Aloha from the Hawaiian Islands!
28 July 2015 | Honolulu, HI
Kristy
After 19 days at sea, we have made it to Hawaii! And other than one hairy night of 40+ knots of wind and reefing fiascoes, it was an incredibly pleasant passage. The seas were calm, the skies sunny, and the dolphins playful. We couldn't have asked for a better passage.
As we approached the Hawaiian islands, we still didn't have a solid plan of where exactly we wanted to make landfall. Maybe the Kona coast of the big island, maybe Honolulu on Oahu, maybe straight up to Kauai. Finally we decided on Honokohau Bay along the Kona coast, mainly because it was closer than any of the other spots and we'd been out of beer for weeks! We had our first glimpse of the island of Hawaii during the wee hours of our 18th day at sea. Tim woke me up for my morning watch at 4 am and we both stared in awe at the bright red glow of the lava flowing into the ocean from the constantly erupting Kilauea volcano. We had watched the lava flow six years earlier when Candine last sailed into the Hawaiian islands so we were really excited to see it again. Thinking Austen would enjoy the sight, I woke him up and told him to come up on deck. And then he had to go and ruin everything and inform us that the red glow we were seeing was actually the red lights of the airport, not the volcano. Oops.
As the sun came up, the excitement of spotting land disappeared along with the island. Hawaii was soon engulfed in a weird, foggy haze to the point where we couldn't even see the island ten miles away, and it's a high island! This, coupled with the wind now on the nose and a current working against us, forced us to rethink our plan. We had slowed down to the point that there was no way we'd be able to make a landfall before dark and approaching an unknown bay, at night, in the fog, didn't sound too appealing. So we resigned ourselves to one more day at sea and carried on to Oahu. I guess this was the right decision because we were soon rewarded with a large pod of dolphins playing on our bow. This was the most dolphins we had ever seen at one time, and they seemed to be surfacing in slow motion, allowing us to finally get some good dolphin pictures!
Once we were out of the lee of Hawaii, the wind picked up and the current was going with us, so we were barreling along at 7.5 - 8 knots. The TransPac (a race from LA to Honolulu) racers we've encountered here in Honolulu would no doubt laugh at our excitement over this speed, but we're a big, heavy boat and we don't reach that speed very often! Despite this extra boost, we were still looking at a late night landfall at Ala Wai Yacht Harbour. We had called ahead, so they were expecting us and Customs was aware of our arrival so all looked good. There was a very bright moon and Honolulu is a large, well lit city so we weren't too concerned about coming in in the dark. As we approached, we discovered that boaters in Honolulu don't feel that it's necessary to use their running lights in the dark, seemingly unaware of what an obvious hazard to navigation that is! A few times, we all of a sudden noticed a dark object moving across our bow and looked through the binoculars to spot a power boat humming along with no red or green.
Eventually we spotted the channel markers and began to make our entrance. Immediately beside the channel is one of the best surf spots along the south coast, and with an unusually large swell rolling in, it wasn't the dinghy we had to worry about coming in through breaking waves but Candine herself! Okay, maybe the waves weren't breaking in the channel, but close enough on either side so that our hearts were in our throats as we rode the swell on our way in. We later spotted a sailboat that didn't do so well in the waves, just two days before us, and had smashed up on the beach. A very sad sight, indeed. Fortunately, that was not our fate and we made it in to the harbour without incident. All the slips had been taken by the TransPac racers, so we had to pick up a mooring ball and stern tie to the dock. Despite the late hour of our arrival, our Aussie neighbour kindly caught our lines and just happened to have three cold beer in his fridge, which he felt we needed more than him. Our new best friend.
So here we are in Honolulu, not just adjusting to being on land again, but adjusting to a large, American city where everything we could possibly need is at our fingertips. It's all quite overwhelming! We will hang out here for a few days, and decide our next course of action, maybe Maui, maybe Kauai, maybe just stay here. But come the first week of August we will be heading back out to sea for the final passage, back to Victoria!