Dock side

 

We sat dock side for a fee hours waiting for clearance from the local customs and agriculture inspectors. 

They never showed up and were pretty lackadaisical on the phone. We actually, still don't have clearance, but we're moving ahead anyway.

Midnight watch musings

O'ahu is this big glow on and above the horizon. A little like a winter dawn.

. The wind that funnels through the Alanuihaha channel between Maui and the big island finally dissipated and we are in another light wind zone waiting to see what happens when we line up with the Kaiwi channel on the east side of O'ahu. Apparently there is an usual weather system on the N side of the island and we just don't know how that's going to play on this side. 

We are running a single engine and the mainsail at the moment, making just over 6 kt.  It looks like we might get in a little early, in which case we will go to a nearby anchorage that we are familiar with and clean up a bit before we go in. 

There has been One vessel that we've had visual (but not radar) contact with tonight.  I'm sure there will be a few more as we approach Pearl Harbor.  But there just isn't much traffic that comes up from the South. Throughout those years I spe   nt  observing the southern horizon from the barefoot bungalow in Ewa beach, It was always noteworthy when something came in from the South, it's that uncommon. 

We've come a long way. Over 2500 nautical miles of blue water sailing.  It's been a heck of an experience and I'm proud of all of us and this vessel. 

I'm grateful to have had excellent crew mates and companions. Trust worthy, competent, kind, among many other fine qualties.

I'm grateful and humbled to experience and internalize another perspective of living on Earth.  

Love and Light 

~e.

Last night watch (?!)

Sun is setting (after 7 pm!)  The wind has filled in to 17 kts and we are running full sail, no engines. 

It's a stunningly colorful sunset as it gets later. Feeling blessed! 

We are under 100 miles left (in a straight line) to the marina. 

 Managing our speed to try to arrive at 8:00 am.

Both engines are fully functional and we have two tanks aver 1/2 full. We could motor the rest of the way if we needed to. 

Guess what. The thing with the nav display: I fixed it!! (Technically, I broke it, too -- but let's not get buried in details.) It was just a setting!! It's all good, and Jeff can cross it off the repair list! Yay! Right...? yay? No? Whatever.  It's fine.  LOL

One more night at sea...

Love, light, and fair winds,

~e.

Day 42/15. Hawaiian waters

See that puffy white clouds over there on the horizon? That's Maui Island, and the mountain, Haleakala, about 80+? Miles away. 

All that flat blue? Windless expanse. It's like the doldrums take 2. Ugh. 

However, in good news, this amazing man that I'm doing life with, fixed the starter motor assembly (again!) And got enough power flowing to start the starboard engine.  

We are running both engines, with no sail up yet, "Headed for the barn." Expecting to arrive to the marina tomorrow morning & manage the arrivals business. 

((And maybe see my friends waving from shore as we cruise in! :) ))

I took a big nap around midday today. Aaaah. That felt good. I've sent Jeff down below to try to do the same. He's due some good sleep. 

He's been stressing since the engine wouldn't start.  

And then, because you know, what's a good adventure with out some obstacles...? The back light on the nav   igation  display went out. Yeah. So, no radar sweeps. No mapping.  

Luckily,  both of my crewmates have navigation software running on their tablets.  Ha!! We are fine!!  All the instruments still work and we have plenty other displays to use. 

Current Position:

L: 19.61 degrees N

Lo: 157.15 degrees W

Course: 325

Speed: 8 kt

Love, light, and fair winds,

~e.

Good Morning, from Hawai'i

No news

Not much news. 

It's much cooler than we've grown accustomed to. For example, I overheard Jeff reading the water temperature from one of the sensors and both he and Torsten were like "Brrr!!!"  Want to guess the water temp? 78.5 degrees. We are so spoiled!! LoL

I totally bundle up like I'm going to the northern California coast for night watch, squall jacket, beanie, ... no kidding.  If I had uggs, I might be tempted... LOL

Still no visual or radar or radio contact with any other vessels. But we will keep a good lookout tonight &  Maybe tomorrow we'll see something.  Maybe the Big Island, it's still, too far away, too cloudy and now, too dark to see it tonight. 

But, the moon is back in the night sky

Polaris is back, too! Mars and Jupiter have been pretty. And we can still see the southern cross. (At least for a few hours.) 

The starboard engine wouldn't start up this afternoon when it was tim   e to  exercise them. So un-cool.  ((On a personal level, I can maybe relate. But as far as meeting expectations of the crew and gear on this adventure, stbd engine is not a superstar.))

And now that's an issue that needs to be addressed. We pulled the starter motor and gave it some TLC. But wasn't enough.  I suggested hitting it with a hammer.  But, that didn't work. Shrug. Is it plugged in? Because now we're reaching the end of my helpful suggestions.  Hahaha!

Pray for a good night!

Love & Light

~e.

Day 41/14

It is almost noon. And the chart plotter shows us 123 miles away from the sw point off the big island!

We still haven't seen any vessels!!

It's still great sailing weather, with winds 17-22. The weather keeps us on our toes and adjusting course and/or sails as the swell or the rain clouds indicate.

The Trade Winds are powerful. And we are happy to be sailing well. The night watches can get a little intense with winds building to 30 kts.

We are starting to prepare for arrival, with notification to uscg, the marina, customs immigration & agriculture, too. It's a little tricky because most of these agencies have web-based or internet applications that they designed for shipping agencies to use. But I'm sure we'll manage, our timing might just be a little off.


Love and light,
~emily.

2000 miles

 Isn't that a song? 

Anyway!

We've sailed over 2000 miles of open ocean! 

It's another beautiful day for sailing. Good wind! Sunny. Blue in every direction. 

We've been informed that our AIS (more likely the antenna) may not be producing a signal since that heavy weather run. 

... if you are following along at home...

 Our GPS position as of 1630 HNL time is:

L: 14° 37.4' N

Lo: 153° 55.1' W

COG 320°

SOG 8.5 kt

Love and light,

~e.

