We began our passage from Nawiliwili, Kauai to Gig Harbor last Monday morning, June 5th under lumpy seas, moderately high winds and rain squalls. Not ideal conditions for our first day at sea, but that's the weather we had been experiencing in Kauai for several days, with no change forecasted - so we went. Our first six hours were definitely not to the crews liking as we clawed our way into a brisk headwind through unorganized, lumpy, seas under reefed sails. Once we cleared the island, however, the rain clouds dissipated, and we've had great weather and calm seas since.
Now, as we begin day three, we're finally beginning to get into our rhythm. We've put the saltine crackers and peanut butter away for now, and some crew even slept in their cabins last night. It usually takes few days for us to find our sea legs anyway, so it's all expected. Huzzah is sailing well, pointing into the wind and seas the best she can. In fact, we identified then sailed past a new 40' aluminum ocean-going sloop from the UK yesterday. After a quick chat on the radio, we learned he departed Honolulu last Sunday and is bound for Ketchikan, AK. We were curious to see the boat after identifying him on AIS, and couldn't believe how poorly his sails were trimmed when we approached. He commented that we were sailing much faster than he (almost 2 knots), but there was no appropriate response I could think other to bid him fair sailing. This was the first time I've seen another sailboat at sea!
Okay, so where are we? Click on the map section of the blog page to see our current position, but we're about 300 nm's northwest of Kauai after two full days of sailing. We expect one more day or so of wind before we run out of the trusty "Trade winds" we've been sailing in. I'm downloading the latest wind map on the Iridium Sat phone now, so I'll know more in my next update.
Aloha from Huzzah!