Stuck in Hawaii till next year

No more sailing on Mintaka this year. I finally decided to leave her in storage in Kona until next year. Presumably, we'll continue on to the Northwest then, but it always depends on which way the wind is blowing. Check back next May.

On the hard briefly in Hawaii

We ended this leg in Honokohau Harbor (Kona, Hawaii) on June 8th, hauling out to the storage lot on the 9th. This was a near-perfect passage: good wind, few squalls, no mishaps. We repeatedly set new personal records for speed and distance. It was a pleasure overall. No matter how many passages I might make in the future, I doubt I will ever have a better one. My crew and I each went home to our families, in my case only for a couple of weeks. Although I don't yet have crew arranged for the final leg to Washington, I expect to be sailing off again towards the end of the first week of July. This last leg should take about four weeks. I expect it to be more difficult than the previous one, but much less so than the first one. Stay tuned to find out.

We're about 75 nm ESE of South Cape right now, stomping along in these enhanced trade winds. We've averaged over 150 nm per day for nine days now. We expect to be in the shelter of the Big Island a bit after midnight, and hopefully in port tomorrow afternoon.

Conditions are a bit better today, although even with hardly any sail up we are still romping along at 6-7 knots. We are using the staysail, but only for the sheet-to-tiller self steering; all the drive is coming from the smaller jib and the reefed mizzen. We did 158 nm to noon today, and have averaged 147 nm over the past eight days. Barring something big, we should be in early on the 8th.


We've finally gotten out of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This is a zone where the trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres converge, creating high precipitation. (Check out the link at left for more info) There was never a doldrums calm -- we sailed continuously from the SE Trades into the NE Trades -- but there was a wide band of snotty weather. Squalls and rain, alternated with squalls and rain for a couple of days.

Bronson has also written some blog entries, viewable by clicking on "comments" below my posts.

Our charms wore off last night. It was a foul, dirty night: lightning, rain, wind, endless squalls. We still made some miles, though. Today has just been rainy. I'm not going to update our position on the Yotreps website today, but our noon position today was North 08 deg. 54 min, West 145 deg. 38 min. 850 nm to go to Hilo.

We have been living a charmed life with squalls and winds. Listening to everyone else's complaints on the net makes me wonder whether we're on the same ocean. We are in the NE trades now, and have 974 miles to go to Hilo, Hawaii. We're on a reaching course, making 6-7 knots in 15-20 knots of wind. We've been doing 150-mile+ days, so could be in as early as the 8th. More likely later, though.

Great Sailing

We have been so unbelievably fortunate with the weather. The fleet ahead and behind have been complaining of squally conditions and higher winds, while we have had near perfect sailing conditions for the past six days. Ten to fifteen knots on the beam, four to eight foot gentle swells, cloudless nights, no squalls at all -- I know I've said it before, but it doesn't get much better than this. In the past four days, only one of our noon-to-noon runs was less than 150 nm. One of them was 165 nm -- a new record for us.

We had a great run today; 150 miles up to noon. That was with two reefs in the mainsail and using the #2 jib (smaller than our usual jib). The conditions were near perfect: a beam reach in sync with the swells, and no squalls. It doesn't get much better. We should cross the line (i.e. the equator) sometime tomorrow.

5/21
We spent one night moored at Toau, a beautiful little atoll, and had breakfast ashore with one of the two families that live there. Then we were off again. Right now, we are close reaching with the drifter (a massive sail): light breeze, sunny sky, flat sea. It's been a great start for Bronson; I could sail a few thousand miles like this, myself. What a difference from the first leg of the trip!

5/23
We motored most of last night in a flat calm, and have been sailing rather slowly all day. But the skies are clear and the seas are flat, so we don't mind too much. We had a bird try to land on the wind generator just before sunset yesterday. He got clipped by the blades and fell to the deck, landing on the fish-cleaning station. He appeared to have a broken wing, but I couldn't bring myself to pitch him overboard. We just left him resting on the board there, and next I noticed he was gone. We have a local net with about six boats, including Orca III, Malachi and us. Both of them are a couple of days behind us. One boat is well ahead.

