Acrux Log

August 1-September 1, 2004

Seward to Hawaii (via Kodiak);

2,682 nautical miles covered.

(4,439 miles from Seattle)

by Ray R. Collins, master

Sunday, August 1.

Got back from Fairbanks rather late. The boat was just fine; we'd been a little worried about it but it was just as we left it. Though we did have another boat tied up on the outside of us. They turned out to be a very nice couple; he had picked up our towels which we'd forgotten to take down, and we found them neatly folded. He also gave us a spare winch handle in case we lost ours on the way to Hawaii, which was really nice of him. We need to remember to mail it back to him!

Monday, August 2.

Spent the day working on the boat, getting it ready for sea. Frankie gave it a bath, we refilled our water jugs and got some of the stuff that we'd hauled down from Fairbanks stored away.

Tuesday, August 3.

Finished unloading the car. In the late afternoon took Matt, Tara, Michael, and his friend for a great late afternoon sail. Michael bought us dinner after we got back. We finished getting the boat ready for sea and then I drove out to Matt's to leave the car there. Matt's uncle Harry was hitching a ride to Kodiak with us, so Matt gave us a ride back down to the boat (since we were leaving first thing in the morning, I wanted Harry on the boat so there wouldn't be any delay in leaving. We put him in the aft cabin (port bunk) where Katy had bunked. (We still haven't cleaned off the starboard bunk!)

Wednesday, August 4. Mostly sunny. Head for Kodiak. Winds NE to 12.

We up very early, because we wanted to make it to Kodiak the next day. We managed to get over to the fuel dock shortly after 7 and completely filled up with fuel, except for about 5 gallons we left out of the 30 gallon drum to keep it from sloshing. By 7:30 we were under way, headed down the bay. We had decided to do a straight shot for Kodiak because we were eager to get headed for Hawaii.

I hadn't changed oil, so we stopped after about an hour and changed it. Gosh, that worked real well. The oil was thin and runny--so now I know that I need to get the engine completely warmed up before I change the oil so it doesn't take half an hour to drain out!

Not too long after we left Ressurection Bay a nice NE wind came up, and we went scooting right along under motor and sail. By late afternoon the NE wind had picked up strong enough so we could shut off the engine, and we sailed the rest to Kodiak.

We had set up shifts, and kept to them during the day. We made good progress, and were about halfway to Kodiak by midnight.

Thursday, August 5. Cloudy and rainy. Winds NW to 12. Covered 174 nm since Seward.

It started raining very early in the morning, and the visibility went way down. I had set up the compass the day before, and we set our coarse with the GPS and then used the compass to keep to it.

We first started seeing land through the rain around noon, and by 2 we were tied up in the harbor. Harry took off to see about getting a ride home, and we went up to the harbor master's office to pay and apply for a permanent slip, for this was to be the Acrux's home. Then we went to McDonald's and the post office. Ann, Evan John and his wife Cindy came down for a nice visit in the early evening. Ann had brought a bunch of books for Richie, which was very nice of her. Evan John gave Frankie a ride up to the grocery store for a few last minute items.

We went to bed fairly early, for we wanted to get an early start the next day.

Friday, August 6. Goodby, Kodiak.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

2203

29.6

57° 42’

152° 13'

Up at little before 0700, and by 7:03 I had cast off fromt he dock and we headed to Hawaii. We'd thought about getting more fuel for the boat, to replenish the 5 gallons we'd burned getting to Kodiak, but the fuel dock looked shut. So we kept going. We may regret it by the time we get to Hawaii, but time will tell!

The wind was about the same as the previous day, but was forcast to be up to 25 knots. So I set the mizzen and jib, while still behind Woody Island where it was only blowing 10 knots. The wind didn't freshen as I cleared Woody and Long Island, but the waves did. Steep 6-7' rollers were coming in from the SE and it got to us pretty bad. So, in the interest of keeping the motion down, we left the main down until mid-afternoon when the wind had died down. Even then we had it pretty well reefed.

Frankie was feeling pretty seasick so she stayed in bed most of the day. Richie was not feeling very well, but as far as we know he didn't throw up. The rough water made the 30 gallon drum slide back and forth and before we got it tied it was sloshing out and into the cotpit making a real mess. The odor of it got to me by early evening and I lost what little I'd managed to eat.

