The first 24 Hours

We departed Ko Olina yesterday at 2Pm Hawaii time. Knowing that the wind would be a little blustery we

set the sails with a double reefed main and a full genoa. As we sailed North past Oahu's West coast

the wind was very tollerable until we were about half way up the coast when it completely died. I

could see a wind line about a mile ahead so I started the engine for the first time just to push us up

to the wind. When we got there it was quite strong and not in our favorite direction but the typical,

on the nose. After shutting down the engine we set a course of about 315 which would have pushed us

directly into Kuai. We took that course figuring the wind was being bent around Oahu and would be more

seasonally NE trade once clear of the island. We were right and once clear it was quite strong. We

were in a steady 28 gusting to 35 so I furled in the genoa to about 40% which slowed us down to just

under 8 knots. That is where the sails stayed through the night. It is also the reason we didn't get

the distance I had hoped for. We were 20 miles short of my goal and had a 140 mile day.

We are running on Zulu time so are behind HI by 2 hours and the West coast by 5 hours so to speak. All

check-ins and logs are done in Z time. The time which is synonimous to Grenich Mean Time, or Unervsal

Time Coordinated, Or Grenich England time or 12 hours behind the international date line or the same

time as New Zealand or Fiji. To be fair to all the crew, we need to split up the dark hours for watch

assignments. So again it is easy to use the Z time to set the watches. Most of us are awake during

the daylight hours so there is always someone on watch and floating in and out of the bridge helm. Our

watch is set up in teams of Lisa and Mosese, and John and Malo. Lisa and Mosese has the first 6 hours

and John and Malo the second 6 hours with each person having the primary responsibility for 3 hours.

The team concept is to wake the one who is on your team if you need any help before waking someone on

the other team. This gives each of us an opportunity to get at least 6 hours of dark restfull sleep.

Now while the team concept is good, on nights like last night sleep is hard to come by with all the

noise from the wave slapping the underbelly of the cat. It is especially true on the first night out

after being able to get solid sleep in the marina.

Bob and Ann on Charisma left Ko Olina a couple hours before we did heading nearly in the same

direction. When they get closer to North America they plan to make landfall at Victoria BC. While you

might think that would be further away, it can be but then it doesn't have to be. In the scheme of

sailing 24-2600 miles Astoria and Victoria are nearly the same. They are thinking of leaving their

boat in the San Juans for the winter and cruising that area and the Canadian Gulf Islands next summer.

Also because of the blustery weather, dinner was a challenge. Spagetti. No meat balls... too much

trouble. The sauce was already made up so all we had to do was heat it up and boil some spagetti

noodles. It took two of us to watch over the boiling sauce and water so it didn't go flying off the

stove. We are as hard onto the wind as a typical cat can do. 45-55 Degrees means the waves are

sliding under us at a 45 degree angle through the bows. Up the front side and bury the nose on the

back side on about every 10th wave. I think we will be doing quite a bit of this on the nose stuff for

several days and maybe even the whole trip. My afternoon project is to devise a stainless strap to

hold the pots on the stove.

Our old Raymarine system had a way to have the autopilot steer by the wind. On that one you could just

hold down the two 10 degree heading buttons and it would go into the mode. It wasn't very good but

mostely useable. The new system has a menu line to steer by Wind Vane. With the new 6 Dof heading

attitude sensor it is spot on. I can set the angle off of the wind and the autopilot holds it right

there. So for the next couple days I have set it up to be 55 degrees off the apparant wind which has

us on a course of due North. In about 3 days the wind is supposed to come more out of the SE and this

will bend us on a course of more Northeasterly towards Astoria. When the wind finally (I hope) comes

from behind us I will set it for more like 120 to 140 and ride with the waves instead of against them.

While I was taking my morning nap, Mosese spoted a sailboat on the horizon SW of us. He said it had

red sails. Charisma. Lisa contacted Ann on VHF and the 20 minute rehash of the night pursued.

Ok all for now. Time for chores. And our private net with Charisma.

John