Back Safe in Hawaii!

Deja vu - waking up at the dock again this morning. We're back the same slip at Kewalo Basin in Honolulu. Great sail back, a bit tricky identifying the channel markers at night against the backdrop of the city lights but then our friend Skip was here to catch our lines and welcome us. It feels right and good being back. More later...
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About Face -- Back to Hawaii we come

It's been an interesting trip... Maybe we're just finally tuning into our intuition that it wasn't the right time to go, maybe the boat isn't as ready as we thought (several annoying leaky hatches -- not serious safety issues, but also not making things easier), maybe the weather didn't cooperate as much as we'd hoped. Whatever the reason, we decided yesterday to do an about face and head back for Hawaii.

After a two days of nice sailing (despite my feeling seasick), on Friday (first night of Passover) I was seasick and went down for a nap early afternoon. We were headed along with nice Easterly breeze, but seas were growing. By the time I got up a few hours later, we were already pounding into it with seas up to 8 feet and the winds turning more on the nose. Needless to say, we decided to skip an at-sea Passover seder this year. After my check-in on the Pacific Seafarers net at 6pm, we were really uncomfortable, and things were banging around and Tim was studying the growing confused seas and dark clouds as darkness set in. We decided that the best thing to do was to hove-to for the night. The weather picture looked good if we could continue North for another day or so, but we just didn't feel comfortably continuing through the night given the conditions. So we hove-to (meaning we set the sails and rudder to keep the boat pretty much stationary, with the seas just passing calmly under us -- for the most part). And it immediately felt good not to have the seas pounding over the bow, and washing down the deck into the cockpit. It's amazing the fixes Tim had already come up with to keep the cockpit dry! We decided to sleep through the night and make a decision after checking weather again in the AM. Which we did, and have been heading back south ever since... smooth sailing when we're going with the seas! We should be back to Oahu on Tuesday.
Happy Easter everybody!

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Day 2

Just a quick check in. About 30 hours out and we're at 24 degrees 00 min north, 156 deg 39 min west. Things have been smooth so far, except some small leaks on our port side, but hopefully nothing serious. Just took a look at the weather and everything looks good. Leaving Honolulu at 4am yesterday, we motored around Diamond Head & up to Koko head crater with the full main, then the wind filled in and we got up the staysail, jib and mizzen. We've had good winds and been making good time (average 6.5 knots so far).

All's well, except dealing with the fatigue - but we're trying out a new watch schedule (4 hours each instead of 3 hours) so we each got a few hours solid sleep last night. I was seasick much of the day, but seem to be feeling much better today, let's hope that lasts!

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Leaving Hawaii

After a few weeks here on Oahu, we've got what looks like a good weather window to head offshore for Mexico.  Depending on the winds, we'll either land somewhere in California or head directly for Mexico.  I've sent an email already to most people receiveing the blog, but wanted to post that we're currently anchored in Waikiki (left our safe little dock slip in Kewalo Basin) and as soon as we're done cleaning the bottom of the boat and getting the anchor stowed, we'll be underway!

It's hard to leave Hawaii - it's such a great place.  And we'll especially miss our family (THANKS FOR EVERYTHING KEV - WE LOVE YOU!), and our friends here.  But, I guess this is the weather we've been hoping for, so it's time to set sail!

We'll be checking in on the Pacific Seafarers net daily, so you can check our position on their website at pacseanet.com under the current roll call or http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/pacseanet.php.  We're the call sign KF7OHO.  I'll also post blogs once in a while :-)  Ok, gotta go get in the beautiful water and help Tim clean the bottom - we miss already our friends on Scotch Power II who were here to help us last time!

Back in Oahu

Tim and I did a little island hopping on our way to Oahu, stopping up the coast on the Big Island, and then the next night on Lanai.  We were glad we waited a day to cross the channel -- we heard that it was blowing up to 40 knots in the channel between Big Island and Maui, and didn't really want to experience that.  And we were rewarded with good sailing conditions the next two days -- pretty windy, and lots of wind swell, but since we were going with it the whole way over, it was fine sailing for Midnight Blue.  And we were rewarded with sightings of creatures and good fishing!  The first night we anchored and were watching the sun go down, and this wild looking fin came out of the water and we think it could have been a whale shark feeding along the surface.  Or a very large Manta Ray....  The next day sailing to Lanai we were splashed by a breaching humpback whale; it literally landed about two boat lengths away, then came charging towards us!  Scary.  Soon after that, we had a double hookup on the two fishing lines - not one, but two beautiful Mahimahi.  We let one go, since that was more than enough fish (and work to clean the fish) for us.  So the past two night have been yummy fish dinners!  And plenty left to share with our neighbors and friends here on Oahu.

Don't have a good picture of those fish, but I realize i never posted the picture of the last mahi i caught on our way in to hawaii -- so here it is:

Next the plan is to get provisions aboard, and wait for weather.  And of course, visit with Kevin & Primo!