The weather started out crumby, but rapidly improved as we moved diagonally away from Kodiak Island. I ran the motor until we were well clear of the island, for we were on a lee shore.

Without the engine we were doing about 6 knots, even without the main. When the wind dropped we added sail to maintain the same speed. Which worked until late evening when we didn't want to add sail for fear the wind would increase and we'd have to shorten sail in the dark. Unfortunately the wind continued to drop during the night and by 4 am we were only doing a couple of knots.

Frankie gathered enough energy to give me a break from 7 to 11 pm and then I took it for the night. It was sunny all day (except for right around Kodiak Island) but as the sun set a low level of clouds moved rapidly in--and left almost as fast, exposing northern lights (1st time in August that I can recall seeing them!) and the rising moon. It was a great night for the first part, and then clouded up again.

Frankie:
Ray got up at 6:45 and we left Kodiak. We were going to fill up withfuel just to get all we could, but we didn't need much. They aren't open yet so we went out to start our crossing. Things were rough from the start and got worse to 8' waves by afternoon. I was seasick and spent the day in bed. What a way to begin!

Saturday, August 7. Quiet Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

102

2100

102

29.8

56° 00'

151° 51'

NEN

When Frankie took over at 5 am I told her to start the motor as soon as it was light enouh to see the compass and then went to bed in the aft cabin, which has a lot less motion than the main cabin. This turned out to be a really great sailing day; the boat sailed by itself (no steering needed) for 8 hours, which gave us time to get caught up on eating (that is, when mal-de-mar allowed--we were still a bit queasy). We are still getting used to the shifts, and have a ways to go before we'll really be used to them. We saw one ship off on the horizon about 4 pm. The outboard leaked fuel, so we took it outside and tied it on the mast ladder, where it rode for the rest of the trip quite nicely.

Sunday, August 8. Nasty Wind Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

241

1967

138

29.85

53° 43'

151° 28'

We had to shorten the sails four times, all the way down to reefed main. We aren't very confident of our boat handling skills yet, so we are playing it very conservative. The wind direction is great though, and pushing us right along. We made good time until the wind started dying away around 10 pm, getting down to around 8-9 knots.

Frankie:
Waves down to 3-4 feet this am. Lots of chop so stillsick but took 4 to 7 am watch. Wind came up more all day. Did our first reef (to the 2nd reef point) in heavy seas. By evening we lowered the mizzen and jib, so we were just using the reefed mainsail.

Monday, August 9. Sick Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

351

1856

112

29.62

51° 52'

151° 42'

E & W

I saw 2 ships about 1 am, one of which got pretty close. Frankie was not feeling very well, so I worked too many of her shifts and then I wasn't feeling well. Fortunately it sailed herself 8 to 2. The wind quit at 2, so we motored from then on. By evening Frankie was feeling up to taking her 6-10 pm watch and I managed to get some sleep before my 10 pm to 4 am shift. In the mid-afternoon we managed to catch half a gallon of water off the mainsail.

Frankie:
Started off ok at 4 am by by 5 I had low belly cramps real bad and the baby [fetus] was squirmy. Woke Ray and he told me to lie down in the main cabin. Played with Richie in bed until afternoon then went to aft cabin to sleep. Ray shut down and slept in the am too. He's over tired and sea sick. We decided that we're not eating enough regularly (too much effort when sick and sleeping at odd times). Need to change that. By 6 pm I was feeling a bit better and took the watch until 10.

Very pretty sunset. Light like alpenglow, only golden instead of pink. Lasted about 20 minutes. Nice ending to an otherwise stressful day.

Tuesday, August 10. Milestone Day

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

493

1716

143

29.59

49° 29'

151° 46'

NE-NW

Today we cross a bunch of milestones: We reached latitude 50, where it is supposed to start warming up (It is supposed to be 70° F by the time we get to 40° North latitude!); we had our coldest morning (49° F); we had our best 24 hours to date--143 miles [turned out to be the 5th best day of the entire trip]; we will be 1/4 of the way to Hawaii today; and we may [we didn't, but came real close] reach latitude 47° 36'--which is the Seattle latitude, and essentially as far south as I've ever been in this boat.