5/24
We're not making great time, but we're having a great time. We motored all last night with no wind. Most of today has been great sailing, reaching at 5 knots in 10 knots of breeze. One squall killed the wind for about 2 hours, though. Enjoying life.

Bound for Hawaii

Transmission over the HF radio has been problematic, so Mark's emails have been quite brief. I'll pass along his reports from along the way, but might amplify or paraphrase his comments a bit, as the transmissions are sometimes telegraphic.

Mintaka left Papeete, Tahiti on Monday May 18. They made their way through the pass in the reef at 1600, bound for the Tuamotus, a group of coral atolls scattered over a huge area of ocean. There was very little wind, and they motored on mostly flat seas.

As of a couple of hours ago they were moored at Anse Amyot, on the atoll of Toau. We spent a week or so on Toau in 2003, on our way west across the Pacific (the photo at left is from that visit: Mintaka is the boat on the right). It's a beautiful atoll, one of those quintessential South Pacific islands. Almost uninhabited, the only residents are two related families living at Anse Amyot. Mark and Bronson intend to spend the night there, then leave tomorrow for Hawaii. I'll add more as Mark sends me updates.

Departing for Hawaii

Out at sea, outgoing emails need to be kept pretty short, so much that could have been said went by the boards. It’s a rainy morning here in Papeete, so I thought I'd share a few memories with you.

One night, while still coasting in New Zealand, we saw the most amazing meteor that I have ever seen. It was so close and so bright that it almost looked like a distress flare. It came straight down quite near us, breaking up into fragments near the sea. I've seen many "shooting stars" before, but nothing like this.

Mintaka is a fairly tender boat, meaning that she heels (leans) way over in a breeze. Since our stove is not gimballed, the heel makes it difficult to cook sometimes at sea. We had to cook all of our meals in the pressure cooker, because that is the only pot we have that we can tie down to the stove.

We have a radar reflector hanging up in the rigging. Around the midpoint in the passage, it partially broke free, hanging from one cord and swinging all around. Well, this was a problem. It is difficult (and dangerous) to climb the mast at sea, so we waited, hoping it would break free entirely and drop overboard. It didn't. Instead, it wrapped itself around the jib halyard, jamming the halyard tight with the jib not quite lowered. So, picture this. The boat is bucking around as usual, and Dave is standing on top of the bow pulpit, holding on to the jibstay (wire) with one hand while reaching up to untie the halyard with the other. Wish I had a video of that. Of course, we didn't want to lose the end of the halyard, either, but that maneuver gets difficult to explain.

From time to time, if the wind gets up too much, someone has to go forward onto the bowsprit to drop and secure the jib. This tends to be the time that the bowsprit is going underwater with every other wave or so. Well, I was out there at one point when a wave lifted us a bit higher than usual before dropping the bowsprit into the next trough. This was quite a drop. The best analogy I can think of is jumping off the high dive while holding onto a boogie board. Besides getting the wind knocked out of me, I had to ride the bowsprit completely under water. Fun and games in the southern ocean. Wish I had a video of that, too.

Dave tried to teach an albatross to water ski one day. The six-foot-span bird hooked his bill on Dave's fishing lure, but rather than being pulled bill first, he stuck out his feet and essentially skied along behind us. One doesn't like to hurt these birds, so we reeled him in, and I held his wings pinned while Dave unhooked him. He kept following us, apparently none the worse for wear.

By the way, my crewman for the next leg (Bronson, an old friend from Salt Lake) will arrive Sunday, and we plan to be on our way to Hawaii on Monday. That pasage should be a piece of cake compared to the first leg, but one never knows. I don't expect it to take nearly as long as the first leg, either, but again ….

Papeete, 3 May

After all the headwinds and bad weather on this passage, we finished by motoring 100 miles on flat water. Of course, we had to hand steer those miles because both of our autopilots failed. One of them was brand new, right out of the box. We entered the port here after dark on the 3rd, tying up to the quai downtown. After clearing in the next morning, we moved over to Marina Taina, where we will remain until departure in a couple of weeks. I guess it was a rough passage, but really, it was just a long slog into the wind. There was never anything scarey or dangerous, just annoying. The weather never gave us a break. I'll be spending the next week or two getting the boat ready for sea again. My friend Bronson will be arriving on the 16th to crew as far as Hawaii, and I am looking for one more crew (Ron not being able to continue). Stay tuned for developments.

