Safe and Sound in Hilo

We dropped anchor and pulled Med-moor style into the sea wall in Radio Bay. It wasn't what I expected. Instead of dancing girls in hula skirts, we got a container terminal. But the price is right, and there's a free bus route to the mall from the front gate of the terminal.

We got checked in through Customs by the friendliest US Customs agent I've EVER EVER encountered, this morning. And made it to the mall (and Walmart, Office Max) by 10am. Didn't buy much, but sure enjoyed sight-seeing.
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At 10/2/2010 1:08 AM (utc) our position was 19°39.49'N 154°54.70'W

Land Ho!

We sighted the Big Island of Hawaii at about 7am, and have been motorsailing toward the port of Hilo, on the NE coast. We expect to be anchored in Radio Bay before (JUST before) sunset.
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At 10/2/2010 12:52 AM (utc) our position was 19°38.38'N 154°53.33'W

Enroute to Hawaii - Final Day

Only 75 miles to go!!

The wind got really light about 6am yesterday--just as had been forecast for nearly a week. I'm not familiar enough with the North Pacific weather patterns to know exactly what caused this big 'hole' in the tradewinds, but it's here. I do know there's an early cold front stalled out just above Hawaii. In a few days it will be back to 15-20 knots where we are, but right now it's like a lake.

So we reluctantly started our engine and started motoring in. We have now been motorsailing for almost 24 hours, at moderate RPM. Other than the sound of the engine, it waw a pleasant day... very sunny skies and smooth seas. We have a big long slow swell that means the surfers are going to be happy this weekend, and as we go over each one, it feels like Soggy Paws is having to climb a hill.

We put the fishing lines out yesterday morning after breakfast, and 10 minute later got a hit. It was about a 5' Marlin. He was pulling the line out like crazy--Dave thought he'd lose it all before he got him stopped. So we were a little relieved that he got off. We saw him jump a couple of times, but he cut the line and was gone. Dave re-rigged the lines but we have yet to get another strike.

Of the other two boats we've been traveling with, Apple, the Jeanneau 44, arrived in Hilo yesterday sometime. Infini is about 160 miles behind us, and as of yesterday afternoon, was still trying to sail, and making about 3 knots. Infini has a leaky injection pump and wants to minimize use of their engine.

We could have sailed a few hours more, but Dave got severe 'horse headed for the barn' syndrome, and just wanted to get in. He got it in his head that we're going to watch the Gators beat Alabama on Saturday, and that was that.

Fortunately, we have made very good time since cranking up Mr. Perkins. Motoring at moderate RPM, with the sails still up, we've been able to average about 6.3 knots. Our ETA is now Friday afternoon about 5pm local time.

We understand the Agriculture people confiscate any fresh produce you have left, so we've been having a bonanza--trying to eat everything up. As we ate down our fridge, we discovered a few bags of tomatoes and green peppers that we didn't know were there, and we still have lots of onions, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. We tossed the last of the bananas a few days ago, and ate our last Pamplemousse (French Polynesian grapefruit) yesterday. We have one apple left.

So we will anchor up in Radio Bay around sunset. Radio Bay is in the Hilo harbor, at the NE tip of "the Big Island" of Hawaii. We'll have a good dinner, get a full night's sleep, and check in with Customs tomorrow morning. Then we understand there's a bar nearby with good fast wifi, and hopefully a TV or two with college football on.
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At 10/1/2010 2:22 PM (utc) our position was 18°59.84'N 154°07.14'W

Sunrise at Sea

I am a morning person, and I've always loved to go for an early morning walk on the beach and watch the sunrise.

For most of the last year, we've had a watch system of 3 hours on and 3 hours off, and the way it worked out best gave Dave the sunrise. But we've been fiddling with our watch system over the last couple of passages, and this time, I get the sunrise. I'd almost forgotten why I love that dawn watch so much. I love watching the light slowly creep into the sky. Starting about an hour before sunrise, there is a barely perceptible easing of the darkness in the East. Then gradually, the light gets brighter, and most days, I am rewarded with some beautiful colors just before the sun pops up over the horizon.

Today is another gorgeous morning. We are STILL sailing, though the wind is down to about 8 knots. I can't believe this fat tub (don't let Dave hear me say that), can still be moving along at 5 knots in only 8 knots of wind. But we have managed to keep eeking out 5 miles every hour through the night.

The forecast is for the wind to continue dropping. We have done so well over the last 36 hours that Dave has gotten it in his head that we can make Radio Bay (the anchorage in Hilo) by Friday night. We will likely get in after dark, and will soon have to crank up Mr. Perkins. But we're both so looking forward to a good night's sleep.

The approach and entry into the Hilo harbor area, and Radio Bay, is well charted and well bouyed with lighted bouys. So we will likely go in anyway, even if we arrive after dark.

