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.