Good save! (39/12)

Because it's sooo windy, we took the mainsail down to the second reef to be extra safe and preserve a cushion of de-power-ability.

(Vocabulary deterioration, seems to be a side effect of this kind of isolation... LOL)

Anyway, we executed a well timed, very efficient reefing drill, and after the hoist, as we examine everything about the sail and the changes we made, Jeff noticed that the halyard looked funny just above where it is tied to the head of the sail.  

Ut-oh.  Confirmed with binoculars, its frayed.  gotta fix it before it breaks! 

Again! Head to wind, drop the sail. Jeff climbs up the rigging to get to the head, unties it and hands it to Tosten through the cockpit window. Torsten pulls it into the galley (this is our new halyard and plenty long) where we have the hot-knife staged, cuts it and hands it back. 

Jeff re-rigs it, we rehoist (to the second reef) and it's good as new. 

Holy moLe   y!  That's some wear!! On a new line, too. We figure it must have occurred during light wind and "flogging" or when the sail swings back and forth from one side to the other. Sheesh!  

What a good catch!!

Whew! 

Thanks angels!

Love, 

~e.

Dolphins!!

Last night at sunset and this afternoon. 

No lucky photos yet.. just crappy phone-camera snap with lousy timing. But I'll keep trying! 

Day 39/12

We are definitely not in the doldrums we have been sailing in a nice strong breeze since yesterday afternoon.

It was a tough night. Very dark, with no moon and heavy cloud cover. Plenty of rain before midnight, not too much after. The seas were very confused and not tiny. The wind was 17-22+. We stood 2-person watches and it was good to have a buddy. Nobody left the cockpit and everyone was harnessed & tethered all night. And we were happy to see the dawn.

It was cool to see how much sail trim we can do by feel. The boat performed well.

We sailed the main on the first reef (shortened a bit at the foot) and the staysail (the smaller of the triangle sails on the bow). I suspect we averaged 8 knots through the water on our preferred course toward Hawaii Island.

Now, at almost mid-day, and over 11° North latitude, the skies have cleared significantly, the waves are trying to find a more consistent pattern and we are all getting accustomed to the new rhythm.


Love & Light,
~e.

Day 38/11 Sailing Again!

Ok!
I think it's real...
I think we are out of the ITCZ & the doldrums. (What a depressing word.)

We've had steady wind speed and direction for an hour and a half.

And it's pretty favorable.
We can sail at about 1/2 the windspeed on our preferred course! Hot Damn!
We are back in the saddle, baby!

Thanks for all those good vibes! Keep 'em coming!!
Love, light, & fair winds,
~e.

Day 38/11

Still stuck in the zone.

Luckily, the engines are running well. (Thanks to all the blood sweat & tears.)

We are getting down to half of the fuel stores. It computes. 

We are running sails and engines in a southerly, light wind scenario. Hoping to just sail soon. 

Jeff is getting itchy. 

Itchy to get going. 

He talks to the air. 

(We are all doing FINE. Just Fine.)

Jeff is also getting hives when he goes in the engine room from all the petroleum products.  We are all taking turns. 

Love,

~e.

Stuck in the Zone - midnight musings

We have been running the engines in a low-to-no-wind situation for over 12 hours; since noon yesterday.

Now at 3am, we may have finally hooked up with a breeze.

Fingers crossed.

((And a picture of one of yesterday's flying fish casualties))

Love and light,
Fair winds!
~e.

Navigation Instrument Display

Here is a picture of the main navigation display from earlier today.

Those scary red blobs, aren't actually scary. They are rain clouds; if they are pretty dense (precipitation-laden), they return a radar signature. They've been blossoming (as Torsten put it) all day. (Insert heavy eye-roll, emphasis mine.) The concentric circles around the boat icon are 2 mile increments (changable: you can zoom in or out while the radar is sweeping.)

The dialog box at the top is showing our direction and distance to our next waypoint, the SW side of Hawai'i, the Big Island. 326.8° on the compass and 864 miles. (It also shows a constant recalculation of the estimate travel time & arrival... I NEVER look at that.) 

The thin blue line diagonal from bottom middle/right to upper left is the track from one waypoint to the next.. in this case, 002WPT to 003WPT... our goal is to stay a bit to the right of the line if we can. ( To give ourselves a cushion, like choosing a more comfortable ride in a swell.)

The boxes in the bottom left are:

Trip Log: 1529 miles

Heading: 342.0°

GPS position:

Latitude: 6° 15.5' N

Longitude: 148° 36.3' W

COG (course over ground) 351.5°

SOG (speed over ground) 7.6 knots

Trip Log was zero'ed at the marina; that's the number we check everyday at 5pm.

We are more than half way!!! 

Why isn't the Course and the Heading the same? Excellent question! 

Idk. But I can tell you that heading is a magnetic compass reading. COG is a GPS calculation. 

We also have separate gauges for wind angle/speed. And customizable readings. Plus the autopilot screen (which also has a bunch of info... some of it the same)

There's a quiz tomorrow. (Jk)

Love & Light,

~e. 

In the Zone

It's a gray, flat light day. Good size mixed swell. Variable winds, lots of rain clouds. This is the part of the Convergence Zone that they call "the doldrums." Lovely name.

We've reluctantly come to terms with the fact that we did not get obscenely luck and get to skip this part. (Not an easy pill to swallow, after all the models looked SO GOOD! Sigh)
Weirdness abounds in the ITCZ just like everyone said. Rain pops up out of nowhere, and vanishes just as quickly. We'll catch a lively breeze out of the West?? Which makes no sense.
More than once I've been at the helm, looking around at the sea and the sky, looking at the instruments, remembering the models, and just dumbfounded. I just don't know what to do, to make the most of the nonsense.

We've all decided that when in doubt, just head toward Hawaii, even if we motor.
We do have to monitor our fuel consumption, and regularly check on the engines.
For example, Jeff replaced a belt on the port engine, this morning. We pulled water out of the fuel separators on both engines yesterday. It's part of the deal.

Love and light,
Fair winds!!
~e.

