Vacation from our "vacation"

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be on a vacation. I could go back to high school Latin and let the nerd in me peak out its head but in favor of our shortened, 21st century, attention spans I will just fill you in on what we have been up to for the last few weeks.  Since our arrival in Hawaii and our frolics with the dolphins on the leeward side of the Big Island, the last week of May Adam and I made our way to Maui just in time for his parents to arrive from Wisconsin.  This began two weeks of family fun, with some of my family arriving four days later.  There were two very notable events that occurred.  First, we got to sleep in a real bed!  We love Moments, and I have to admit that all of our various bunks are surprisingly comfortable, but after almost nine months of sleeping in the pie-wedge-shaped V-berth I was ready to stretch my legs, horizontally.  I have luckily (for Adam) given up the habit of kicking in my sleep for which I was famous as a child, but it is impossible to avoid bumping knees every once in a while sleeping in the bow of a boat.  Secondly, although Adam and I have been dating for close to five years, this was the first time that any of our family members had met each other.  You might think that this could be nerve racking but in general the two weeks we spent with our family were a wonderful time of exploring this beautiful island, lounging on the beach, and spending quality time with our family members whom we miss very much despite our tendencies to head off around the world.  Adam and I also got to enjoy that nice, juicy steak we had been dreaming about since about 2000 miles from Hawaii!

Of course, our trip to Maui was not uneventful.  Due to the (still paper based, imagine!) system of renting dock space and moorage here in Hawaii we had to stop at a DLNR office on the Big Island before making it to Maui over Memorial Day weekend.  It is a good thing that we left Hilo with some days to spare because we ended up staying in Kailua-Kona and Honokohau Harbor to make some repairs before jumping across the channel to Maui.  We spent one night anchored off of Oneloa and then headed into Maalea Harbor to tie up while our parents are here.  Adam and I knew that Maui was windy.  It is a famous spot for kite boarders and wind surfers, but despite this we truly had no idea.  In the harbor, wind whips through at 20-30 kts on a regular basis!  The leeward side of the Big Island is somewhat projected from the trade winds due to the high mountains.  Maui is essentially shaped like a dumbbell running east to west and, it turns out, that wind funnels right through that central valley making Maalea harbor one of the windiest in the world.  This is good for our batteries as the wind turbine is running full blast, but tough on our hearts because our boat, as well as all of the larger boats surrounding it, move quite a bit in the wind.  We have out every dock line we own, another that was already in the slip tied to a tire to help with the movement and surge, plus our secondary bow anchor out the back to keep the boat from slamming into the dock or the other boat!  We ended up buying another fender because the four we have plus the tires and carpet on the dock were not enough!  Oh and did I mention that there is a reef in the middle of the harbor and that the majority of boats are Tahiti tied instead of side tied to a dock? All of this and there is still a 10+ year waiting list for locals to get a slip.  I guess that small craft advisories nearly every day make for pretty good sailing, if you are into that kind of thing.

For now, it is back to boat work for us.  We once again had our lovely visitors cart gear back and forth.  Christmas three times in one year is not bad. Although the general impression of cruisers involves a healthy tan, colorful drinks with umbrellas and lots of time lounging on beaches, that ideal is far from our day to day life.  I now understand what my history teachers meant when they said that the invention of dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators made it possible for women to have more free time or enter the work force.  Our days are mainly filled with repairs and chores, not exactly the vacation most non-cruisers imagine yet still a separation and change from our normal life.  Despite our chores, life is more simple, we get more sleep and we have much more quality time together, fulfilling our main goal for this year.  It is hard for me to even remember what it was like when we were dating long-distance. For now we have no idea what the future holds.  Similar to our plan to head "south" in Mexico we are heading "west" here in Hawaii.  This phase of the adventure will end in September when I have to be back on the mainland to deal with residency applications and interviews. Until then we are exploring all of our options: applying for jobs both here and at home, putting the boat on the market, looking for crew to sail back but most of all taking our time and enjoying Hawaii.

Close Encounters

A boobie catching a ride on our sail.