Noon: South 19 degrees 11 min, West 148 deg 03 min. We have 131 nm to go. This is the 2nd sunny day of the trip. We're still beating, but expect the wind to shift more favorably tonight. It might drop enough to motor straight towards our destination. Motoring didn't work for very long yesterday. However, morale is improving. We hope to sight Tahiti before dark tomorrow.

Noon: South 22 degrees 26 min., West 148 degrees 14 min. 189 nautical miles to go. Hove to all yesterday and last night. We're now motoring on course in dying wind. We expect to continue motoring with little to no wind the rest of the way.

Noon: South 20 degrees 27 minutes, West 148 degrees 43 minutes. We're 181 nautical miles from Papeete. Making no progress against 25 kt headwinds and unbelievably violent squalls. All we can do is wait for a change in the weather. Lines are beginning to chafe and break. The jib halyard is fouled high up; we're using the spare. Part of the mizzen sheet system failed just after one of those squalls. Fixed it just before a worse one hit. With just storm jib, staysail and mizzen up, we were vastly overpowered. Getting the storm jib down on the bowsprit was athletic, to say the least, at one point much like doing a belly-flop off a high board.

April 29

Our position at noon was South 21 degrees 02 minutes, West 149 degrees 34 min. By this point we should be on a nice beam reach (ie. wind coming at a 90 degree angle to the boat) in the trade winds, but instead we are beating (headwinds) our way north due to a huge depression to the southwest. We are making slow progress, and expect to take a minimum of 3-4 days more.

I'm going to have a good two weeks worth of work in Tahiti before setting off on the next leg. There are some leaks in the overhead and along the rub rail that need sealing, and I need to make a new trim tab (auxiliary rudder) to get the self steering mechanism functional again. There are other minor jobs to do too, as well as laundry and lots of cleaning.

April 26

Our noon position today was South 24 degrees 43 minutes, West 147 degrees 46 minutes. We have 441 nautical miles to Papeete, Tahiti. Unfortunately, it looks like there's more snotty weather ahead-- a front followed by MORE headwinds. I anticipate it will take us a minimum of four days.

April 25

Our position at noon today was South 26 degrees 50 minutes, West 147 degrees 59 minutes. Papeete is 563 nautical miles away, and it looks like we'll get one more spanking before we get there.

April 23

I expect it will take a minimum of 7 more days to Tahiti. Last night was awful: lightning everywhere, along with heavy rain and flukey wind. We were rocking and rolling, soaking wet.

April 20

Our position at noon was approximately South 33 degrees, West 155 degrees. Go to www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=N7RLT (or click on the link at left) to see our path. It's a beautiful day, but we're still struggling against headwinds. We've covered 1979 nautical miles so far, and almost every one of them upwind.

April 19

Woke this morning to a clear, blue sky. We still have a headwind, but we can close reach comfortably. Wouldn't mind a lift on course, though. These are the pictures one sees in the sailing magazines. Noon position S34d18m, W156d50m.

April 18

We just lost three days of progress; one day beating south to avoid a band of storm force winds, and two days hove to in the ensuing gale. We're screaming NNE right now on a close reach at 7+ knots under yankee, staysail, deep reefed main, and reefed mizzen. I didn't think she could do that. So far, we've had headwinds for almost every inch of 1700 miles. Between the waves into the Dorade, the leaky skylight frame and prisms, and the salt water we track in, everything's damp. I filled my boots with seawater soon after departure, so I don't bother with dry socks; I just put the same wet ones back on for each watch.

Position Reports

April 14, noon: South 37deg,19min, West 157deg,09min. Bashing to weather under staysail & reefed mizzen.