Midnight watch, again

This ITCZ is fickle. We thought we had a great setup for crossing; but as we are coming to understand, things change in the zone.

Where we want to be is just north of where we are. And that sweet spot is moving away. We have wind out of due South. But we simply can not sail north in that. We don't have fuel to just motor for endless hours. The fuel is to use, but it's also good not to use it all, too early.

So in a nut shell, we don't love our available choices. Easr OR West?

We chose to gybe to the west. The course that at least is closest to heading toward Hawaii.

We have a current which seems to actually be pushing us a little north. So that's good... we will run this for a while, (6-8 hours?) and then probably gybe back over in the opposite direction depending on what kind of weather we are experiencing and seeing on the weather models.

As we were setting up for this bit of sailing, we changed sails, (to run the new jib!) then noticed more batten pocket flap repairs were required.

So we did that for a while. Then finally we're ready to bring the main back up.

Meanwhile, some other things got a little funky with some lines, and we had an episode with one of the engines. Alao, our working heading caused a lot of motion and some stuff fell & spilled around the cabin and cockpit... Things got a little hectic!

But 3 educated, clever, capable, teammembers overcame this set of obstacles, with plenty of cursing (Ok, that was mostly just me), diligent effort, clever ideas, careful execution and a few jokes.

We missed dinner, but are staying hydrated, and everyone needs a nap, (which is what 2 out of 3 sailors are doing.)

This is one heck of an adventure.

Love hard, pray harder
(Maybe that's it?)

Love and light
Fair winds,
~e.

Satellite Phone/ Apps (Iridium)

FYI
The iridium device and apps have been a bit "buggy," especially recently.

If I don't respond to text, please try again, it might not have come down.

If you don't get a regular update, please don't worry.
Keep praying, though. LOL

This goes for the Noforeignland tracker, too... it gets its position info from a sat phone email.

Love,
~e.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Flying fish musings

These little kamikazes are one of the few species we have had an opportunity to observe on this trip. 

They are these skinny blue & silver jobbies with wing-like side fins. Sometimes we see them onesie twosies, but often we see them in schools (or is it flocks?).

They burst out of the surface as we sail by and skip and glide and even flap and turn and maneuver across the surface, and then smash right back down into the water. 

The sea birds will sometimes ride with us or circle the boat hoping for a chance to snatch one. Torsten has gotten a chance to watch a few dives & misses and even a catch! 

The weirdest bit though is finding them and/or their scales on the deck. I mean, what is up with that? It's nearly everyday... sometimes several times a day. 

I even found fish scales on the floor of my bathroom!! We must have had the hatch open when some carnage occurred. Un-cool. 

One aft ernoon, Jeff and I were sitting in the sail shade on the deck. And I asked Jeff... "Is that...? O.M.G Is that, an Eye-Ball?!" -- Add that to the list of things I never thought I'd say.

~e.

Day 35/8 (part 2)

Here we are on the midnight watch.

The stars are glorious. The waves are pretty tame. The warm wind is coming from behind us!! (Um, finally!) And not only the wind but we seem to have a "tail current" helping us along tonight. The boat is stable and feels like she's stepping out. It's nice!

There's been a lot of discussion today about what's ahead, looking at NOAA's high seas forecast and the information in Skip's email, plus the general excitement about being in the Northern latitudes.

First to navigate is the ITCZ (which we think stands for "Inter Tropic Convergence Zone."

Remember Earth science and the images of the way air circulates around the globe? In bands? And in opposite directions in the N & S Hemispheres.
Ok. What happens when they meet? We're about to find out!
Apparently there are dozens of variables and this zone moves around, gets thick or thin, can be highly energetic or not so much... but generally, weirdness is to be anticipated.

Reports indicate we may have gotten lucky this week and it will be located around 5° N for 50 -100 miles (pretty narrow) and not too chaotic.

So, that's good news. We watch for weirdness as we approach. We are prepared to motor-sail to stay on our course as conditions fluctuate.

After the ITCZ, we are expecting to be in "The Trade Winds" mostly east to west mostly breeze-on, all the way across.

In the meantime, we will take whatever chance is given to do any light wind business (making water, protecting chaffe points, engine room maintenance) Maybe throw out the fishing lines again.

Since none of us have done this before, our imaginations are heavily reliant on other sailor's stories, computer models, and our experience so far. It's part of the adventure!

Prayer and good vibes appreciated!
Love & Light,
Fair winds and seas,
~e.

Day 35/8

It's another beautiful day out here on the Big Blue. Nice 10-15 knot breeze from a favorable direction (color me grateful!)

Sadly, no frozen daiquiris at the equator. Bummer. We may or may not have had a couple sips of the "tribute" rum that we spilled over the side in a traditional gift to the Sea Gods. 

We saw dolphins this morning! So cool!! A whole pod just after sunrise. What a delight!! No pictures this time. I hope we get more chances.

We received a very informative and helpful email from Skip, our shore-based navigator friend. He gave us a lot of good information for our projected route and what to expect. 

We slowed down to almost drifting for an hour or so, to run the water-maker, because it was having a hard time getting just seawater (no air) when the boat was at higher speed. Oh well. Tanks are full again. And that's a good feeling.

love and light, 

~e.

Equator!

Some time after 1:00 am, we crossed from the southern hemisphere to the northern just this side of 148°W Longitude.

It's a much steadier night, more favorable wind, no rain!! Dealing with the swell takes some helm & sail management.

The humidity has changed the look of the starry sky, but it's still amazing! The waning moon continues to rise and later, leaving more dark for star gazing.

The phosphorescence in the water is a source of delight. I got to witness something super cool. I was admiring the sparkles in our wake and along the hulls, when I noticed a glowing form coming toward the boat; it came along side and then back out to sea a few times! At one point there were two of these glowing trails.. My guess is porpoises, but could have been anything.
Love & Light,
~e.

Day 34/7 take 2

Well! That was quite the little rant... my apologies. I took a nap, I feel a little better. LoL

I've decided not to call those clouds giant towers of bullshirt, anymore.

