We're still in Hilo (rainy side) - but plan to leave tomorrow (very early am) for the other side of the island... we'll plan to anchor where possible and take our friends out for day sails. We've been pretty busy here (hence the blog silence) visiting friends and touring around the island. A one-week rental car turned into two weeks when Tim figured out that was the only way to get to the surf breaks. He's caught a few waves, but nothing to write home about. Mostly small wind chop, but definitely better than nothing. I haven't gotten out in the surf here -- the lava rocks scare me, as does the undertow and the possiblity of running over turtles that are feeding on the rocks under the surf. At the local Hilo break, I counted almost 10 turtles one day! I think they're green turtles, and they looked pretty good sized. We've gotten to snorkel a bit and seen amazing fish every time. Looking forward to more good snorkeling off of the boat once we're over on the Kona side of the island. Still not sure when we'll head for Maui....it'll be hard to leave our friends on the Big Island!
Lots of folks have been asking for pictures, and our internet connection on the boat ( I bought a wireless card for here) has been pitifully slow, so just checking email has been painful. But today I finally made time to come use the wifi at the local bar (wouldn't you know the bar across from the port is called Margarita Village -- but I'm sticking to beer -- margaritas will never be the same as in mexico!). So check out the pictures from our passage below!
First some photos from our departure afternoon -- when jason paddled out to see us off...
Then we were off and running until we approached the Socorro Islands and anchored at Isla Benedicto for about 30 hours...
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| Approaching Isla Benedicto |
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| Lori is glad to see land! |
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| Tim and Lori checking out the two *large* manta rays swimming around the bay. |
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| A family of Humpback whales came to see us off the morning we left Isla Benedicto. |
Then we sailed away from Isla Benedicto and for a day or so, there were still birds and sighns of life like this passing ship (I think this was the Iranian ship that called us on the VHF)...
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| Notice that despite the sun, Tim is wearing a wool sweater and pants!!! |
Underway we saw little wildlife, but when the birds visited, we took photos!
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| Our first visiting bird (a eurasian collared dove?) - tim moved him from the deck to the cockpit so he wouldn't keep getting drenched by the waves coming over the bow. |
Lucky Lori caught us a nice Yellofin Albacore Tuna... which she proceeded to clean and I made sashimi for lunch!
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| Lori's Tuna! |
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| Cleaning the fish underway -- not an easy task, and messy! |
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| Sashimi - yum. Where's the wasabi? |
We did see *one* rainbow underway. It was beautiful.
The night of our passover seder we felt it was fitting to send off the wine bottle with a little message....
The next time we threw out the hook, I caught a mahi mahi (also known as a dorado or dolphinfish) with my lucky red and white feather lure... Lori had caught her fish before she even got the line out all the way, mine took a bit longer... after about 10 minutes I had a hit! Mahi are such beautiful fish, it's always sad to see the colors change when they die. But they sure are good to eat!
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| Tim made fish fingers with the mahi -- we had to strap in to cook - gave you something to brace against and made sure you wouldn't get thrown across the boat when the waves hit. |
The pictures don't do justice to the height of the swells we encountered... Tim's not real happy here (because i'm taking a photo, or because the windvane is making a loud cracking noise every few minutes?), and check out the wave behind him...
Here's an idea of our view on a typical day... grey, overcast, poled out jib, trying to stay the course downwind.
We did have a couple of sunsets, but never clear enough to see the green flash (which Tim and I have yet to see -- does it really occur? I'm not so sure...)
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| We're a little tired! |
Had to include this photo of Tim's over the stern Boga pose. I had to hold on to make sure he stayed aboard. He had to tighten the screws on the windvane. Our friend Skip on S/V Dolphin had similar problems and actually sheared a bolt on his. Skip was singlehanding... how did he fix that without going overboard??? Note the bird on the mizzen boom in this photo. That was our friend Jack (kerouac) who hitched a ride with us for a few days. He was pretty territorial too...
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| Over the stern *boga* pose, with Jack looking on from the boom. |
For many hours, a second booby, who we named 'Magoo' kept trying to land next to Jack, and when he did it was mayhem-- here they are fighting.
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| Mr. Magoo finally found his home on the main boom. |
Finally, our first sight of land....
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| Yup, can you tell we're happy to be at the dock??? |
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| Midnight Blue at the dock - note the cruiseship behind us! |
Our friends Robyn, Brian and Tasman came down to welcome us to Hawaii.
And, we added the line to the globe...
That's all for now!