April 13, noon: South 38deg,31min, West 157deg,58min. All well.
(Today Mark wrote that receiving emails over the ham link is ok, but transmitting is difficult. So, posts may be limited to position reports until further notice.)

April 12 We're motoring along just past midnight on a flat sea, the gale two days ago just a memory. Saturn is in Leo. Scorpio is brilliant. Mintaka set hours ago. It looks like we'll be motoring for a day, or so, while a new high moves east from NZ. I'm trying to position ourselves to take advantage of it when it catches up to us.

That gale was quite something. I doubt it was anything more than a basic gale, but I was impressed. Those seas, under a full moon, were quite the sight. Unfortunately, we did suffer a bit of damage, but I learned a lot from it all, and will be much better prepared next time. Some time after deploying the drogue, during a routine inspection, I found that the bridle lines had both crossed under the trim tab, and were in danger of chafing. During the attempt to free them, the trim tab was carried away. That was a real loss, both because of the work that went into it and its utility. Well, we reverted to sheet-to-tiller steering. We also had a zipper tear away from the dodger -- only stitching, easily repaired.

When I came on watch at 2000 yesterday, the moon was full, the sky was clear, the breeze was just enough, and the 12-15 foot rollers from the cyclone were impressive. It was a magnificent sight. Sailing that watch was like first tracks in fresh powder, deep in the backcountry.

Waterskiing Albatross

This morning, Dave tried to teach an albatross to water ski behind the boat. He had hooked himself on a squid lure (the bird, that is), and was skiing on his outstretched feet. We got him up to the rail, and I held him while Dave unhooked him. None the worse for wear (the bird again). Big bird -- over 6' span.

The wind is finally backing a bit, allowing us to sail due east. We expect it to continue to back to northerly over the next 24 hours, allowing us to head more NE. All is well, but we'll be happy to have the wind further aft. We've been beating or close reaching for seven days. The boat is sailing very well, and the tiller pilot is steering perfectly.

April 4-6

A few posts from Mark built up while Robyn was traveling back to the US, but here they are:

April 4
The first day out we took a wave into the port dorade, soaking much of my clothing and many books in the locker below. Fortunately, we didn't actually ruin that many books, mostly unimportant things. A few books got a little damp around the edges, but not ruined. I've been gradually rinsing my clothes and sheets, as I find the room to hang them. Right now, there's a sleep sack and jeans hanging from the mizzen sheet. We're at 39S 178W, close reaching in a light breeze on a mellow sea. Life is good.

April 5
We're having magnificent sailing: close reaching at 5-6 kts on a smooth sea under a sunny sky. There's a big low to the north, probably the remains of a cyclone, that's pushing a bit south that we're watching, but we don't expect it to be a problem. It may make us go a little further south, though, before turning east. So far, so good. The forecast is for northerly winds in a day or so. If the cyclone is passed to the east, we'll turn east or a little north. We seem to be catching the Roaring Forties on good terms (today).

April 6
We're almost at 42 south and 173 west, still heading ESE with a NE breeze. It's likely to remain this way for another day or so until that cyclone to the north dies away. A trough should catch up to us then with N/NW winds, at which point we'll begin to edge back NE. So far, so good. Making 125 nm or so each day, despite the headwinds. It's chilly, but not really cold. Mostly clear skies.

We've Left New Zealand

Departed Tauranga on the 1st, right into a gale. Wouldn't have minded if it was behind us, pushing us along, but it was right on the nose. Passed East Cape this morning (the 3rd), out into the big, blue, wet thing, finally leaving NZ behind.

Departure

We are in Tauranga, planning to head to sea tomorrow. That would be Wednesday here in NZ. The weather looks good, customs will visit in the morning, and we should be off by noon. We'll update as we can.

Click on this link to follow our passage, but don't be alarmed if you don't see us there. Lots can go wrong with communications at sea.
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=N7RLT

Preparations are well in hand for departure as scheduled. Ron, crewman from Seattle, will arrive in a few days. My other crewman, Dave, is a local Kiwi. We will depart as soon after the 28th as weather allows. The first leg of the voyage, to Tahiti, will take about three weeks. Expect an update upon arrival.