The night watch passed quietly. The first half was warm and cloudy, and the second cold and clear. The moon is down to it's last quarter and beginning to fall over on it's side. Looks weird for someone who has always seen it upright.

I got Frankie up a little before 4 am and managed to get some sleep. I'm starting to get used to the motion so it is a little easier to sleep. Frankie continued motoring and got me up at 7 am for my 3 hour watch. The sun was up and it was a chilly morning.

By 7:30 I had some sail up, and by 8:30 I'd put up the mail to the 2nd reef (which was still tied in from the other day). By 9:30 I was convinced teh 7-10 knot east wind would continue and took out the reef, getting the rest of the sail up. There wasn't enough wind to shut off teh motor though. If we didn't have a plane to catch I would have though...

I got Frankie up at 10 and made oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast. Yummy! The I lay down for the rest of my break, though only managed about an hour of sleep (up to 3.5 hours of sleep today!)

It was a good afternoon for sailing and we made good progress under full sail.

When Frankie got up from her afternoon nap at 17:30 we set about adjusting the sails for running downwind. This turned into quite an ordeal with much shouting (over the wind) of "port" "starboard" "watch out!" etc. Since this was the first time we'd made this adjustment with 15 knots of wind it was more difficult that it should have been (by the end of the trip 15 knots seemed like a nice breeze, not half a gale!). When we were finally all done with mizzen to starboard, main to port and jib to starboard we weren't very impressed with the results. The boat yawed around rather a lot and thejib tended to back rather often.. Need to figure out a better systems.

Dinner and then bed by 19:30--unfortunately Richie wanted out and his fussing kept me up to 20:00, which ment I only got a 2 hour nap. Now up to 5.5 hours of sleep *sigh*.

Frankie got me up at 22:00 and I began my long shift. We are far enough south (~Seattle) so the sun sets rather quickly--only 3/4 hour sunset instead of the 2-3 we are used to. So, shortly after I'd started it was dark, the stars were out and I was enjoying the occasional meteor. There seemed to be quite a few, so I started counting. Over 2 hours I saw 15. Not sure if this is a normal number and I just notice them more or if we're in a meteor shower [found out later it was a meteor shower].

Frankie:
Quiet morning. Ray made oatmeal and hot chocolate [it got mentioned by both of us because we were not eating right, and so it really hit the spot--Ray] Richie played outside a lot today. We're getting use to sea life. If we keep up the good distance like the last 24 hours we'll be in Hawaii just when all settle to sea life. Evening brought wind shift to tail wind. Put 1 reef in the main then moved it and mizen to port side. Motion hectic but not very high (4-5 ft seas). Grilled cheese for dinner. Still both pretty tired today. Ray connected the compass light last night since it was a dark, cloudy night.

Wednesday, August 11. Great running day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

632

1579

139

29.62

47° 10'

151° 53'

By 3 am the wind had backed a little bit and gone down enough so I ran the motor. When I got Frankie up at 4 we decided to take down the jib. Our first sail change in the dark! The wind came back later and we had a terrific day. It held pretty steady from the W, which is the best direction for us, and we made great time--by 8 am Thursday we'd gone 152 miles, which turned out to be our second best day.

I just was not getting quite enough sleep with the shift we had, so we decided to give me 4 hours in the early morning, which is when I sleep best. Also Richie would still be in bed still, so he wouldn't keep me up. That way Frankie would get 6 hours, and then I'd get 3-4 (depending on how long it took to change the watch). So our shifts were now: Ray 10 pm to 4 am; Frankie to 8 am; Ray to 11 am; Frankie to 2 pm; Ray to 6 pm; and finally Frankie to 10 pm. Which ment I was on watch for 13 hours, and Frankie for 11--assuming she felt up to it, which sometimes she didn't. This sounds like I should be getting lots of sleep, but it seldom worked out that way; I often had a very difficult time sleeping during the day (one of the reasons I wanted to get 4 hours in the early morning). If Frankie could have kept up this shift it would have worked very well I think, but a few days later ...well, read on and you'll see.