But they are still out there and require constant sail trim and helm adjustments. 

And this swell from two directions at once is still especially irritating when the waves converge under the boat and thump or slap against the underside. Scares the crap out of me everytime! LoL 

So far my stern words about manners and appropriate behavior are having no effect. Sigh. So, I'll adjust my heading and sailtrim (Again) and hope for a smoother ride.

But on the bright side, It's been sunny (if humid) for a few hours and my foulweather gear is dry and ready for another night watch. (Pic of me trying not to get scorched by the afternoon sun) by the time I send this we will have clouds overhead, promise.

In other news, we are running out of South Latitude!! We'll probably cross the equator tomorrow. I'm hoping there will be a little touristy spot for pictures and souvenirs; ooh! and maybe daiquiris! * That would be fun!

I'll let you know! 

*this one time my friend and I were out hiking and she kept talking about the strawberry daiquiri machine at the top. (It wasn't actually true. But it got us there with no rest stops!)

Love & Light,

~e.

Day 34/7

The past many hours have spent, um, sailing. But like actively sailing. LoL. Not really cruising... 

The weather and seas are energetically confused. 

Big stupid rain clouds.

Mixed swell and wind waves on top. 

The boats movement has been like a damn tossed salad. No. Not really. It's really not that bad, but it is a bit bouncy, and noisy which is not ideal for efficient forward progress....

Here is a picture of a big stupid rain cloud. So not like winne-the-pooh's little black raincloud

Peace & love & Light

~e.

Day 33/6

Aloha! 

It is a spectacularly pretty day out here on the Big Blue. 

A charming 10-12 knots with SPARSELY scattered white caplets and scattered smallish puffy white clouds. (I bet it's a pretty satellite image.)

We are gently pulling our hulls across the surface, trying to ease along this swell. We are all working on a bit of a sleep deficit, Jeff especially. So if I have to fall off our intendend (but less comfortable) course for little bit so he can get a few solid hours rest... so be it. 

Last night, after we brought the mainsail down to the first reef... a typical nightly exercise to run slightly depowered through the dark solo watches. As we were trimming the sail we noticed something sticking out. (Which even if you don't sail, you would think was weird.) A batten (a long fiberglass rod that is sewn into a pocket in the sail and runs 90° off the mast...) had busted out of its pocket and was sticking out behind the sail.

Ugh. Gotta fix it! So, dark o'clock maneuvers again. We drop the main down to where the offending batten is laying on the boom, roll up the jib, fire up the port engine and head east (nose of the boat into the wind, so the sail doesn't try to flop around). And get to work. Deck lights, head lamps, gloves (stupid unpainted fiberglass) harnesses and tethers, we wrestle this thing back into its sleeve, then Jeff gets out his sail repair kit and starts sewing a patch on the busted pocket flap-thing. My guy has SKILZ! An hour or so after we just wanted to reef the main sail, we are finally sailing again. Hahahaha. 

Jeff enjoys this kind of thing. Solving problems as they come up. No big deal. Just do it. I guess it appeals to his sense if independence. Me? Meh, not my fave. But then again, whatcha gonna do? 

After my midnight watch the stars were still phenomenal. I pulled out a sleeping bag and settled on the "bench" in the cockpit . Jeff and I watched the thin cresent moon rise. And I slept there until the morning sun started baking me ... just like a pig in a blanket!!! Haha.

Love and light,

Fair winds

~e.

Notes from Midnight Watch

The wind has pickup to a nice steady 12-15 knots. The wind direction allows us to head North, but not very well NE, and maybe not as speedily or comfortably as a more favorable direction would. 

But we are Doing The Thing! We are sailing across an ocean! We are courageous wayfinders. (I'm very grateful not to be a bold explorer. I think the stress would kill me.)

It was the perfect catch for ocean-to-table dining. 

(Wanna hear something silly? Right after Jeff landed and fileted his fish, I went to go sit in the shade on the bow, with a book, and -- I got a fish, too!! LOL There was a flying fish that got stranded on the net between the hulls. Poor thing.)

We are learning by observation and testing more about the ship's batteries, how they charge and discharge, how the reporting panel measures and shares information. 

It's a good thing that Torsten has been doing so much research on boat batteries and that Jeff is a terrific power engineer. They know a LOT. (And I totally don't.) Speaking of which, I better go check on some things... brb. 

All is well. 

Fun fact: 

Fresh tuna blood glows in the dark. 

Wanna know how I know? There is a dirty zip lock bag on the table over there; it had a 1/2 of a fish in it a few hours ago. Gross, right? Anyway, it's sitting there GLOWING. It's like from Scooby-Doo or something.

And with that, I'll say goodnight! 

Hasta mañana!

Love and Light,

~e.

Hana Paa!!!!

Fish on!!!!!

Fish scales

Yesterday, Doing a walk around the boat inspection in the morning, and Jeff finds a pile of fish scales, and a kinda splat mark on the cabin roof.

Eeew!

Torsten reported hearing so.ething go bump in the night. Haha! Poor surprised flying fish...

Imagine that poor fish. Wheeee! Whump! What the?!.! LOL

~e.

Typos

I reread the email I sent last night. So many typos. Sorry, friends. Bear with me! :)

First off: * right * we were going north, we turned to the east, that is a *right* turn. LOL. 

If I could, I'd go in and edit these things... sigh. Color me embarrassed.

Here's a pretty first star at sunset picture. :)

~e.

Fishing

This boat came with some fishing gear, and Jeff brought some. 
Today we dropped a couple lines and are trolling as we sail. 
We had one quick curious hit, but did not hook up. 
I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Typos

I reread the email I sent last night. So many typos. Sorry, friends. Bear with me! :)

First off: * right * we were going north, we turned to the east, that is a *right* turn. LoL.

If I could, I'd go in and edit these things... sigh. Color me embarrassed.
~e.

Detour!

I don't know if yall can tell from our track on NoForeignLand, but we made a pretty hard left turn and ran east for a while last night.