I got some exercise yesterday morning; I grabbed my mask and fins and jumped over the side of the boat to hang out with some spinner dolphins swimming circles around the coral reefs in our bay.  I cannot even begin to describe the amazing feeling of being in the wild with these wonderful, intelligent creatures.  Some were even curious enough to come very close and turn their head to make eye contact before dashing away.  There were about 45 dolphins in total including at least two babies no longer than one and a half to two feet.  I know better than to get too close when babies are involved but I barely had to chase the pod as they drifted in and out of my view.  It was just me and the dolphins for about and hour before Adam joined us.  Despite being very cold (I am completely spoiled having grown up in the South) this was definitely a highlight of the whole year.  We are currently anchored in Honomalino Bay, a secluded location in the shadow of Mauna Loa bordered on the south by an old lava flow and the north by palm trees and a black sand beach.  The visibility in the cove is about 50 feet so we can easily see the ripples in the sand on the bottom from the deck of the boat and watching the dolphins below and above the water is a definite treat.  If you have never seen spinner dolphins and what they can do, Google "Hawiian Spinner Dolphins" and be amazed!  The coral here is much more impressive than anything we saw in Mexico, even if we hadn't
made friends with Flipper.  We were also able to dive our anchor last night and make sure it was set well, which always leads to a comfortable night's rest.

Adam heading off the trail into the roots of a Banyan.  Do things ever change?

We had hoped to ease back into sailing after our long voyage but that was not the case.  From Hilo, any destination secure enough to call an anchorage is at least at 24-hour sail.  We actually started our voyage on Sunday but as we were exiting the bay the Coast Guard radioed that there was a 36-foot sailing vessel disabled outside of the Hilo breakwater.  That could describe Moments, but we were having a fine time sailing and were not disabled in the least!  In the distance, however, was another sailing boat with their sails barely raised and when we approached them we learned that they to had crossed from Mexico but that their engine had quit working almost 1000 miles from Hilo.  Typically that is not a problem in trade wind sailing. We didn't run our engine until that last day of our voyage as we were headed into Hilo.  It is much easier to anchor using an engine than under sail, but this story provides another reason to learn how to do both!  Being the friendly mariners that we are we offered a tow back into the harbor and after a few tries we managed to attach them to our stern and tow them through six foot swell into Reed's Bay, one of the anchorages in Hilo.  It took four or five tries to get them anchored in the right place but in the end Adam and I were able to anchor ourselves and take a nap!  We decided that one false start was good for the day and instead of heading out of the harbor immediately rose early the next morning to travel clockwise around the island.  It was a great sail and despite some currents doing their best to hold us in Hilo we made it to Honomalino with plenty of light to anchor.  I never knew that the big island was so, well, big!  Right now we are about to weigh anchor and head further north with the hope of crossing to Maui Friday or Saturday to meet the first wave of visitors in Sugar Beach for two weeks of family fun.

Rachel clicking her heels to be on land, even if it is in the caldera of a volcano.

For those interested regarding our repairs: The gooseneck is holding up and supported with an insane amount of webbing but the reefing hooks have completely broken off.  That is where the majority of the damage was anyways so no big surprise and it looks like the weather may not even provide enough wind for a slow sail across the channel so we may get lucky here.  We have not hand a problem using the cunningham to reef and have ordered a replacement gooseneck to arrive in Maui while we are there.  Our outboard went on the fritz two days before we left Mexico but the anchorages so far in Hawaii have been so calm that we are easily rowing the dingy anywhere we need to go.  The propane system, which has continually given us problems for the entire year is once again broken but we think we have it figured out this time.  We can cook but for safety reasons keep the tanks closed when we are not using them.  Replacement parts are on their way with our parents.

OK, now I need to start cooking this challah french toast in my effort to burn through all of the remaining Mexican eggs!  Thank you for all of the wonderful messages of congratulations and support we have received in the last week.  It has been really touching.  We were honestly not aware that so many people are reading our blog and have followed our journey.  Aloha!

One of the many beautiful sunsets

In Recovery

The most remarkable thing is that the boat is no longer moving.  I cannot even begin to explain how strange that is.  My legs are both sore from use and yet atrophied from only walking a maximum of 36' feet for a month,  I am covered in bruises affectionately called "boat bites" from zigging when I should have zagged and I can't believe I am writing this blog post before taking a shower since I have only showered once a week since we left Mexico.  We left the fuel dock in Ixtapa on Sunday, April 13th at 20:20 UTC and we put our anchor down Sunday, May 11 at 21:47 UTC making the trip about 28 days, so our estimate of one month was pretty close.  In general the crossing was excellent.  We had relatively good weather, moderate winds, only occasional large swell and most importantly the boat and its sailors are still in one piece.  We entered Hilo harbor on a drizzly Sunday morning just as the sun was melting back the morning rain clouds.  Even though I have always been a fan of environmental regulations, having left

Our V-berth shortly before departure!

Zihuatanejo only days after government agents posted "playa contaminado" signs along the beach and then pulling into a busy Hawaiian harbor that was still clean enough that you could see the bottom 35-40 feet below the boat, I have a renewed conviction about their importance.  After anchoring in Radio Bay we did a deep clean of the boat and spent the first night celebrating with a good dinner, a bottle of wine and listening to the luau going only feet from our boat.  Unfortunately, we were confined to Moments until Customs and the Harbor Master could clear us officially into the country today but the beautiful sounds of the Hawaiian language and ukuleles were a more than pleasant welcome.