Frankie:
Good fast sail today. Richie poured dish soap all over the sink and counter this evening. What a mess. Left the reef in the main all day. Soup with extra veggies and mashed potatoes for dinner. Anne J. gave Richie several books while in Kodiak, which are good vocab builders. I put them in a bag in the bench, keeping out just a few. They help keep him occupied now, and should be good for doing school this winter and fall.

Thursday, August 12. Where's the warmer weather??

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

782

1427

152

29.6

44° 40'

152° 26'

When I got up at 8 and did the 8 am measurements I was dismayed to discover it was still 53°! What happened to the 4° per day warming we were supposed to see from 50° North to 40° North latitude? It was already 44° north and it should be 12° warmer!!

There was just barely enough wind to leave the sails up, and we spent the day motor sailing. I let Frankie sleep in at her 11 am shift, since I'd gotten extra during the night with the boat sailing herself. I do this whenever possible, putting the cushions on the bench and lying on them, or sometimes on the floor of the cotpit. I don't completely go to sleep though; getting up pretty often to check on things and have a look around. Sometimes though, if things are going extremely well (like they were last night) I'll catch an hour of sleep in the main cabin--usually on the floor, which has the least motion (not to mention if it is wet out I can just crash on the floor without getting undressed).

Then, after I did get her up, I stayed up most of the rest of my break doing chores and eating; only got an hour of sleep.

At 16:30 Frankie got up from her nap and did the dishes and made spaghetti. for dinner. Turned out great and really hit the spot with everyone. I got to bed about 18:30, in time for a good nap before my 10 pm to 4 am shift.

Frankie:
Motored a lot today. Quiet seas so we took the opportunity to re-fill the fuel tank, took out the reef from the main. A clip had come off the jib wire and we put that on again. The outhaul came unclipped and Ray managed to get it back on but the sail was on the wrong side of the reef line and had to be unclipped, moved, then clipped again. We made spaghetti for dinner, which we all enjoyed. Richie got into the leftovers and threw them all over the stove. Ray filled a bottle with hot water for my feet last night, and it really helped keep them warm.

Friday, August 13. Autopilot day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

927

1284

145

29.62

42° 15'

152° 39'

Mostly cloudy most of the day. The wind direction was perfect from the west though, so the boat sailed herself all day. This gave us free time to play with Richie, get caught up with this and do the dishes (something we haven't managed to keep up with). Toward evening the wind started to freshen, so we put in the second reef in the mainsail.

The temperature was finally up--and a big jump, too. I imagine this is the last of the cold weather that we'll see; hope it will be above 60° tomorrow. 8° latitude late though; wonder if that means we'll have a cold winter in Alaska this year?

Saturday, August 14. Nasty weather day

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1027

1203

114

29.7

40° 35'

151° 24'

As the night wore on the wind increased. At 2 am we took down the jib and mizzen, and by 3 we were running before the 25 knot wind. Frankie took over at 4, but got me up at 5:30 because she wasn't feeling good. The wind continued to freshen until about 8, peaking at 30 knots. We worked our way slightly south, but were being blown mostly east. Later in the day we made good time, just flying south.

Sunday, August 15.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1157

1081

130

29.65

38° 26'

151° 20'

The wind had let up, and we did a lot of motoring through fairly confused seas.

Monday, August 16.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1299

934

148

29.5

36° 03'

152° 08'

WSW

The wind was way up again. We had called Matt on the satelite telephone, and he told us there was a low to the NE and a high to the SW, which put us in a nasty spot. So we decided to try to outrun it. We put up all the sails and just flew. Frankie had a great time sailing in all the wind; one of her most enjoyable sail of the whole trip.

The wind was down a bit, and right on the nose which made it difficult to make any headway. We keep getting pushed east, which we don't fight very hard, for once we get in the tradewinds they'll push us back west again. Toward evening it really began to blow, and we decided we'd better wait it out. So we took down all the sails except the reefed main, and left the rudder tied against it so the main and the rudder were fighting each other. This worked very well, and kept us nicely balanced during the night.