Kevin's Housewarming

Well, the weather didn't coperate for us to sail to Oahu last week as planned, but it looks good for us to sail over tomorrow.  Since we couldn't sail over, we decided to fly over to come for Kevin's housewarming party this past weekend.  When we arrived friday morning, we were completely surprised to find that Tim & Kevin's sister Valerie had flown in from Maryland!  What a great treat to have a mini-family reunion as well!  The housewarming party was fun; Kevin's good friend Jim Hubbard played live music - we love his cd's listen to him all the time on the boat.  Needless to say, we extended our plane flights a few days to spend more time with Valerie - she's here until Wednesday, but we will fly back to Kona today to get ready to sail back over here tomorrow... weather looks ok for the trip.  Then we will make final preparations and hope for our *weather window*. 

UPDATE:  I wrote the below posting about a week ago, but never got it online till now.  Since then, time's been flying as we get ready to head out of Hawaii. Sold the truck - we'll part with it this friday )-:  Had a great weekend with my sister Nancy in Kauai (big stormy rain & thunderstorms, but fun!).  Nan comes over to Big Island tomorrow and I'll wrap up work this week then next week, after Nan leaves, we'll head for Oahu visit Tim's brother Kevin and to prepare for jumping back across the Pacific to Mexico.  Ok, that's the brief update, now for the real posting...

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Belated Happy Valenties Day to ya’ll!   We had a special celebration on valentines thanks to the Giant’s winning the Superbowl.  Tim and I had a bet on the game and the loser had to be chef for valentines dinner…  Tim lost, and he outdid himself on a wonderful beef stroganoff meal topped off with strawberries and whipped cream and yummy coffee drinks for dessert.

For those that I’ve not been in contact with over the past few months, we’ve been spending the winter here on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Bought a car (actually truck) so we could get around, and a standup paddleboard for exercise & fun.  We’ve been in a slip at Honokohau harbor, just outside of Kaiua-Kona, on the west side of the island.  It's us and about 200 sport fishing boats.  Very few sailboats in the marina, and even fewer transients that are allowed to liveaboard.  So, it's a little lonely at night!  Although we have met a few other fun cruisers that have pulled in, noone else has been here as long as us.

It’s been great hanging out with our friends here –my great friends Robyn & Brian & Tasman are about an hour away in Waimea, and Tim’s good friends Grant & Andie live in Hawi just about an hour away too.  But it’s just far enough that we prefer to go for overnight visits usually.  

Tim, Carol (grant's mom) and Grant on Thanksgiving

Andie, Carol & Me

I’ve been doing some contract work- actually rented a little office space in the marina shopping mall area.  It’s in a built out loft above the Kona Boat Rentals shop.  Windowless – but I’m finding I’m really focused and very efficient in the little green room.  I’ve been putting together an economic analysis of yet another endangered species critical habitat designation – it’s actually a *redo* of an analysis that I worked on 5 years ago!  I’m on track to get most of the work done, but as these things go, I will probably have to leave a few ends undone for the folks at IEc to fill in when Tim and I head off into the Pacific again. 

We had a tough time deciding on our next steps from here – it’s intriguing to head further out into the South Pacific, but apparently there wasn’t enough pull there for Tim and I to sail there now.  We miss Mexico.  We miss our friends and of course, the surf, in Punta Mita.   In fact, our good friends there have just had a new baby!  So, you can imagine I am excited to get back and meet little baby Ela and to see mama Ana and papa Jason.  Once we decided to head back east to Mexico, the dilemma was how – I actually priced shipping our sailboat on a container ship back to the mainland, but it was crazy expensive – probably $10,00 to $15,000 all said and done.  So, we’ve decided on one great big adventure – to make the passage back by ourselves, just me & Tim.  Usually boats heading east for the mainland wait till june/july, then jump off for San Francisco or the Pacific NW – it’s the easiest route.  You go north till you hit westerly winds once you’re up past the Pacific High, then head east.   But no, we like a bit more challenge.  Since our goal is to get to mexico, and preferably before June when hurricane season starts, we are hoping for some favorable weather in March … like a cold front that pushes the Pacific High further south towards Hawaii so that we can get north and east of the high more quickly…We hear that this is a good possibility in March, so we are trying to get it together to be ready to go if/when the right weather presents itself.  If not, we’ll see…

Me & Tim at Waipio Valley overlook

So for now, we’re busy getting ready, and also, having some last fun in Hawaii.  My sister Nan is coming to Kauai this week, and I’m going to fly over and spend the weekend with her… then she’ll come here for a week!  After Nan’s visit, we’ll sell the truck, pack up the office, and sail over to Oahu for a last visit with Tim’s brother Kevin.  And then, when the right weather hits, it’s back out into the big blue….