The Voyages of Kamaloha

Wow, having too much fun to blog. Where was I? Oh yeah, in Sint Maarten...

Over the next four years we were "commuter-cruisers", visiting our boat for three weeks at a time three or four times a year. These trips were half (or more) refit work, half play. We made it through the Leewards and Windwards twice, with a jaunt over to Barbuda, and meanwhile learned our way around the boat and the lifestyle. We kept spiffing up the boat until we felt she was ready for ocean passages and to be our home. It was amazing what we had to do - new sails, running rigging, standing rigging, chainplates, some thruhulls, new windvane, radio, chartplotter, SSB, VHF, batteries, alternator, starter, pumps... the list goes on and on.

In September 2004 she was at anchor in Hog Island Bay, Grenada, a "hurricane free" area, when Hurricane Ivan visited her. At Category 4 Ivan's eye passed directly overhead the anchorage, clocking 125 knot winds and 25 foot seas. Kamaloha was incredibly lucky - her bow platform was torn apart by the anchor rode, her gallows turned to toothpicks by the boom, and a gallon of bottom paint burst through a locker hatch below decks and coated the teak galley and aft cabin with red bottom paint. By comparison to the other yachts in Grenada, however, we were very lucky. Over 80% of all yachts in Grenada were a total loss after the storm.

In 2005 we brought the boat back up to Sint Maarten where Roger Smith and his crew at Maintec helped us repair all the damage. We did our best refit move yet by having "Terry the Englishman", a welder extraordinaire, replace all the railings and davits, and add a windgen tower and bimini. This totally changed the character of the cockpit for the better. At last she was ready for a passage!

In April we hopped over to the BVI where we added two friends as crew (Hauke Kite-Powell and Tim Hall), and on May 1 we joined the Atlantic Cup (reverse Caribbean 1500) to Bermuda. We were "tail-end Charlie" - every other boat had at least eleven feet on us - but we had a great beam reach the whole way, arriving in Bermuda at dawn in a half-gale.

We hung out in Bermuda for a week awaiting a decent weather window for Maine. Tim and Hauke had to leave us due to time constraints. We tried to find other crew from the group but no one could wait as long as we could, and after some soul-searching Maureen and I did a two-handed passage.

The goal was Portland Maine where Customs was easily had. The reality was our weather window was too good. Four hours after departing Bermuda the wind died away, and we were left to motor for the next three days. That is when we discovered that our fuel tank, claimed to be 120 gallons in the broker's sheet, was not nearly that large. We ran dry just after an uneventful Gulf Stream crossing. (We carefully measured the tank at 80 gallons afterwards.)

We then proceeded to drift in circles for a few days awaiting wind. When it finally came, it was the teeth of a nor'easter with a full gale breathing down our throat. After a quick pow-wow we changed course for Gloucester, MA, screaming into port once more at dawn in a half-gale. We were as prepared for the big blow as we could be - the storm jib and trysail were hanked and ready - but we made it to port in good form under all plain sail (two reefs of course) without hoisting the storm sails.

Gloucester was not a Customs port. We contacted them by phone and were told the officer would come from Boston. We were to stay in town and await his arrival. Naturally we sought the nearest watering-hole. It turned out to be the bar made famous as the center of action during "The Perfect Storm". In our foulies, bleached hair and suntans, we were asked how our catch went. I guess we fit right in! What a perfect finish to our first big passage. Let the storm come on! (It did, reaching 50+ kts in the harbor.)