Tuesday, August 17.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1378

877

88.3

29.4

34° 41'

151° 15'

This was the roughest day of the entire trip. It got a little too wild for the way we had it set up, so in the late morning I went out and put the last reef in the main. While I was doing that we came sliding sideways off a wave, and a small shark appeared from under us. It was a very pale color; seemed to be just hanging out under the boat. Kinda neat.

We actually liked the weather: since we weren't trying to go anywhere there was no reason not to get caught up on our sleep. We had moved into the after cabin shortly after starting the trip, and this is where we spent the day, reading, sleeping and playing with Richie. Really a very relaxing day, surprisingly one of the best of the whole trip. We didn't try to cook, just munched on our junk food all day, with a couple cans of vegies thrown in to balance our diet a bit better.

Wednesday, August 18.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1414

876

65.4

29.36

34° 11'

150° 04'

The wind didn't blow us nearly as far off course as I was expecting; as a matter of a fact we actually gained a mile. But it continued blowing out of the south all day, which didn't help us at all.

The weather was much improved by late in the morning so we got under way rather late. Unfortunately the fetus hadn't liked the rough weather, and was now causing considerable problem. So Frankie wound up on bed rest--for the entire rest of the trip. She would manage to give me short breaks now and then, but for the most part it was like I was solo-sailing.

Thursday, August 19.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1424

882

28.6

29.52

34° 02'

149° 31'

Yikes! The wind and waves combined to make us actually loose ground. This is the only day of the entire trip that we ended up further from Hawaii than we started; even so we managed to keep the loss down to only 5 miles. But we have continued getting pushed east due to all the south wind.

Friday, August 20.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1439

862

20.5

29.64

33° 46'

149° 47'

Finally managed to make a few miles in the right direction. We've now been 4 days without making anywhere close to 100 miles. At this rate it is going to take a really long time to get to Hawaii; just a week ago it looked like we'd nearly be there by now, and in the last week we've only gone 422 miles toward Hawaii--compared to our first week where we covered 919. Not only is the wind direction wrong, but Frankie can't help steer any more. About the most she can do is make something to eat; if she stays out of bed for more than an hour she starts having cramps, which is a pretty serious thing when you are pregnant! So she stays in bed almost all the time. Of course I need to sleep, so we are spending a significant part of the time shut down so I can.

By late evening I was pretty well tired out. It looked like it would sail itself, so I set it up and went to bed, just getting up once to check it in the middle of the night.

Saturday, August 21. Sunny Day!

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1474

808

58.1

29.62

33° 10'

150° 40'

SSW

Unfortunately when I got up at 7 am to discover the sails aback and we were drifting northward. When I did the 8:30 position it was exceedingly disappointing: only 58 miles total covered, and only subtracting 54 from our remaining distance to Hawaii. The next day, though, makes me think that our location/distance measurement wasn't quite as bad as it looks here, for the next day it showed us doing 155 miles--with basically no wind. So I think this measurement put us to the northward of where we really were (not sure how I messed up to do this).

The wind was from the SSW and we could just hold 150°. Not very good, but better than nothing. It was very pleasant sailing though--a nice steady wind and, after some heavy rain in the early am, nice and sunny. Breakfast was hopelessly haphazard: left over pancakes with prego or peanutbutter and jam, depending on who wanted what.

Toward late afternoon the wind veered far enough west so we could hold 180°, a big improvement. Richie was hungry so we ate an early dinner of egg salad sandwiches, which finished off the eggs. None of them spoiled, so we did pretty well.

In the late evening the wind faded down to 3-7 knots. I managed to set it up to self-steer, and then (unlike the previous night) got up every 2 hours to check and make sure we were going the right way. Of course it worked just fine, but better safe than sorry as we found out.

Sunday, August 22. No Sail Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1591

724

155

29.62

31° 13'

150° 12'

0.5

This was more like what I'd been expecting the doldrums to be like (the doldrums run from about 40° to 30° north latitude). Very little wind. So for the first time since we'd left Kodiak we actually had all the sails down. We spent the entire day motoring, not stopping until 2 am. I steered until 1, and then Frankie managed to steer for another hour.

the day was a hot one, clear and sunny. I'd not furled the mailsail, and it made a good place to get out of the sun, which was feroceious by mid-afternoon.

