large enough to contain the land masses of all the other islands combined, and it is getting bigger daily due to the several active volcanoes. Kilauea Volcano has an active lava field that flows into the ocean at a place called Kamokuna Bay, on the south east side of the island.
It is not a place that is easy to get to by boat. Among all the sailors we have spoken to about this trip, very few ever sailed to the Big Island, and those who did, just sailed to Kona, on the leeward side. To get around to see the lava flow, we had to sail to the windward side. All commonly referred to it as a “rough passage.” The challenges mentioned included the strong trade winds which bash-up against the island, crossing the channel with large, choppy waves, and getting around the eastern and southern points where the winds and waves tend to be the worst. The trip we were planning trigger serious cautionary tales, as sailors always share their worst experiences freely.
The lava flow is on the eastern side, so we needed to do some serious planning. We saw a weather forecast for the milder “Kona winds,” and realized this was our weather window. We needed about 5 days, and it looked possible. We decided to sail from Lanai to Hilo on the east side of the Island in one 130 mile leg. After a day to rest and provision, and visit the Hilo Harbormaster, we would sail around the eastern point to see the lava, and then sail down around the southern tip back to Lanai, clockwise, for another 270 mile leg.
We left on Dec. 11th at 8:30 AM. We sailed with a full main and the #4 jib for 12 hours, and then put in a double reef. We sailed when the winds we strong enough, and motor-sailed when necessary with the assistance of the autopilot. The NKE autopliot worked fine for the first 10 hours, but then failed (for no apparent reason). We steered the boat by hand overnight in two hour shifts. During the morning hours I shifted over to the the backup autopilot, the Simrad system, and it worked fine in compass mode. We came into Hilo and after cruising the options, we dropped anchor in 10 feet of water in Reeds Bay. This leg took a total of 33 hours, and we put 25 hours on the engine.
We spent the next morning preparing to go into Hilo via the inflatable dingy. It inflated in less than 10 minutes, and we rowed over to a small landing in front of a nearby apartment building. We walked 2 miles into Hilo and found a Thai resturant for lunch. I went to the Harbormasters office while Megan went shopping for provisions. I got our official Temporary Mooring Permit from Willaim, who updated Avion’s record in the State’s Boat registry with my new Coast Guard documentation. He was friendly and commented that the about 200 slips on the Big Island are all taken, that cruising boats have to anchor-out. If we want to come back to the Big Island next year, we will plan accordingly. I met up with Megan, and we walked back to the boat with lots of good food. We stopped at the fish market and bought frozen shrimp, and closer to the boat, some ice, and then rowed back out to Avion with everything.
Hilo is a funky but beautiful place. The original economy was based on sugar, but has been in decline since that shut-down. It has one of the old volcanoes in the distance that one rarely sees in full profile, but we caught a glimpse of the top of the cater, covered in snow. Hilo holds the dubious record of the wettest city in the USA, with more than 100 days of rain per year, on average (hard to believe that anyplace can be wetter than Seattle). We were lucky to get and day and a half of sunny and mild weather.
We left Hilo on Dec. 14th at 11:30 AM and motor-sailed 60 miles to Kamokuna Bay. We left with a loose idea of getting there around sunset, so we could see the glow of the lava in the dark, and that is exactly what happened. From a distance of 10 miles, we could see a large plume of what looked like smoke, under a strangely yellow sky that partially blocked the sun. As we got closer, we saw an orange glow at the base. The smoke was actually steam and sulphur, and other odd chemicals; referred to locally as “VOG.” The pictures we took speak for themselves. It was powerful and otherworldly.
We worked our way back to Lanai in 42 hours, with two overnights. We did two hour shifts most of the time. We had a mixture of sunny and mild winds, heavy winds, squalls with rain, rough and choppy waves, and shifty winds. It was challenging and exciting sailing. We both loved every minute of it.
By the time we return to Kewalo Harbor in Honolulu, our home base for the winter, we will have sailed 540 miles over two weeks. Adventures like this are why we are here. Stay tuned…
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