Aloha All,

We rounded South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii yesterday just before dawn. The easterly trade winds spit us out like an over-chewed piece of Juicy Fruit gum. Suddenly there was no, I mean zero, wind and the seas went flat calm.

I thought we were having another inadvertent autopilot disengagement drill. I had just laid down in the bunk and was hard pressed against the cushions by the heel of the boat to port. Suddenly I just rolled out to the center of the bunk. Happy to report that it was just the wind had stopped blowing.

We fired up the engine and furled in the sails. Managed to meander into Okoe Bay just as the sun rose. A beautiful and remote little bay on the Big Island's SW coast. We used this opportunity to clean up and reorganize Puanani after 18 x days of hard sailing. It was a little bumpy in there with a slight swell rolling in.

We contacted U.S. Customs and arranged to clear in at Honokohau Harbor, just north of Kona, on Saturday. In order to be closer, we relocated to Kona Bay and encountered "Bula Bro" anchored there as well. Bula Bro left Papeete for the Tuamotu group just after we returned to Papeete with our broken autopilot. We learned that they had just got into Kona the day before us.

We were also met and congratulated by the skipper and crew of Tandem Cay, Steve and Heather Halsey, as we were anchoring. I was first introduced to Steve by Clay Hutchinson at KYC when Jambalaya was preparing for her jaunt into the South Pacific back in April of 2016.

After customs and immigration formalities, my son Makana will join the crew. We will then make our way to Mala Wharf on Maui to visit with our newest granddaughter/niece, Maya Kamalei'alohinahoku, before sailing home to Kaneohe Bay.

Everyone take care and stay well. All our love.

mark
zane
rob

Aloha All,

We are tracking right long our intended route to get around South Point. Will likely clear the point early tomorrow morning and then head to Honokahau Harbor for Customs & Immigration formalities. From there we will move to Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor in anticipation of crossing the Alenuihaha Channel for Maui. Will know more when we get to Honokahau.

Crew is excited about making landfall.

We had another great 24 hour run of 155 Nautical Miles. If you were out here to see the wind speeds you'd understand why.

Everyone take and stay well. All our love.

marl zane rob

Haiku Du Jour: Wind waves tall troughs deep Occasional Hokusai White knuckle awesome

Aloha All,

Closing our distance to Hawaii. About 300 Nm SE of South Point. Forecast calls for significant increase in winds, associated wind waves, and squalls. Have not seen this yet but we prepared Puanani for the situation.

Great night of sailing. Winds on the lighter side of moderate and the seas cooperated as well. Always welcome during hours of darkness. Looks like the weather we are awaiting is still over the horizon. We'll see.

Everyone take care and stay well. All our love.

mrk rob zane

Aloha All,

We are making great progress toward our planed landfall in Hawaii. We are well above the ITCZ and the weather is clearly changing. In fact, it was very hard to tell the difference between the ITCZ and the North and South Pacific. Last time I passed through we spent nearly 4 days floundering around in the doldrums. This time I brought enough fuel to cross the ITCZ more that four times. Used the engine maybe five hours to get through it this go around.

The gusty trade winds are completely dominant and the seas are large and in charge. Puanani is handling the conditions well and I am very happy with her performance this entire leg of the voyage.

Caught our first mahimahi today. A nice 20lb fighter. Gave Zane a real workout trying to land it in the cockpit. Once there, Rob and Zane controlled it so there was no damage to the boat or injury to the crew.

We had a great dinner. Of course, prepared by our Chef du Voyage, Zane. A lovely pasta dish with a nice large piece of grilled mahimahi covered in a lemon butter cream sauce. I'm talking restaurant grade fine dining. Easily Zane's best dish to date.

ITCZ Haiku:

Becalmed we were not Spanning the ITCZ Doldrums not to be [or alternatively, "Doldrums my @$$]

Everyone take care and stay well. All our love.

mark zane rob

"never in a million years..."that is usually how i start my toast after several drinks aboard the SV Puanani. While sitting in the cockpit with uncle Mark and uncle Rob, i try to articulate whats on my mind through a slightly intoxicated filter. The overall message hidden in the drunken slurs is the great respect and love i have for these two gentlemen. It also includes the gratitude and honor i have to be invited on this voyage and a be a part of the puanani crew.

About two days late but definatly not diluted...a perfect segway into whats really on my mind...being thankful and having gratitude. With all this time to reflect on everything in the circus between my ears, clarity becomes easier to achieve. A rare commodity for me in recent months. The faces of my loved ones come to the forefront when the dust settles in my mind. If thankfulness were a tangable thing i would deliver it by the truckloads to each and every one of them, but its not. What is real and what they really deserve is my gratitude. An easily misused pair, thankfulness and gratitude, thankfulness a feeling and gratitude an action. How i will show my gratitiude is still not clear...a lasting solution is in tne works

Aloha All,

The weather is changing rapidly as we inter the Inter Tropical Convergence Sone [ITCZ] The barometric pressure dropped about 5 millibar since yesterday at this time. Not a big drop but more than we've seen since embarkation. It has been a little squally since early afternoon but the winds have been favorable for continued sailing. Will likely go to the engine shortly after dinner.

Speaking of dinner. We caught our first fish of the voyage. A modest skipjack tuna or Aku of about two pounds. I figured it was good for a little shashimi but I was completely wrong. Our "Chef du Voyage" decided to go all out on the only fresh fish we've had since all the Poisson Cru we consumed so much of in Papeete.

Zane managed to make us each an assorted dish of shashimi, spicy tuna pok'e, and lemon pepper grilled Aku. This was placed in a bowl on a bed of hot rice with a side of killer macaroni salad and a garnish of pickled ginger [teishoku style]. The macaroni salad was leftover from Thanksgiving dinner and was made with macaroni of course, sweet potato, canned tuna and chicken. Talk about awesome!

We are now less than 900 nautical miles from Honokahau Harbor on the Big Island and continuing to sail along quite nicely. We are hoping to hit the NE Trades on the north side of the ITCZ. A little too far to predict landfall at this point but it is great watching the miles tick away and the latitude increase steadily each day.

Everyone take care and stay well. All our love.

mark zane rob