Friday Nite Bar-B-Q

They have a get together every Friday nite here on the dock. The guys in the back are both leaving soon, so it was special. Nate is transfering to North Carolina and Jeen in leaving for Wake Island Thursday with his crew, CHo who took the picture. Cho's boat in waiting for him at Wake.

They had "precooked dead animal" (ribs from CostCo), lots of fruit and cheese and too much wine.

Ala Wai Marina - Oahu

We made it from Molokai to Ala Wai Harbor in about 10 hours. We left there at 3:30AM. The weather was flat and calm all the way as we motored here. We had heard it often blows 35 in the channels between the islands, so we just had good luck. And excellent planning on the captain's part! Trinda fished on the way, but not even a nibble.

We thought we had a spot at the Waikiki Yacht club. As we came into the channel, I got a message on the cell phone saying they also had no room. We stopped at the Hawaii Yacht club's guest dock and Walter there, walked me up to the harbor masters office. He gave us a slip for one night, the the next morning Trinda and I walked up again and gave a long sad story. He decided to extend us for 15 days. That seems to be the normal procedure here, maybe based on looks???

This is a government marina, like the one at Honokohau on the Big Island. However is is very poor shape. There is money for repairs but not replacement. So they are able to install cable TV at every slip, but not to repair the docks that are falling in! That is "replacement! It seems like a 3rd world country instead of one of the states!

Anyway we have made contact with our cousins and plan to meet today.

I paid for WiFi access for a month ($35) so we will have good access for a while.

Molokai, Hawaii

We left Lahaina about 9 yesterday and made it here (21 miles) by about 1. No wind, we motored all the way again. No fish, the ice box is still too full to catch one.

We walked to town and got a few groceries this morning. It was a short walk as there is not much town here. They did have 3 grocery stores though. There is no free internet here so I got the HAM radio antenna back up and this is going the SLOW way.

We met a new sailor and his wife today, from Alaska. They just got interested in sailing here and bought a older used boat and are fixing it up. They plan to go to Fanning Island for a few weeks about the same time we are going. This will be their first real trip. They plan to come back here though.

Maybe one more day here and then on to Honolulu, 45 miles. We talked to someone from the Waikiki Yacht club and he assured us there will be a space for us for at least a few days.

Lahaina, Maui

We left the north shores of Hawaii about 12:30 AM and motored through the night. We just arrived in Lahaina on the west side of Maui. We may stay a day or two depending on the waves.

I got the windvane repaired OK, but we came on without the radar. Only saw one boat during the night anyway. At least we didn't have to steer! Auto did better that it had in a long time.

We saw lots of whales today. Little ones and big ones jumping out of the water, waving their fins and splashing with their tails. I got lots of pictures too, but they are all just the leftover splash! Ha!

I need to get some sleep.
Trinda eating Bugles like Zoe.


Whale tails and fins. All the rest were just the splash afterward!
North Lahaina, from the anchorage.

Honokaipe Bay

We left Honokohau Harbor at 10 AM. We found a day mooring about 25 miles north and were tied up by 2:30. Everything's fine with us. A few small problems. The radar displays an error that the "antenna is not rotating". I'll have to look into that later. The wind vane wouldn't steer. After we settled in, I fixed the wind vane, a screw had worked loose. I also finally hooked up the wind speed indicator.

We are right in front of the Hilton Hotel. There are large catamarans giving tours. One of them, suggested we use this buoy. We are in a narrow deep place coming up to the beach. It must be really shallow to either side cause the surf is impressive only 4 or 5 boat lengths away. Maybe 8 to 10 footers. Trinda took some nice surf/sunset photos.

It is purty rolly here, so I'm not sure how long we'll stay. On toward Lihania on Maui next.

Leaving the Big Island

We are scheduled to leave the island of Hawaii some time tomorrow. The plan is to head for Lahina, Maui for a few days then Molokai then Honolulu. There will be no internet or maybe even no cell phone for a few days. I haven't hooked up the new antenna for the HAM rig yet, so may not even be updates to the blog for a while either..

Oh well, that's cruising.