Breakfast was haphazard gain; Richie and I ate raisins, dates and finished the Prego with crackers. Before it got too hot Frankie boiled potatoes and then we finished the last of the mayonaise in potato salad for dinner.

Long (200') rollers from the SE began coming in the late afternoon. We hardly even knew they were there because they just barely rocked the boat. We are a little concerned about what might be making them; this is what I'd imagined hurricane waves to look like at a range of a couple thousand miles.

Monday, August 23. 1.5 showers day

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1692

596

128

29.55

29° 30'

151° 39'

0.5

I was up at 7 and started motoring to assure we'd reach our goal for the 24 hours ending at 8:30--get within 600 miles of Hawaii. We made it with 4 miles to spare.

After doing the 8:30 log I made pancakes for breakfast. Frankie wasn't up yet, so it was hectic steering, cooking, eating and feeding Richie--most of which I had to do all at the same time. But I managed.

A little bit before 10 I shut off the engine and called Matt (Mom was out of town, so I couldn't call her like I usually did on Monday. Our normal schedule was: Mom, Monday and Saturday; Matt Wednesday; Bob on Friday and Sunday.) He gave us a nice weather report: low about 1,500 miles SE (this was what was making these SE waves we were seeing), and very light (forcast to be 1-2 knots) tradewinds all the way to Hawaii.

Frankie got up as I was putting up the sails. We are down to our last 24 hours of fuel so even though there was only enough wind to push us at 3 knots we sailed. Ver gradually the wind picked up until by midnight we were doing up to 8 knots occasionally.

Today was the first day since leaving Kodiak that we ate 3 meals. Lunch was chicken mixed withnoodles and peas, dinner (on deck, in the dark after sunset) was rice and pineapple.

The showers gave us a little bit of water, which made for a nice change from out stored water that was starting to get pretty stale. I'd catch it as it ran off the sail, usually by setting a couple of pots under the most active drips.

For an Alaskan it was another scorching hot day. We spent a good part of the day hiding from the sun: in the shadow fo the cotpit, shadow of the sail, sitting in the aft cabin bench. I had ropes rigged (like always) on the steering wheel, so you could steer from anywhere. Two or three times an hour I'd get up and take a look around, make sure we weren't about to be run over by a ship. It takes a ship about 40 minutes to go from the horizon to even with us, so we figured twice and hour would be often enough to keep from being run over.

Frankie managed to give me 2 breaks; an hour in the morning and 1.5 hours after dark. I got a little sleep during this time, so I managed to stay awake until 4 am. Then I backed the main, lowered the mizzen, tied the wheel hard over and went to sleep on the main cabin floor because Frankie was having ahard time sleeping--the fetus didn't like the increasing motion and was very squirmy, so Frankie was sleeping crosswise in the bunk to minimize the motion. This left no room for me!

Tuesday, August 24. Hot Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1781

494

103

29.51

28° 01'

152° 37'

I slept in until 8--4 hours--and got under way with the jib and main. It came out of being backed very nicely. After I did the 8:30 log--we made 102 miles toward Hawaii (note: the 24 hours distance was measured by the distance, as measured by the GPS, from our current position to the position we were at the previous mornign at 8:30, and not by subtracting the distance remaining to go)--I set the mizzen. The tradewinds were down, so even with it up we weren't going very fast; 4-5 knots mostly. Later in the day the wind freshened a bit, and our speed went up to 5-7.

Left over pancakes for breakfast, with a few prunes and raisins to fill in the cracks. Frankie made a really good tuna casserole for dinner, which unfortunately disagreed with her [fetus?] because it came back up again. She was also having some cramping and so only managed to give me two breaks. The first was only 45 minutes while Richie was taking his nap and the second of half an hour at 23:30. So I was pretty zonkered by 1 am, and, since our goal for the day was to get it down to 400 miles left to Hawaii I decided to quit when we'd made that goal. I really was getting pretty far behind on sleep.

