Asunto
Our life afloat on a boat
Sailing Trips
Sailing, sailing, sailing That’s why we live the life we do, so that we can untie the lines and explore the world in our own backyard. From Sept 2015-October 2016 we sailed with a 2 year old and a baby from Vancouver to Mexico, across to Hawaii, across to Alaska and then down, Read More
Well it was a slow start to the day and it was harder to leave Hawaii than I had anticipated. Although I am really excited to get to Alaska and explore SE, I really felt like leaving Hawaii was a big turning point for the trip as there would be no more warm water swimming and jumping off the boat with Fynn.
We had an auspicious start when attempting to get the stern anchor up. It has set itself so well into the sand that it took two attempts to break it free. When we finally got the anchor up and I motored out of the anchorage I took one final look at Hanalei Bay and heard Kevin shout “where is the white buoy?”.
Well as it turns out the white buoy we had tied to the anchor to mark our stern line had fouled on our prop and was stuck under the boat. Not ten seconds into our trip the first problem had reared its ugly head and I had to dive into the water and cut away the extra line and retrieve the buoy. Thanks to Ron for having his trusty knife on hand.
After that it was smooth and exciting sailing. The plan is to head due north until the wind starts to back and then make our way around the North Pacific high. The high is sitting right in our path as if this writing but who knows what a couple days will bring!
Just as my shift was ending at 0400 the wind instruments were giving funky readings. The wind rotated almost 180 degrees and shot up 43kts of apparent wind speed.
The boat sailed around in a half circle, now the actually wind had not really shifted so the sails filled in from behind and I was forced to furl them in and motor to get back on course.
Once I had figured out that the instruments were acting up I tried to reset the NMEA2000 network to get the wind instruments up and running. While I was waiting for the system to reboot, Kevin and unfurled the main sail to start sailing along again. We pulled the main sail out all the way and set our course for about 60 degrees apparent.
We were moving along very nicely at 6.5 kts with the main alone but the instruments were still not working. I now had the autopilot on and decided to reset the network again.
DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME
Well, just as my luck would have it, the NMEA system reset but lock the autopilot ram in a fixed position. When this happened the boat began an ever so slow turn and began to gybe. Kevin went to turn off the breaker to the instruments but by the time he got downstairs the gybe was completed and we had a small crash gybe (remember we were only trimmed for sailing at 60 degrees apparent) so I thought no harm no foul and set things up for Kevin and went to grab some sleep.
A couple hours later Kevin wakes me up and says “Kolby you should come look at the boom. There is a bend in it that I don’t remember being there before”
Yup that’s right folks, 16 hours into our passage from Hawaii to Alaska we broke the boom. Oh well only 2400 miles to go.
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We rolled into Hanalei after our overnight passage and it was hate at first sight. This was supposed to be one of the most beautiful anchorages in the world and we hated it… The water was a murky brown, it was cloudy and rainy and a north wind was pushing in 4 foot rollers into the bay. The current frequently left us abeam to the waves and we would roll so hard it was enough to make you want to jump over board. Except you didn’t because the was was so murky you could see your feet in ankle deep water and it was cold from all the river run off. Plus it rained for like 3 days non stop. This for our last week in Hawaii!! We contemplated moving the boat to the drier side of the island but instead rented a car. Then we moved into more sheltered water, set a stern anchor and things got much better. Before we left Hanalei Bay had dried up and turned into the most beautiful bay in the world. The water was turquoise, the mountains had hundred foot water falls snaking down them and the weather was warm. Being the wet side we still had several showers each day but they were brief and the sun came out between. So glad we stayed!
The view from our cockpit
We also loved Kaua’i with its small town vibe (although it did still have a Costco!). We drove over most of the island, checking out WImea Canyon, Tunnels Beach, and finishing off the trip with surf lesson. That was probably the highlight! I totally loved it and our instructor was awesome.
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- Post surf lessons
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- Fogged in at Wimea Canyon
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- The Explorers Gang
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- Learning the ropes
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- HA!
And that brings us to now, on a night passage to Hanalei Bay on Kauai. It is a distance of about 100 nm, so a true overnighter. This will be our first with the two kids. Fynn is great at night as she seems to sleep through anything but she is a bit trickier to keep entertained during the day. We tag team her so neither of us gets too worn out and bounce between sit down activities like books and puzzles, and busy actives like dancing and rough and tumble play and when need a break we turn on a movie. We are certainly not superheros. Bowen is a bit easier during the day. He just need love and hugs and cuddles and food. Or he sleeps in his bed. He makes the nights trickier though! Tonight we are trying this shift: Kolby was on until Bowen’s first feed, which ended up being at 10:30. Kristine came on once Bowen was back asleep and will stay on till he wakes up again. Then Kolby is back on until the morning when Fynn will wake up. Kristine will be on then and Kolby will catch a bit of sleep. I am expecting we will both be nackered tomorrow but we will pull through! Night watch sure is a great time to catch up on blogging!
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