Day 1

Passage from O'ahu to Vancouver Island.

We were supremely occupied Friday, Saturday and Sunday with prepping tasks. Installing, rehomeing, stowing,

Not to mention finishing a PAINTING project the scoops and the starboard, inboard hull. Omg. Informing family & friends, shutting down accounts. Also on Sunday, we took the boat out to adject the compass, perform an MOB drill, get fuel, test the water maker system. 

We made our Monday target departure leaving Ko'Olina before 9 am. Goodbye wasn't too bad… it seems like time for us to move on.

Motored (and motor sailed) along the coast to & around KaEna point and the Kauai channel. Totally off engines by 1330. 

Liv got a little seasick. Luckily, (and thanks to the scopalamine patch) I have held up pretty well. August is stressed and bored. Jeff is totally engaged and seems fine. As long as he can get some good sleep…

Beforre we left, we took Bella for a last walk round the mongoose hedges. She's so cute. And such a good dog.

On the boat, though, Bella has been stressed and very clingy. And has not pottied on the nets yet. 

Dinner was cheesy hash browns+ butter chicken & steamed broccoli. Nobody ate a lot, but everyone ate.

Watch schedule tonight:

Liv 6-9

Em 9-12

Jeff 12-3

Em &/or Liv 3-6 

In the early evening the moon rose full-full just south of east. Unfortunately,there has been quite a bit of cloud cover, including a few rain showers. 

We've been sailing with reduced sails for this overnight. The boat is balanced very little rudder input to stay on a northernly course. Even with a shortened Main and partially rolled Jib, we are still cruising along at about 7 - 8 knots. Not too uncomfortable, either. 

We have friends and family following our GPS "breadcrumbs" on NOFOREIGNLAND and praying for us. 

thanks for that!
Love & Light

January 2022

Happy new year, it's one of those time where time seems so elastic.  We feel like it's been a long time and none at all. The pandemic drags on, and yet we sometimes forget. A year ago we were scrambling for an apartment to rent, and sometimes it feels like we've been at the dock for an age. 

My girls are big and beautiful and wholly their own selves, not mine at all.

We get off the dock occasionally and shake some dust out of the sails, this is such a beautiful part of the world. We are so lucky! 

O is some kind of marine critter whisperer.  This porcupine/ puffer fish just fell in love. And there's a turtle that follows her around. It's wild!!

Little (not so little) Miss turned 12 this month!  Wow. We've come a long way, baby!

She invited a couple friends over for a sleepover on the boat, and then a trip to the big shopping center in Waikiki.

They had a great time.

Happy New Year

Happy Solstice and Blessed New Year

We are well and enjoying the mild climate, sunny days, and simplicity of indoor/outdoor docklife in Hawai'i after making some significant changes in these plague years & planting the seeds for our new lifestyle in this brave new world:

 We took the kids out of public school, sold the beach house, Jeff changed his work situation, we bought a boat and sailed it from Tahiti back to O'ahu. 

Currently, Jeff works with Jody and Skip McCormack, in part as a PG&E contractor from the boat. Olivia (13) and Camila (11) left school halfway through 6th and 4th grades when Covid hit and haven't been back; we are working through online curriculum for 8th and 6th grades online from the boat. There are amazing resources available and we couldn't be happier not to be in public middle school (for *so many* reasons!)  In addition to chief mate,  mom, and learning coach, part of my work is as social director, facilitating meetups and hangouts with old neighborhood friends and new homeschool friends.  Our loyal little terrier mix pup, Bella (10) seems prerty content to be a boat dog. I think mostly she just loves (as I do) that the pack is all together - all the time! 

We were so happy to travel this year! Our adventures and visits are our favorite memories of 2021.

After a few strange months in covid limbo Jeff and Emily and Torsten Hansen embarked on our big blue water sailing adventure. Olivia and Camila spent several weeks in Oklahoma with Roger and Kristen Pfieffer. And then in August we travelled to visit with our family in New York and in Connecticut. We were so happy to be at Cranberry Lake again finally (even with covid protocol limitations). Since then we've been really settling into our own family groove. 

Now we are in the vision stage (research & early planning) of a sail plan for 2022 that will take us from Hawai'i to the west coast of North America ending in Mexico in the autumn. 

Extending Warm Aloha,

Love and Light

September in Connecticut

New Englanders love to celebrate the autumn. And we were there for the early bits. 

The tobacco had been hung in the barns, the farm stands were full, the apples were ripe, we stumbled upon a legit pumpkin patch, bunches of wild grapes, went to an apple orchard and played in a corn maze.

We found and tended to a family grave of Chris's grandmother, and helped with some seasonal yard work.

And drove by Jeff's childhood home

August 2021 at Cranberry Lake

Back to our beloved Cranberry Lake 

We spent a few gentle weeks enjoying visiting with some of our favorite people in a favorite beautiful place. 

Morning coffee on the porch with Mom, or after work decompression with Sis. Family dinners, evening campfires. Dock sitting, sunbeam chasing, walking in the woods, mushroom hunting, berry picking,  butterfly chasing, reflecting and drawing

And time on the water; boating, wake boarding, tubing, jumping from elephant rock!

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.