There are four reasons we were having such troubles with this crossing:
1. Frankie was having troubles with the pregnancy.
2. We were in a hurry because we needed to get back to Alaska before the greenhouse froze.
3. We didn't have an autopilot, which ment we needed to steer nearly all the time.
4. We were too shorthanded--especially after Frankie started having trouble.
We would have made out a lot better if even one or two of these weren't issues, but that is life. In general I was loosing a ton of sleep. For example in the last 24 hours the boat had laid ahull (ie no one steering) for 4 hours; Frankie did 2.25 and I did 17.75 which ment I got almost no sleep by the time I'd done all the other little things that need doing.

Wednesday, August 25. Bye, bye plane.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

1878

387

108

29.46

26° 25'

153° 33'

ENE

This morning our airplane left Honolulu without us. Not surprising; we might have made it if everything went perfect, but we hadn't really expected to when we got the tickets. But that was the only date available for the mileage tickets, and we were told to just get them and if we missed the flight it wouldn't be hard to change them. We just hope they are as easy to change as promised!

I had tried to sleep in the aft cabin but it was rocking enough to keep me awake in spite of my exhaustion, so I moved onto the floor of the main cabin at 2 am. Frankie came and got me up at 7 am and helped me get the main and jib sails up. We cheated a bit and used teh motor to pwer the boat around into a position we could hoist the main, and then I motor sailed for an hour to recharge the batteries.

The 8:30 fix shows us only 387 miles left to go! We are getting pretty eager to get there, especially since I am basically solo sailing and we are quite concerned about Frankie's cramping. Only 4 day sleft to go if we can manage 100 miles a day.

It had rained during the night and when another heavy shower came along I set out some pots under the main sail and caught some. We have about 10 gallons of water left (20 used to date) so we are doing fine, but all our water tastes very stale and ikky (like rotten rubber) so fresh is a treat, for me anyhow (Frankie doesn't like it).

Sailing was a mixed bag today. Part of the time it blew very nicely from the ENE and it would sail itself (allowing me extra rest), others it was so light I had to motor. Toward the end of the afternoon I hit 510 on the tach, which is where I calculated I would run out of this batch of fuel. I shut it down and dipped the tank--only 1" left, or about 1 gallon usable. We had 28 gallons left, and I transfered all but 4 to the maintank. didn't do the last 4 because when I pumped it from the drum to the 5 gallon can it got all mixed with water. so I left it to settle--and as a spare.

There was very little wind and I was hot and sticky from refueling so I decided to go swimming. I dug out my snorkle and mask so I could check the bottom and prop while I was in--and, after tying myself to the boat with a rope, jumped in. The water was great! No fouling on the bottom yet, but there was a piece of line caught in the prop. I dove down and pulled if off--hope it makes us go faster.

The water felt so good that Frankie decided she wanted to try it too. So we tied a rope on her and she jumped in too. Of course Richie wanted part of the action, so I held his hands and lowered him down until he was knee deep. He kicked and splashed and had a great time. When it was time for Frankie to get back aboard she had a little trouble getting up on the swim step, but after a couple of tries she made it. The baby is in just the wrong spot for that sort of activity!

I motor sailed until midnight...I had wanted to go until 2 am but I was just too tired. In the last 24 hours I steered for 17 hours, Frankie didn't manage any because the fetus was too squirmy, and I left it ahull for 5 hours.

Thursday, August 26. Scorcher Day.

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

2003

249

141

29.43

24° 22'

154° 50'

ENE

I managed to get it to self-steer on a heading of 175°, which was close enough to what we needed to let it sail all night. Got up every 2 hours for half an hour to check it, but it held very nicely. As our 8:30 am distance showed: 141 miles for the day, and 138 of that was towards Hawaii. Things are looking up! There was a ship one of the times I got up, so I stayed up an extra half an hour to make sure it wasn't coming close.

I got up at 7 am and steered us to almost the correct course; we want to steer 215° now, and we managed to average 210° over the day. Starting to get real close now--only 250 miles left to go. Too tired to be really excited yet though.

I made oatmeal for breakfast and in thelate morning Frankie managed to steer for 1.5 hours so I could get a nap. Got up feeling much better.

The day was mostly clear and sunny. Byu late mornign it was roasting hot so we all moved into the aft cabin; I sat on the bench and steered and Richie played and Frankie read. In the early evening we exited and after dinner of green beans & 2 cans of Ravioli and a quart of tang I had a really great evening sail.