We are mostly done with the critical work. But there is still lots to do before we head back south again.

Honokohau Update

Not much new. Still slaving away. I got t he staysail finished hand sewing and up. The mizzen sheet track re-mounted to the deck and started re-caulking the teak on the dog house before the main mast. We got all the old caulking out then discovered that most of the caulking I got from the local guy is way out of date. I only had enough to do half of the part we had opened up. We taped plastic over the open part to keep the wood from getting wet if it rains more. I'm not sure how to get more.

We have been studding the French course some, but I can't read much yet. Only the first tape (CD) of 9 so far.

We are still planning to leave this harbor on Wed. but unsure of where we'll go next. It depends on our order from West Marine. They lost it from when I ordered before Christmas and had to re-order it all. It is not all in yet. I kinda need the new rope, but can live without it till we get to Honolulu if we have to.

We re-joined the Bluewater Cruising Association. Maybe it will allow us to get a discount in the yacht clubs in Honolulu.

Work Yard to Floating

In the workyard.





The window being replaced.








Trinda sewing the dinghy cover.













Bruno, whom we met at Fanning Island, polishing the topsides.












In the travel lift.













In the WATER! That's Bold Spirit, the boat on the right across the way behind us. The workyard is top left in the distance.

Back In the Water

We made it into the water OK. The engine started right up. The bilge pump came on and burped out a slug of transmission oil that I had spilled and forgotten to clean up. We motored to the slip we got. We have it until Feb 13th. We plan to start toward Honolulu by then, so it should work out fine. I will need to work fairly fast to finish the remaining task list before the trip. It is 170 miles but we'll probably stop at Maui and Molokai on the way. Rumor has it that there is no anchoring available near Honolulu now.

The rigger came and finished all but the final tuning of the rig. He wants to go for a test sail when he finishes the final tuning. (That's adjusting the tension in all the new wires that hold up the mast for you non sailors.) He finished the lifelines and the exit plate for the new extra halyard in the mizzen mast. I got back to the deck again. I drilled holes at each place the deck seemed soft around the "walk around" and poured thinned epoxy in to re-attach the deck fiberglass to the plywood beneath. Now to finish filling the holes, fair it and re-sand it all. Then we'll be ready to paint. I talked to a professional here about re-caulking the remaining teak on the dog house and he may have enough caulking to sell me to finish it. I finally got the repair parts for the fresh water pressure pump, assembled it, tested it then the drive belt broke! Now to find a replacement belt. Always something.

Trinda made a new dinghy cover, re-did the awning, made new gas can covers, made a new bag to hang in the closet to hold her stuff, oiled and stored the sewing machine. Now to pack away all the provisions that she vacuum sealed the other day. Things seem to be coming together finally. The only major work left is finish the hand stitching of the sails where the machine couldn't sew, paint the deck, re-caulk the teak and re-insulate the fridge. I plan to do the fridge and maybe the teak somewhere else. We'll see.

Tonight we took a taxi into town, $10.80 each way. Many more trips and we could have bought a car! We bought more groceries. We had wine, cheese, salami, pepperoni, avacado, tomatoes and cucumbers for supper with crackers. A nice change. We invited Bold Spirit over for Lochs and Bagels tomorrow afternoon.

I tried the computer on the internet here in the slip. I couldn't connect to anything, so I got out the hi power antenna. It doesn't fit the new computer! No pcmcia slot! So I got out the old one. I had forgotten just how slow it was. It took all day to get all the software loaded and updated, but it does work now. I also got all the navigation software loaded and tested on the new one too. I found a USB GPS for the new computer in Seattle at Frys. Only $39 and it actually works. I got it set up too.

We found another passport owner, Wayne used to own Kanani. He sold it to someone who stored it in La Paz, MX during the 2002 hurricane. It was blown over and is still lying there. Too bad. He posted pictures for me. It is sad to see a sistership in ill repair. He had replaced the teak with fiberglass on the deck and replaced the chain plates (where the wires holding the mast are hooked to the boat). Otherwise it looks very familiar, but with a white hull.

I hope everyone had a wonderful super bowl Sunday.