When I posted the "golden hour" log entry, a note came in from my Dad.

He informed us that he could see on a MarineTraffic.com website that there was a cluster of AIS targets directly in our projected path.

In our preparation for this passage Jeff and I had read reports about fishing practices in this region. What my dad described in his email was consistent with reports of Chinese fishing boats leaving to drift, or towing a long net, and marking the net with buoys that transpond an AIS identification signal.

My dad sent several emails with clear description of how many, how far apart and how long all together... and where we were projected to intercept. Text book traffic control!

We had some funky latency delays in our email exchanges... but! We had a pretty good idea what we were looking for.

At the local level: weak sea-level buoy transponders and the not incredibly powerful antenna that we have on the mast, meant that we didn't pick up the targets until they were about 6 miles away.

At which point we already had a plan.
We furled (automatically rolled up on the foreatay) our jib, tightened up on the mainsail, fired up an engine, and turned east. We ran a course that anticipated would take us along the net (a few miles distant) to what we thought was the end, after the last buoy.

That's when I went to bed. And when I came back up for my midnight watch, the guys were shutting down the engine, setting the sails, and heading north again.

Just a little 4 hour maneuvers drill. These are your prayers in action folks!! We got to run east. We avoided what may or maynot have been a thing* we had some ideas of what was out there even though we couldn't see a thing!

* the net could have been at se significant depth that we wouldn't have noticed of we'd crossed it... but then again... maybe not! We could have hooked something without rudders and then who knows?! (Not me. Because we took a detour!)
Love and light
Fair winds
~e.

Golden Hour

It's the golden hour before sunset here in the little latitudes. And it couldn't be any prettier. 

(I'll call myself a liar in half an hour at sunset, probably.)

A quiet day here on Hiva Oa. Light winds (under 10 knots) all day. Right now we are doing 5knots in a light 7.5 breeze. 

The wind waves have diminished to sweet lapping ripples and a totally manageable easy swell rolling in from California (or that direction anyway).

And now just before dinner we shut down the generator (which is working like a champ - thanks again to Torsten's many hours of labor) after running it and the R-O water maker for about two hours to refill the starboard water tank.

Plus we took the opportunity of making water to use some! We all showered! Washed another t-shirt or pair of shorts ... and cooked pasta!

We are all comfortably settling into our evening and prepping for a quiet night.

As my friend, April, says: "Love hard and pray hard." (Or something close...lol)

Love and light,

~e. 

Light winds

Another light wind day, but strong sun!
We are all sticking to our big shady cockpit or inside work today... and wearing sunblock!

The wind was down to about a 5 knot average this morning and we actually ran engines and sail for a few hours 0530 to a little after 1000.

Now it's like 7-8 on the mast and 5-6 on deck. We've got all the biggest sails trimmed for max boat speed, and we are letting autohelm keep us at about 52° off the wind.

We are heading north-northwest, which is a little disconcerting to be giving up our "east" that we had "banked" already, but...

Que serà, Serà. and...
This is cruising. (apparently! LOL)

It's a quiet afternoon. I think we are all pretty well caught up with any sleep deficits, and so we putz with little projects (fix this, reattach that, wash some stinky t-shirts) read our novels, do some sudoku puzzles, look for text messages, and emails (hint, hint!)

Love & Light,
~e.

Little latitudes

On my midnight watch turnover, Torsten pointed out that we had reached singe digits of latitude in our GPS position, as we get steadily closer to the equator. 

I'm noticing the wind speed seems to be getting smaller, too. We'll see if that trend holds. 

We are also noticing more current. Our magnetic heading varies from our course over ground. We are getting set a little bit west. This was anticipated and why we've been sailing northeast, instead of due north. Hopefully it works to give us a good approach to Hawaii. 

The instruments tell us that the ocean temperature is 82 degrees. Nuts, right? 

( Here comes that shrinking moon, almost 2am tonight.)

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Success on the 5x5 goal.

At 5pm our trip log actually showed 503 nautical miles (for a daily total off 117). 

We are into the single digits of latitude!! That's a first for all of us, I think! 

The sun is setting (at least into the cloud bank at the hoizon) about 5:30.  The sky is lovely all the pastel shades from salmon through a creamy buttery color through white to all the blues, lavender and rosy pinks.

Wish you were here! 
Love and light,
~e.

Passage Day 3

Observations

Last night the waning Cresent moon rose at about 0100, looking for all the world like a big yellow Cheshire Cat Grin.  

Before that the milky way had my attention for being the most engaging spectacle.  We find ourselves in one of those really remote dark places, and the air was pretty clear & dry (for the surface of a warm ocean) and we could see DEPTH! and color! 
 ... I mean  you had to use your imagination a little... but it was phenomenal!  

(Side note, the guys are laughing at me and insist that I share with everyone that I had to take ibuprofen this morning because my neck aches from stargazing) LOL

I think its super cool to watch the Big Dipper rotate in the sky (rise and set E>W) in front of us during the night and watch the Southern Cross (and its buddy stars) rotate in the sky behind us.  One of the very cool things about heading consistently north.

Setting stars is    a funny  thing to try to watch with so much distortion at the horizon.  I think that must be why the Polynesian Wayfinders found that a hands-width was the way to go. 

We've caught glimpses of bioluminessencse in our wake. Usually earlier on the night, and not so much later. For some reason, that I don't know, and can't look up right now. LOL

Today is windier, steady 18-22 knots, white caps, and some pretty sizable wind-waves have built up.  We are moving around a lot, as we slide across the surface of big blue.  The water is super sparkly and such a pretty blue. 

It's pretty noisy on the boat: wind and waves, creaking lines, waves slapping the hulls. We have to raise our voices and speak very directly, to be heard clearly. 

Our number goal for today is "5x5" :
500 miles on the trip log by 5pm

Love and light
Fair winds
~e.

Seabird observations (days 2-3)

Sea birds. We still see them! At least 3 kinds that I can tell. Although I can not identify them.

We see frigate birds. Iwi in Hawaiian Not sure if there are varieties? Probably!