209 Miles to anchor down in Radio Bay!!
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At 9/30/2010 4:13 PM (utc) our position was 17°18.24'N 152°33.90'W

North Pacific Shipping Routes

Boy, we saw more ships at sea today than we've seen in the previous 6 months! (3) Must be getting close to civilization. The last ship that passed us, near sunset, passed within about 300 yards. That's really close.

We saw him on AIS about 13 miles away, he was coming up behind us and slightly to starboard, on a converging course. The AIS indicated he was bound for Taiwan, probably from the Panama Canal, and we could see that he was tracking right along 15 N latitude, going straight west.

For the longest time the AIS was saying that the CPA (closest point of approach) would be .25 miles. So we finally called him on the VHF and told him where we were in relation to him. After a bit of conversation, he finally said he saw us on his radar (about 6.5 miles away).

We could see on the AIS information that he had changed course a tiny bit to starboard after we talked to him, to pass in front of us. But visually, he was still coming right at us, and the CPA kept showing that he would come very close (.015 NM). I was pretty nervous, but Dave said "He sees us and he won't run us down". When he finally drew abreast of us, he sounded his big air horn, and we could see someone out on the bridge deck waving at us. I got a great picture of them crossing in front of us.

Another ship we saw today was bound for Valparaiso, Chile. This is the second ship we've seen coming down that same course line from Hawaii toward South America. He didn't answer our hail on VHF, but we were well away from him. Dave says he was probably carrying pineapple from Hawaii to South America. If you draw a route in Maxsea (our charting program), from Hawaii to Valpariaso, the Great Circle route goes right past where we were.

We have had another 24 hours of nice sailing, and we anticipate tomorrow to be nice as well--though the wind is forecast to start slacking off.

394 miles to Hilo, we expect to be in on Saturday morning.
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At 9/29/2010 5:35 AM (utc) our position was 15°07.59'N 150°09.64'W

Enroute to Hawaii - Day 13

We had a quiet night, the night before last, and a good sail yesterday. But as predicted, the winds are starting to relax.

We got down to about 4 knots of boat speed in the middle of the night last night, with the sails slapping, and finally relented and turned on the engine. 4 knots would be do-able if it weren't for the fairly large swell that rolls us around.

We motorsailed for a few hours, charging batteries and running the refridge.

Fortunately, the wind has come back to 12-13 knots this morning, and we are under sail again.

We called the Hilo Harbormaster on the Iridium phone yesterday, to ask a bunch of questions about arriving on a Saturday. He seems like a nice guy. Usually we would be trying NOT to clear in on Saturday (just sit on the boat and wait til Monday), to avoid overtime fees. But Dave has got it in his mind that he wants to watch some football games on Saturday afternoon.

We are still trying to get ahold of the Hilo Customs office--they were not answering their phone yesterday. The Harbormaster said there were 2 cruise ships in Hilo, that's probably why.

The forecast is for the winds to stay in the sailable range today, though getting progressively lighter, and start dropping off to 'too light to sail' tomorrow. We are hoping to sail as long as possible. It looks like we may have to motor the last 36-48 hours (or sit and roll and slap for 2 days til the wind comes back).

We are 465 miles from Hilo, and should be able to easily make port by Saturday morning.
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At 9/28/2010 4:59 PM (utc) our position was 14°30.99'N 149°04.29'W

Enroute to Hawaii - Day 11

<yawn> Another long day on the high seas.

We had a very quiet night last night--the wind was light and we ghosted along, averaging only 4 knots. But we were able to keep sailing in mostly the right direction. I had to talk Dave out of turning on the engine several times, but fortunately every time the wind dropped off to the 'too light to sail comfortably' range, it would pick back up just enough to convince Dave to keep sailing.

For a few hours this morning we had some really nice wind--close to 15 knots, but it soon eased off again to the 10 kt range. We still were able to average 5 knots for most of the day. Our noon-to-noon mileage was 121 miles--the lowest so far this trip.

But it was a nice sunny day, and really a beautiful sail. However, we've been at sea for 11 days, and we are ready to "get there".

All 4 boats we've been tracking on this trip are now out of the ITCZ, and though we all suffered through about 36-48 hours of drizzle and shifty winds, no one clocked over about 22 knots, and no one saw any lightning. Pretty different than we expected. Hope we get as lucky on our return trip in April next year.

We have seen only 2 ships so far in 1300 miles of sailing. One was a freighter who crossed our in the middle of the ITCZ. It was enroute from Los Angeles to New Zealand. We 'saw' him on the AIS and the radar, and talked to him on the radio, but never actually saw him--even though he passed within 2 miles of us. The constant drizzle obscured him completely. Usually a freighter of that size is lit up like a Christmas tree, and you can see them 10 miles away. Another ship just passed us a couple of miles away. Again, we saw him first on the AIS, then went out and looked for him.

