It has been a busy 3 days here in Paradise. We are looking up at a bevy of high-rise hotels each of which must be renting out rooms at $300/night. And we are here on our boat, in prime real estate, loving paradise.

Hawaii is pretty easy living. That is because everyone has such a laid back attitude. No one is into hassling anyone. It is all cool, mon!!

Yesterday we spend on repairs. We had Art Nelson Sailmakers pick up the main for some rush repairs (with the associated "rush" repair costs! Ouch!). Meanwhile I climbed the rig one more time to get the spinnaker block reinstalled and also I redid the jack lines so now when we shake out a reef we can drop the jack lines rather than watch the battens of the main get caught up in them. Not sure if you catch what I am talking about, but it will be a BIG improvement when we want to shake a reef out.

Today we played tourist and went to Pearl Harbor. It was pretty sobering and a pretty somber visit. It made me proud to be an American, though. And quite frankly, I know I need more of that and I think more Americans need to feel prouder about their/our great country. We toured the 'Mighty Mo', the battleship, Missouri. Wow! For 1940s construction, that baby was awesome and deadly.

We then toured the Arizone memorial. The Arizona was a battleship that blew up and sank on the spot with over 1,100 crewman aboard -- most of whom were dead or doomed before they even knew what was going on. It was quite a moving experience. I prayed -- not only for those men and their families, but for all the current servicemen AND the leaders of our country. I just hope we make good decisions going forward so we can avoid another calamity such as WWII.

But the day wasn't over! Arriving back at the boat at 1830 gave me just enough time to dive into the crystal clear waters of the Ala Wai Harbor (cough....cough!) to careen the hulls. We are tied up next to David, a singlehander on a 23-foot Contessa. David notice the terrarium growing under my hull and brought it to my attention. In the Caribbean it was barnacles. Here in the Pacific it seems the growth of choice is coral! I had all kinds of it growing on the bottom. So hopefully we can gain another quarter knot or more on this next passage. That is something about the Pacific Northwest -- the water is too cold for anything to want to grow on the hull! Brrrrr!!

We leave tomorrow a.m. The standard route is to sail north on a close, close reach (i.e. a beat) for 3-7 days, then turn right and head east. We'll see what the good Lord serves up this time. The passage should take 18-23 days under 'normal' conditions. Gotta get to Oak Harbor by July 16 in time for Whidbey Island Race Week. We'll see.