Also, what I am guessing might be layatian albatross??? Solo fliers, a little bulky (kind like a giant gull, lol) but a pretty buff brown color. Beak looks almost bluish.

They occasionally get curious and come fly around us, ride the wind with us & the smooth bits from the "wake" our sail makes.
I always offer to let them land on us if they want.. so far, no.

If someone wants to email/text me a description (no links, no pics) it would be cool to confirm what it is.

We also still see the groups of fishing birds.

An angular, zippy looking white (w. black) guy with a long thin tail, cruised by this morning.
XOXO

Watch schedule

 We're getting accustomed to the daily routine of passage sailing. 

There is always one person assigned to be "on watch," at the helm, being lookout, paying attention to the instrument readings, sea state, wind, & sail trim.  
When the first mate, auto-helm, is engaged... and the weather is stable, this is not a lot and we check our messages, write in our journal, have snacks, polish stainless... little tasks in between "doing rounds & checks"

The person who just finished their time slot is official back up - dressed & harnessed... ready. (And probably napping nearby) Jeff is always back up.

0600-1000 = Torsten
1000-1300= Emily
1300-1600= Torsten
1600-2100= Jeff (& emily)
2100-0000= Torsten 
0000-0300= Emily
0300-0600= Jeff

We eat randomly. Usually something between 6-8 am, again 10-12. Ideally we'll cook a hot meal 3-4 ish. 

Snacks include cheese &   ;  sausage & crackers. Yogurt & granola, hard boiled eggs, dried fruit & nuts, fresh carrots, apples, oranges, banana (for now) cookies, pb&j (Except Torsten  who thinks pb is gross. LOL!) 

There are daily tasks that might include running the generator to charge the batteries, and to run the water maker (haven't yet).  Checking on the engines and running them every other day or so.  Puzzling out lingering system & wiring questions (very few ... THANK GOD!) 
Making meals and doing housekeeping. 

We're still new at this
But getting better!


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Sun setting on day 2

By our 24-day, at 5pm we'd made 125 miles.  Our trip log is at 326 miles, with 1237 miles to our next turn.
 LOL.
Hahahaha
Hahahahahaha
Omg!!!
~e.

Cruising love

Ok.
This part of boating is pretty nice. 

Sparkling blue water
Gentle sway of the boat
Clear warm breezes
Puffy lavender clouds
Under a big blue sky

Remind me to hold this thought!


Love & Light,
~e.

Passage Day 2

Random day counting nonsense (LOL) :
When figuring our miles/24 hour; we are counting  5:00 pm - 5:00 pm.
Personally, I'm still calling a day a day. LOL!
The light shifty winds and plenty rain clouds are far behind us. Left the last one about 1 am. 
We have much clearer air, scattered high clouds. Some tall puffers out on the western horizon.  
Winds 10-15.  Our boat speed is generally just over 1/2 the wind speed. 
Thanks for the texts and emails. 
And keep those prayers flowing. 
 I just know they are smoothing the way for us! 
Love and light,
~e.

200 miles in 24 hours

Bright fast morning,  and wet sloggy afternoon.

Of course I exaggerate,  it wasn't all rainy or gray, but as we approached &   passed the little Pahoa Atoll the seas and winds and clouds were just all disorganized & shifty. An uncomfortable exercise for a few hours. But we shosuld reach a new weather system as we head north. 

Overall a successful day 200 miles in 24 hours. Well take that for sure.

We can identify the "southern cross" and alpha centauri to our stern.. pretty cool! 

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Good morning!

Still Alive!!!
 (Remember that scene from Croods?, LOL)
We all survived the first night at sea on our trans-equatorial passage!  
It was mostly a beautiful stary night, before the moon rose, the milky way beautifully lit the summer sky and these southern stars, some familiar, some not so much. 
Before midnight, the waning half moon rose... it was almost spooky the way it was shrouded and glowing on the horizon... odd looking & took a minute to identify.   
 On my 12-3 watch we had a nice warm moon-lit sail under a  Polynesian sky.  Our boat speed (even riding heavy with FULL tanks of fuel and water) averaged about 8 knots. I was happy to have winds under 20 mph for most of my time watching the auto helm drive the boat. (Best first mate, ever!!!)

Currently, we sit at 16 hours, 145 miles in. Happily putting some "east in the bank" for we expect to get set to the west in the little latitudes. 
A forecast indicates    that we  will get to the edge of these pressure winds, and things will slow down late this afternoon... we'll see. 

Love and light.
Fair winds,
~e.

On the move!

And before sunset!!
We were getting off the dock around 1500. 
The retreiving the anchor took us some effort and assistance. 
But Yay! We got it clear before the fuel dock closed at 1600!!
Almost got in trouble crossing by the airport, but we managed to get an English-speaking port controller to clear us. 
About to set some sail, and make some tracks! 
(Finally!!!)
Love and light
Fair winds and following seas!!
~e.

Contact & follow us

Our ais (via satphone emails) will drop breadcrumbs and you can follow our progress on this site:

https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/6211132538748928

Notes of encouragement (and other correspondence) can be sent 
via text to the Sat Phone
 808-353-0126
Or via email:
hiva_oa@myiridium.net


Soooo ready to set sail,
Love & light
~e.

Still trying...

Customs? Check!
Immigration? Check!
Bills paid? All but one, Eric is still working... he's on the leaky oil-line job... the repair didn't work. Now he's building a new one?! ((Whimper))
Rigging? Checked.
Hatches? Secured.
Radio check? Meh... hand held works better than the ship-to-shore... so Jeff is occupied with cleaning connections and wiring improvements.

Hoping to get off the dock before 3... (It's 1030 now)

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Sunday, May 30 - Day 26

The weather system from the South blew in Saturday afternoon...
It has been SO HARD to sit here, tied up, when we could have been making tracks.
Aaargh!
But it is, what it is.
Deep breaths.