Fresh food from the sea

There were many exciting times on our adventure across the ocean, a few of which I covered in my other posts but here are some of the highlights!

Provisions: We were carrying 110 gallons of diesel, 110 gallons of water and 50 gallons of gasoline.  We still have more than 50% of all of these quantities.  Still, I wouldn't do it any other way. Even though we ran our refrigerator most of the way across, we didn't have to run the generator or engine nearly as much as we thought we would because we made plenty of wind power.  We did make some solar power but the sky was cloudy except for a handful of days, the wind power is really what saved us.  When it comes to food we were very well provisioned and didn't even have to break into our canned/boxed supplies.  I still have about 35 onions and a few pounds of potatoes!

A little serenade before sunset

Casualties: Our biggest problem was chafe on the Monitor lines.  We had to move the blocks running the lines thought the cockpit, rotate the lines, wrap them in tape, and many other measures to limit, distribute or control chafe and made it here just in time.  All of the sheets will probably have to be replaced before we head anywhere long distance.  We also chafed through one of the belts for our wheel pilot, the electronic autopilot, but we had a spare so that was no big deal.  The most important item to break was the gooseneck, the large hinge that connects the boom to the mast.  It did not completely break and we were able to support the cracks that developed by rigging up a webbing harness.  Our best guess is that it bent and cracked when I (rather violently) accidentally jibed the boat during one of the brief periods of heavy swell and wind that we experienced.  Luckily we had already reefed the sails (decreased their size) so the damage was nothing we couldn't deal with.

Fish count: 7 dorado (mahi-mahi) and one tuna

Notes on wildlife: We were surprised that there were birds with us the whole way across.  Neither of us thought that we would see birds way out in the middle of the ocean, but there they were every day.  We also didn't see any whales, turtles or dolphins once we cleared the Mexican coast and have yet to see any in Hawaii.  Lastly, flying fish can fly an impressive distance!

The best part of for me is that we were literally sailing into the sunset every evening and believe me, there were each different and spectacular!

Would we do it again?  Yes!  Yes, we are sick of sailing, we have been dreaming of steak and Taco Bell since about day 15, and we are planning to spend the next two hours in the shower, but we wouldn't give up the experience for anything.

News!

LAND HOOOOOOO!  That is all.

Big Ocean, Small Boat

I cannot believe that another week has passed.  We are making steady progress with great sailing conditions.  Energy is low but morale is high and we are very excited to make landfall hopefully sometime this weekend or early next week.  

My biggest complaint right now is that I just finished my last book!  All I have to read now are boat part manuals and reference books, not exactly the kind of reading you want when you are trying to stay awake on a night shift.  I brought six novels with me and thought that would be sufficient for four weeks but it turns out that I should have brought twice as many.  I would try to spend some time at night navigating by the stars or at least trying to find the constellations I know but we have had almost 100% cloud cover, day and night, for most of the trip.  Today happens to be sunny but I would put money down on clouds rolling in sometime around sunset and staying put until well after sunrise tomorrow.  This is great for our efforts to prevent sunburn but it also makes us a little energy starved when our solar panels don't get a full dose. 

We are feeling very comfortable with our provisions.  We still have more than 50% of the diesel, gasoline and water that we brought with us and although I spend some time every day throwing out rotten produce there are a few apples, oranges, tomatoes, cabbages and cucumbers left in addition to all of the potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets and jicama that wouldn't go bad even if our trip were twice as long!  

This week we have been very fortunate because our persistence on the fishing front has paid off.  After coming down the Baja this fall we really didn't have much luck fishing until just recently.  Part of that is probably timing: we were sailing most of the time in the middle of the day, and part of it is probably laziness: we were using the same lures over and over and by the time we removed them they were barely sharp and definitely rusty.  We did catch a tuna early in the trip but it was mealy and we ended up throwing most of it back.  However, in the last few days our luck has changed.  We have caught so many dorado (aka mahi-mahi or dolphin fish) that we have released a number of them. Adam even rigged up one of the flying fish that unfortunately landed on our deck to see if he could catch a monster, but no luck so far. Yesterday I reeled in one dorado that would probably keep us fed for four days if we ate fish for every meal!  Unfortunately, I don't know if we will be able to eat it all before it spoils because we have had to turn our refrigerator off because it was using too much power, but right now the sun is shining, we are almost there, fresh ceviche is on ice for lunch and it is past time for my nap!

480 nautical miles to go!
2546 nautical miles covered

Are we on a boat or a roller coaster?