For the non-boaters, AIS stands for Automated Identification System. It is a new gadget that big ships are required to have that broadcasts a digital signal over the VHF radio (receivable about 25 miles away), with the ship info, location, speed, and direction. We have a receiver aboard that receives that signal, and plots it on our computerized charting system. It's pretty cool. Way better than radar. The ship's info includes the name of the ship, what kind it is (freighter, tanker, etc), how big it is, and its destination. I think we'll be upgrading our AIS receiver to a transmitter when we get to Hawaii. That way THEY can see US too.

658 Miles--about 5 more days--to Hilo, Hawaii.
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At 9/27/2010 7:14 AM (utc) our position was 12°41.29'N 146°17.14'W

Welcome to the NE Trades

We are happy to report that we are finally clear of the ITCZ. We ended up turning on the engine last night about midnight, after I spent a frustrating 4 hours trying to keep us going in the squally conditions and shifty wind and really confused seas. When Dave took over, he said "That's it, I'm turning on the engine.". It was a good decision--the GRIB files showed stuff brewing up in the ITCZ and we just wanted to get clear.

By 6am this morning, we were at 10-10N, with some sunshine and fluffy white clouds, instead of the low gray clouds we'd had for the past 2 days. The wind filled in nicely from the NE, and we turned off the engine, rolled out the genoa, and have been sailing all day.

We had a fabulous sunset this evening--complete with a green flash, and then some great after-effects with the clouds. And we were visited by porpoises today as well.

Unfortunately, the normally-strong tradewinds are forecast to get lighter and lighter, and then totally die in a couple of days. I'm not exactly sure what's causing it, but it looks like we'll have to motor in to Hilo the last 48 hours. I keep hoping the GRIB files will change, but so far that has been steadily predicted for the last few days.

778 Miles to Hilo. ETA probably sometime Saturday, Oct 2.

We understand the Florida Gators beat Kentucky today. Go Gators! We'll be rooting for them to knock off #1 Alabama next weekend--maye we'll get in soon enough to even watch the game on TV!
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At 9/26/2010 6:05 AM (utc) our position was 11°11.94'N 144°47.72'W

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

Picture Snoopy sitting on his dog house with his typewriter...

Yes, we have a dark and stormy night. We have been making our way NW through the worst of the ITCZ today. We motored all night in light winds and rain. In the morning, there was enough wind to turn the engine off and put the sails out. But we've had squally weather and shifty winds all day. We've made about 10 sail changes today--genoa in and out, staysail in and out, pole up and down twice. The wind has gone from SW to NE--and all points in between, and between 0 and 20 knots. So far, nothing even approaching a Florida thunderstorm--no lightning and no wind over about 20 knots.

We celebrated passing 9°N at 4pm today with another black squall line ahead of us. And 3 hrs later, we are still in the rain, and hard on the wind with the wind out of the NE.

Well, maybe 10°N will bring us clear weather and steady winds--hopefully dawn will bring us 10°N and sunshine.

We are now well past the halfway point. Only 924 miles to go (about 7-8 days of this).
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At 9/25/2010 5:33 AM (utc) our position was 09°17.78'N 143°18.55'W

Greetings from the ITCZ!

We sailed all night last night and most of the day today, wing on wing. It's a nice rig--genoa poled out to windward, main vanged to leeward, and the staysail sheeted on the centerline. Very stable and pretty fast even in light air. We can tolerate course variations of up to 60 degrees (briefly), so the autopilot can handle the steering.

If we get a squall, we roll the genoa up and leave the pole set.

About 3pm, the wind came up and seemed to be shifting SW (as forecast). This was good, so we dropped the pole and gybed the genoa, expecting to have a nice broad reach up our course line. However, an hour later, we were in rain, and the wind went back SE, and then very light. So we reluctantly started the engine. We are now motorsailing with main and staysail sheeted tight to stop the roll. Even though there is only about 5 knots of wind, the seas are still big enough to be uncomfortable.

We had a nice civilized dinner tonight, with the table up and everything. Lamb chops, fresh mashed potatoes, and cucumber salad. Crew morale is good. We are looking forward to getting through the ITCZ within 48 hours. We are holding our breath that nothing major will spin up near us while we're crossing through.

Geek alert: With the Iridium phone hooked up to Sailmail, I can download a very small IR satellite picture from NOAA Honolulu's website. It has all the active storm cells along the ITCZ highlighted. I then pulled it into Sea Clear (a shareware charting program that lets you create your own charts), added some reference points, and voila, I can see our boat moving across the satellite picture. Pretty cool, and really helps in trying to pick our way through the hot spots in the ITCZ.

Only 1044 nautical miles to go to Hilo. We are about halfway. ETA probably sometime Saturday, Oct 2.
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At 9/24/2010 5:30 AM (utc) our position was 07°12.20'N 142°38.98'W