At dark we put 2 reefs in the main, and we were glad we did for it hardly slowed us down at all.

Shortly after dark Frankie opened the last jug of milk and gave half to Richie, finishing it off herself. She had been having a lot of trouble with cramping due to the waves, and we were hoping this would help.

In the last 24 hours I have steered 16.5, left the boat sailing herself for 6 hours and Frankie steered for 1.5 hours. Of the 7.5 hours I had off I managed to sleep about 5, which is an improvement, but still not very good.

Friday, August 27. Getting close...

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

2089

137

112

29.45

23° 01'

156° 14'

ENE

At 1 am I tried to get the boat to self-steer, but every angle it would hold was pounding nastily and bothering Frankie and the fetus so finally I gave up and turned N, which backed the jib and main, leaving the mizzen pushing.

It was a windy, blustery night and pretty choppy so I was up every hour to check on it. Finally gave up at 6:30 and resumed sailing.

After doing mymorning fix I plotted everything on the plotting sheet for my final approach into Oahu. At noon I did a noon sun sight, and plotted it. I wasn't too far off from what the GPS said. I had hoped to do my entire approach into Hawaii with the sextant, but I just didn't have enough energy to tackle the job.

The wind was up quite a bit by late in the afternoon, so we put in the second reef in the main. But the sailing was great; we made excellent time.

We were really hoping to see Hawaii before it got dark, but no luck. Just for fun I thought I'd try the marine radio and see if we would get anything. Lo and behold! Communications! The weather report was nice to listen too; now we had a good idea of what to expect for the next day.

I had wanted to keep going until 1 am, but by 11:30 I was falling asleep at the wheel. About the third time I did it I decided to quit, dropped the mizzen, backed the jib into the (reefed) main and went to bed.

Saturday, August 28. Arrival!!

8:30 am observations:

Nautical Miles to

24 hour
Dist

Temp

Baro-
meter

Latitude

Longitude

Wind, last 24 hours

Wave, last 24 hours

Kodiak

Hawaii

Dominant
Direction

Max

Min

Dominant

Direction

Max

Min

2167

126

29.38

ENE

I got up at 5:30 and got under way. Shortly after I got up I noticed lights up ahead. After watching them for a bit I decided they had to be cars on Oahu.

As soon as it was light out I put the mizzen back up and shook out the reefs from the main. By 8:30 we were sailing along the north shore of the island. The wind hadn't picked up, and as we drew near land it faded a bit.

When I went below to make breakfast Richie was standing on the bench facing the window that looked out at Oahu. I asked him if he'd looke out the window. He shook his head sleepily. I said "Well, look out!" So he did. His eyes go big; he pointed, paused and announced "ROCK!"

We rounded the western tip of the island. I'd expected the wind to die down, but it was actually funneled and we got a great run for half an hour. Frankie steered while I did miscelaneous chores. But the wind didn't last too long, and before long we were motoring with the sails down and furled. I had Frankie steer while I set up the Sun Shower and took a shower on deck. Then I gave Richie a shower. Finally I steered while Frankie took a shower.

We had arranged with Ko Olina Marine for a slip (which Matt had paid for us, since we didn't want to use the unsecured phone to give out our credit card number). The marina is at Barber's Point, and we called ahead and got cleared into the harbor. They met us at the fuel dock, where it was easy to land, and told us how to get to our slip. Then they went over to our slip and helped us get tied down. After getting things tidied up we went up to the marina and called customs and the Agriculture people. They allowed us to check in via phone, so we were all set (the customs said we didn't even have to call since we were out of Alaska).

Sunday, August 29.

Took at easy today. In the evening we went to a birthday party being thrown for one of our fellow boaters.

Monday, August 30.

We went swimming in the swimming hole near the marina. Later in the day we rented a car.

Tuesday, August 31.

We drove around to the east side of the island and went swimming in a bay there. Then we continued on around the island, stopping for dinner in downtown Honolulu.

Wednesday, August 32.

We returned the car, got on the plane and flew back to Alaska.

Next logbook: Hawaii