Despite our toasts to Poseidon both when we left Ixtapa and when we could no longer see land I think I pissed him off with that last blog post.  Poseidon, I am sorry, you are all powerful.  The sea can be fierce and we have unfortunately seen a little bit of that over the last few days. 

Although, what we have seen is nowhere near true storm conditions, for the last 72 hours we have been getting winds approaching or above 20kts and seas of 8-10+ feet.  The worst part is that the swell period is extremely short.  The measurement "period" is akin to the wavelength if you have ever taken a physics course -- it is the distance from the top of one wave to the top of the next.  When the period is short by the time you come down off of one wave there is very little time, if any, for you and the boat to recover before you begin your ascent again.  I do not want to worry everyone, Moments has done very well and we are safe.  

The major problem has been that the waves, combined with the higher force winds have been too much for the Monitor windvane and we have had to hand steer.  Hand steering, especially through waves like that, is exhausting.  The first day we got into a routine of one hour shifts which was about as long as I could manage to keep the boat pointed in the right direction.  Luckily, the previous day I had made a huge pot of vegetable soup and baked some bread so we at least didn't have to spend our precious sleeping time cooking meals.  

We have experienced similar conditions before coming down the Baja peninsula, but for those shorter trips of 2-3 days there was a light at the end of the tunnel; we just exhausted ourselves hand steering and then slept soundly at anchor.  This time, after one whole day of one hour hand steering shifts we knew that there was no way we were going to be able to sustain that pattern through the night and the next day, after which it looked like the weather was going to change. 

Lets just say that I now know how Popeye got such big biceps, and trust me it wasn't the spinach.  So, what did we do?  We hove to.  Heaving to is a magical sailing technique that allows you to essentially park the boat at a "comfortable" angle to the wind and the waves.  Once you achieve the correct angle and lock down the wheel all you need to do is keep a watch to make sure you don't get run down by a tanker.  Yes, you do drift a little but we actually drifted directly towards Hawaii, making progress when we weren't even intending to move!  

Adam and I both got a good night's rest and we were back to sailing this morning under much more favorable conditions.  We have actually passed the half way mark today so it is all down hill from here.  Or should I say down wind? (Corny, I know, maybe the sleep has gone to my head.)

1500 miles to go!

Life on S/V Moments

All is well on the SV Moments!  Sure, we are both already feeling a little stir crazy but we have good weather and it looks like this pattern might hold for a while.  

Before we left I had a lot of questions about what exactly it was we would be doing for our month at sea.  Frankly, it's pretty boring.  We like it boring, we want it to be boring; boring means everything is as it should be and we have good sailing conditions. 

Life on the boat is pretty much like life everywhere else, you just have to understand that everything moves.  We also don't have a real shower, but that is another story.  The first few days of this trip, and our other longer sails, were exhausting.  While at anchor, we had gotten used to going to bed and rising with the sun, which typically gives us 9-12 hours of sleep a night!  This has been a serious treat for me as medical school typically afforded me only 5-7 hours, maximum.  We cannot truly anchor the boat at night in the middle of the ocean.  The depth where we are right now is more than 3000ft.  Also, there are other boats to worry about.  As as it takes about 14 miles to stop a large cargo ship or tanker and fishing vessels generally have such bright lights that they cannot see us until we are very close, too close, we are always on the lookout.  

We take three hour watch shifts all day and all night.  The good thing is that we are generally so exhausted by the end of our shift that sleeping is not a problem.  We also have plenty of snacks, warm beverages and reading material to make the shifts more enjoyable.  Also, did I mention the spectacular scenery?  Sharks, turtles, HUGE tuna (yes, we can see them through the water), rays, dolphins, whales, birds etc and at night the bioluminecence makes our boat look like one of the floating cars in a Jetson's cartoon, floating among the wonderfully starry sky.  I cannot count the number of falling stars I have seen since this trip began.  

Luckily, one of the things you typically do not have to do while on watch is physically steer the boat.  There is no power steering here and to keep the boat pointed through the waves is a significant workout.  Occasionally, it is necessary to hand steer for a while and even with the Monitor windvane (a mechanical autopilot of sorts) doing most of the work you always have to be alert and make small corrections to the course and most importantly adjust the sails. 

Now that we are ticking off our 10th day at sea (4/23) we have both become more accustomed to the sleep schedule, our meals actually occur at regular time intervals and we have fallen into a routine regarding necessary chores on the boat.  We eat pretty much how we would eat anywhere else which includes baking bread once or twice a week.  We get weather information and even some emails from our family through our SSB radio once a day, which is how I send out these updates. 

So there you have it, extraordinary yet at the same time boring, just the way we like it.