Aloha !! As I prepare to depart these beautiful islands, I'll give you a recap of the last 5 weeks. After catching up on some sleep at anchor in Radio Bay, Hilo, I spent the next 3 days sightseeing, shopping and boat cleaning. There were several other boats here that I knew from Mexico and it was fun catching up and talking about our passages.

Hilo has some good shopping for the islands, so I took advantage of relatively lower prices and stocked up a little. Hilo is a working class town with little tourism - the cruise ship calls for a short day, once a week and there are only a few hotels. Most of the tourists go to the Kona coast on the leeward side of the island. While here, I was able to see the summit of Mauna Kea (13,000+ ft) once - the rest of the time it was enshrouded in clouds, and we received showers on a daily basis.

Needing to move on, I left at midday for an overnight sail approximately 120 miles to Kahului on the windward side of Maui. The tradewinds were down a little and I enjoyed a pleasant trip, arriving late evening the next day in the commercial harbor, with anchorage protected by a large breakwater. Unfortunately, the tradewinds picked up and were not affected by the breakwater, giving me 20 kts of wind across the deck day and night - at least the water stayed fairly calm.

Kahului is the arrival point on Maui, having the international airport and the commercial harbor where most barge traffic comes in making it a busy place. The town also contains the largest shopping mall I'd been in since Seattle or San Francisco.

After a few days here I decided to make an early a.m. break and scoot 30 miles around the North end before the tradewinds blew up the channel too much. Sailing out at 0600, I was able to sail comfortably to within 3 miles of Lahaina, where the wind quit altogether.

I took a Lahaina Yacht Club mooring for three days and saw the sights of Lahaina - galleries, jewelry stores, clothing shops and a few more galleries mixed in with some nice restaurants and water activities. Lahaina is a mecca for tourists and I'd had enough after a few days, so made plans to cross over to Molokai.

Everyone has told me and the cruising guides all warn about the high winds and big seas that are frequently in the channels between the Hawaiian Islands. This, of course, I had to learn for myself, so on a beautifully quiet windless morning in Lahaina, I prepared for a calm trip 25 miles to Kaunakakai on the South shore of Molokai. With barely enough wind to get me away from the mooring I sailed off at 2 1/2 kts.

After an hour or so, I began to notice a more choppy sea about a mile ahead. I had been sailing in a southwesterly breeze from Lahaina and it definitely looked like a northeasterly wind ahead - 180 degrees different. As I closed this distance, it became more apparent that the wind was in the 25 to 30 kt range and the seas I would soon encounter were 10+ feet! Within a half mile of the visible wind line, it was dead calm and I had to motor for 10 minutes before encountering the stiff tradewinds funneling between the islands at 30+ kts. Looking back toward Lahaina, it continued to stay quietly calm with a light wind from SW.

With 20 miles to go, I reduced sail and had an extremely uncomfortable crossing of the Molokai Channel while encountering 10 - 12' seas which came aboard in the cockpit on three occasions.

Entering behind the breakwater at Kaunakakai, I once again found calm water with the wind blowing across the deck at 20 kts.

Another commercial harbor, Kaunakakai also has room for 3 or 4 cruising boats at anchor and so I stayed for a couple of days. The village there is the "most native" of any I encountered in the islands. Molokai is primarily an agriculture based economy, with very little tourism, and unfortunately has the highest unemployment rate of the islands. It was a nice change of pace from Lahaina, but my daughter's wedding date was approaching, so I needed to keep moving toward Kauai.

With an approximate 50 mile mostly downwind sail to Honolulu on Oahu, I departed the harbor after breakfast and encountered at best, 20 kts of wind and 6' seas in the channel between the islands. Entering the Ala Wai small boat harbor at Waikiki was a thrill, after passing by famous Diamond Head. The channel is less than 50 yards wide with breaking surf accompanying the boat on both sides! I could almost reach out and touch surfers riding the break just off the starboard beam. As the boat rises to each swell, the question also arises "will this one break?", but once through, the water is glassy calm with the skyscraper hotels and cloud shrouded mountains as a backdrop. I was able to get a spot at the guest dock in front of the Hawaii Yacht Club for 4 nights and went about seeing some of Honolulu.