The diesel mechanic is our least favorite person this weekend. He stopped by for 15 minutes early afternoon on Friday to replace the Injectors and bleed the air. So, Thanks. The engine starts again. Cool. And he declares that there is some blow-by on the Injectors just installed and he'll come back on Monday. What the?! WHAT?!

I spent the next two hours watching the reef fish that live on the coral that's growing on the dock. Very Zen.
Jeff struggled not to loose his cool in his own way.

So... that nice strong South wind blew in, and caused a bit of drama around the marina.
We think we actually slipped our bow moorings... we cannot otherwise account for the 12-18 feet of line we took up on the marina's bow lines.
We actually ran the engines to ensure our stern would stay off the dock. Crazy. Jeff was so pissed.
We remained vigilant and adjusted lines throughout the night whenever the wind intensified enough to wake us.

After running the engines last night, we began an intensive search for possible oil leaks this morning. And found one... a weird little pipe that corroded and needs to be re-"brazed"
Can we get it repaired- immediately?
Hoping so!
Que Será, será.
Love & light,
~e.

Aaarrgh.

No wonder that's the noise pirates are known for... I've said that way more times than I ever expected to (which, tbh, was about zero).
If it's not one thing, it's four. 
Aaargh!
As usual, I exaggerate. But...
(#1) we did not clear customs this morning & we are not setting sail on a promising South wind this weekend.
(#2) Our new sail still doesn't fit right and needs *another* (!!!) modification. However, the local sailmaker, Sebastien, is wonderful, and came out to the boat early this morning.
(#3) it's like a thousand f-ing degrees in this marina.
(#4) we still haven't tested (...or even finished diagnostic testing) the starboard engine.  A week later!!!!
Aaargh!!

Marina Life

Facts about our location.
We are staying on the northeast side of the island of Tahiti, south of the main sea port and south of the airport.  We are on the outermost southern dock of Marina Taina in an area named Punaauia.
We are docked with our aft to the dock and our bow facing the channel. We spend our evenings on the bow, our view is inspiring! 
Across the narrow navigation channel is an anchorage full of sailboats, beyond that the flat water of the barrier reef and the rolling, breaking surf outside, and then in the near distance, spectacular Moorea, misty shores, soaring mountains, cloud-wreathed peaks. And beyond that the sun sets and the southern stars begin to shine through the darkening blue-violet-black.
 
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Day 22

We've been here for 3 weeks.

Much longer than we had hoped.

Still held up by the same 3 issues: Steering, Engines, Sails.

To be fair, the sails thing is pretty much resolved, the second hand Main is more than adequate. And the new jib should be altered and back on the boat later today... (I must have mentioned that it was originally sewn with a luff rope that was too big for the track on the forestay, and new luff rope was flown in with somebody else's new sail.)

The drifting rudder problem: we *believe* that we finally narrowed down the root cause to an old ball valve, where the "stopper" for the closed position had rusted off and we had likely been "over-closing" (so that it was actually a little bit open & oil was leaking by on the far side). Unfortunately, that valve couldn't be removed; the fittings were all totally seized. So we had great lengths of the hydraulic hoses (they reaching all the across the width of the boat to connect the 2 rudders) removed and a number of fittings and valves replaced.
Infuriatingly, they didn't fit together & seal... so we sent them back!! All with language and culture barriers for extra fun.
The hoses and valves and cylinders and pumps are all reconnected in their proper configuration, holding oil, and we spend a bit of time everyday working any air bubbles out... Air in the system is more compressible than the oil.. and acts like a spring and makes the rudders less responsive and less predictable. So we work to get the bubbles out...
But we won't know until we are underway, and there is real and constant pressure on the rudders, if we've actually solved the drift issue. Sigh.

Starboard engine was misbehaving on our early days & on the way here. Weird noises. Missing oil, some leaked, some burnt. Failing to start. A little bit of everything to make it really difficult to diagnose. And while we had a mechanic here working on diagnostics, the starter failed. O.M.G. So we sent both starter motors out to be rebuilt. And we sit here over weekends and random holidays puzzling over what could be wrong with the engine.
The working theory is that long ago, the exhaust was configured differently, and that salt water got in that way, and made a mess of the turbo, the valves, the seals, & pistons, etc. But that the engine has mostly adjusted to this but has some integral imperfections.
Jeff currently believes that a piston ring became stuck. Leaked a bunch of oil. Became unstuck, and runs fine again now.
Tell me this isn't maddening! Good grief.

Even so...
We've filed our exit request papers, and hope to have departure clearance as of Friday.
Current wind/weather forecasts have favorable conditions early Sunday morning.

For now, deep breaths and lots of hydration.

Happy Birthday Torsten

Tuesday we celebrated Torsten's birthday.   

Went out for dinner at Casa Bianca for Italian Polynesian cuisine.

Sigh

It's been days since I've updated but nothing much has happened. We are still in the marina waiting for parts and hoping they fit/work.
It's been a bummer, mostly. A hot sweaty bummer. But we try to keep our spirits up and accomplish other repair/improvement tasks.
Torsten is excellent company and an enormous help! We feel so blessed to share this adventure with him.
Anyway. Things are progressing, on island time, and we are watching for favorable weather this Saturday/Sunday.
Wish us luck.

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2 weeks...

We arrived in French Polynesia two weeks ago, yesterday.
We are all getting a little whiney about these persistent obstacles of the hydraulic steering system and the starboard diesel engine.
Oh! And the second-hand mainsail. Grr.

We have a diesel mechanic [Eric the Red - Don't call him that!] and a sail maker both with excellent reputations. And we found a decent hydraulics shop.

And the generator runs great.
And the water maker works well.
We have cold storage, shore power & water, and access to a laundromat.
Things aren't terrible, but we are all ready to be on our way home to our loved ones.

~e.

Day 14 - Tuesday 18 May

The pass through the barrier reef was very narrow, not terribly deep and whirling with strong currents. I can't imagine doing it for the first time in the dark. Ugh. As we motored up the channel we saw dozens and dozens of boats at anchor... don't want to think about that in the dark either. Nope. Nope. Nope.  It was definitely the right decision to stay out over night!