Son Brad was due to arrive in a few days and would accompany me on the sail to Kauai, so with the help of acquaintances at the yacht club I visited Costco to provision for the passage from Kauai to San Francisco, since prices would be much better than I could find on Kauai.

The yacht club was the friendliest I've visited, serving coffee and an informal breakfast each morning to any takers. They are used to welcoming long distance cruisers and definitely show the "aloha spirit". Late Wednesday evening, Brad arrived from Colorado and we prepared the next morning to leave for Kauai.

Motoring out of the channel was not as thrilling since the swell was down, but we were soon under sail at 5+ knots enroute for Hanalei on the North shore of Kauai, about 100 miles distant. The channel between Oahu and Kauai, being much wider, does not funnel the winds as drastically, making for a smoother trip. In spite of this, it was a rolly night's sail and we entered the bay at Hanalei by noon the next day.

This bay is the most like paradise I have yet encountered! Never below 75 nor above 87 and it's sooooo green. The mountains rise up behind the bay 3-4000 ft and the waterfalls cascade down sheer drops almost as high. The helicopter tours look like little mosquitos buzzing around the mountains in and out of the canyons.

There are about 25 boats at anchor here, only 5 are distance cruisers, the rest local boats that stay at anchor here all summer. Well protected from the tradewinds and the swell, we're 150 yards off a beautiful mile-long crescent beach that sees 200 people on a busy day. Water temperature: 79 degrees!

Daughter Hollice and new Son-in-law Troy were married on June 23rd at about sunset on a small nook of sand at Anini Beach, about 5 miles East of here. 28 relatives and friends gathered there and a great reception was held at their beach rental that night. During the preceding week most everyone saw their fill of swimming, snorkeling, surfing and sunning and by the 26th most guests had flown off leaving Hollice, Troy and I to continue enjoying the beauty of this area.

The time is now approaching to move on from here (I'd need to win the Lotto to stay much longer) and I plan to weigh anchor midday, 8 Jul with an ETA of 5 Aug in Sausalito. As in the past, this is an estimate and it could take much longer, depending on weather, so please don't call the Coast Guard before 20 Aug if you haven't heard from me. I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful summer as well.

All the best from Terry aboard S/V, "Secret O' Life"
PS - an addendum for you cruisers and those with boats who may get here some day. I heard a lot of things before coming to the islands - rough sailing, lousy anchorages, expensive marinas, expensive food, etc. This is what, in my limited experience, I found. Everyplace I dropped the hook was great holding sand or mud - others I talked to said the same. The mooring I picked up at Lahaina Yacht Club was hefty and secure, but being an open roadstead it was a little rolly. I heard that around the corner a mile at Mala was much quieter.

It's true, I can now attest, that sailing between the islands can be brutal. But, with some planning it can also be comfortable. Anchorage in the commercial harbors (prices set by the state) typically ran $8.40/day for 40' boat - Kaunakakai was only $3.75/day? An out of state boat can take a slip at Ala Wai Harbor for $8.40/day(40') and can stay up to 4 months - and this is downtown Honolulu with all amenities! My 4 nights at Hawaii Yacht Club were $45 - a good deal, I thought, considering coffee and breakfast were free. I was told that Hanalei was a "72 hour anchorage", but I've been here 3 weeks, other boats have been here all summer and no one has said a thing - and there's no charge here.

Food at the grocery is 10%+ more than mainland and beer/alcohol can be 10 - 25% more. Restaurant meals tend to be pricey, but there is always Subway (and other fast food) with about the same pricing as mainland stores. Of course there are Costco, Safeway, WalMart most everywhere. Diesel in Honolulu was $1.30/gal and unleaded here on Kauai is $1.95/gal. And it's fairly easy to get here from the west coast of US or Mex, but a little harder to get back. I'll let you know how that goes in another month or so.

Fair Winds - Terry