This marina is really nice, clean, well organized,  in good condition 

.. and FULL!  

 We waited until 0800 when we had support & got tucked into a slip no problem.  We were all a little confused about the "Mediterranean style tie" where you drop the anchor a ways out in front of the slip and then back up to the dock. Then a diver goes down to ties bow lines to a couple moorings... But it worked.  So that's fine.

It's HOT!  I was not expecting it to be so much hotter! But I guess we are sheltered from any breezes, and the sun shines so intensely brightly. 

We  were introduced to a sailmaker who will put a new luff rope on our sail in the next day or so. 

We have a couple leads on a diesel mechanic, but nothing "real" today. 

We will run some errands and fuss with some other fix-it tasks, hopefully we can be done here by the weekend?!

~e.

Days 12 & 13. Sailing to Tahiti

I think I mentioned that we estimated 25-30 hours... yeah. We were way off. We had some flukey winds as part of an all up-wind sail, plus a couple exercises that took some time.  So ... we did not make it to Tahiti before sunset.    Which was a bit of a disappointment.   We chose to manage the many inherent risks of boating in an unknown place in the dark... narrow channels, unknown anchorages, and a strange tie up at a marina where everyone has already gone home for the day.  ... Nah... we'll just low-key drift around until sun rise.  LOL

The night sky & tropical breezes, the pretty lights along the shore... it's pretty good. And much better than whatever anxiety ridden close calls or accidents we might have had doing tight maneuvers in the dark. 

Yesterday afternoon we had a close call when the main sail halyard  almost split completely! Luckily the core of the line held, and we were able to take the sail down, and run a new halyard  and re-hoist the sail... all before night fall. 

 The new halyard is very slippery and we've had some trouble with it slipping the various "clutches". But we can adapt for now, and add it to the work scope to make some adjustments in port.

This prescription scopalamine patch, has been great! I'm very grateful to not feel yucky during all these rough hours, bouncing around on these waves. I'm still enjoying my ginger candies and sharing the love with Torsten.  

Did I mention how great it is to have him on the boat with us? He's a great mechanic, a good story-teller, he knows lots of interesting & even relevant things! He has helped with so many projects,  he's cautious and capable, and is really good company. The whole package! We feel so blessed!!

Love and light.

~e.

Our First Overnight

And we are all here at sunrise, a little sleepy, but doing fine. 

Recap of yesterday (Day 12)

Most of yesterday was beautiful. 

We even enjoyed a delightful rainbow, and some light, not cold (!) Rain.

But in the late afternoon, the main halyard partially failed when the red sheathing just parted from itself at the cleat on the mast. Luckily, the core of the line stayed in tact. 

With some fast ugly whipping, we kept it from getting much worse, and we were able to lower the sail. And replace the halyard. ... at least the boat is stocked with supplies & extras.  And luckily, we were able to complete this exercise before it got dark. Whoop! 

We put up our smaller amount of sail for night sailing, set the auto helm to steer to the wind. And passed a mostly uneventful night. 

This morning (Monday, 5/17: Day 13)

We can see Moorea, and Tahiti is just on the other side. With a little luck we    will  arrive before noon. 

Or maybe not... whatever.   We have confirmed with the harbor master that there is a space for us. 

Love and Light,

~e.

Sailing! (Day 12)

We are a couple hours out from the barrier reefs surrounding Raiatea and Ta'a; having embarked on our fist overnight sail.

We had a good early start with minor obstacles that were quickly overcome. 

15-20 knots of wind. Heading about 40° off the wind. Running 8-9 knots (speed over ground).  Feels pretty good! ... still getting accustomed to the movement of the big multi-hull, but I think we will! 

Raiatea - again. May 9-15

I think I left off with our frustrating last day in Bora Bora. 

13 May - Day 9

We left the mooring yard at about 9:00. 

We saw a pod of small dolphin on our way out. I always see them as a good omen and was happy to see them early on that day.   The boat sailed very well and the second hand Main Sail with one reef in and our smaller stay sail in about 20 kt of breeze.  And we arrived back at Raiatea at about 3:00 pm.  We had every possible contingency plan prepared and in our pocket if we lost and engine or steering or any other weirdness!  But we cruised right in... Jeff handled the boat very well!!! Torsten and I got lines on and we successfully did the thing!! LOL

Thursday was a French catholic holiday, so not much was going on in the boat yard. And there was a regatta happening around the island which occupied most of the local professionals.  LOL

Friday, May 14 

Not much assistance available to us, but we got a few helpful tips from professionals via text. 

One of which may have mostly solved our steering issue with the starboard rudder drifting out of alignment... fingers crossed!!! We'll test it out tomorrow.  

We (mostly Torsten) made some real progress on the generator mess. Apparently it swallowed one of the blades off the cooling water pump impeller. SONOFAB$$$  

...and still trying to solve what we believe is an issue with air in the fuel line. 

Decided to get the new sail modified with new, smaller-diameter luff rope in Papeete. 

And we discovered that Percy couldn't stay with his awesome foster family. Apparently his vocalizations were giving their little dog horrendous anxiety.  What a bummer! But our dear generous friends Patrick, Yvonne & Leilani welcomed him to their home in Ewa Beach. He even has his own YouTube channel now! 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZn4Zz9pfmGPkJzp-fpDM1hiJief8Y20V

Saturday, May 15th

This was our original target departure date. Oh well. C'est la vie. 

The generator runs again! Thanks to many many hours of Torsten's labor in the "hobbit hole"

Jeff re worked the way the new rudder bearings & stock were landed took care of a fair amount of wobble... so that should also help the steering situation.  

Replaced a couple of lines, and cleaned the seals on all the hatches, put in some significant effort to cleaning the engine rooms. (Man, these engine rooms have been neglected!)  I should have taken "before" pictures. ... I always forget that. LOL.

We head out sailing tomorrow- early morning.  And are planning on the trip taking 25-30 hours... as it is nearly 100% upwind sailing for the 130 miles. 

Love & Light 

~e.