Mazatlan to Hawaii
In regards to the concerns regarding boat preparation and our timing of departure during the hurricane season I want to put some concerns to arrest.
First, my friend D**** expressed some concerns about not seeing the boat set-up like he would expect. At his request I posted multiple pictures of the boat just prior to our departure. Those pictures show my jacklines rigged and multiple items lashed down on deck. Also shown is a picture of the storm jib rigged to the staysail and stowed on deck in it's bag ready to deploy. Prior to departure Chris and I rigged the storm tri-sail and stowed it in the first position of the starboard lazarette with the ditch bag underneath. I am sure there was more that I could have done beyond the nearly $12,000 in boat prep including replacing much of the rigging, but no boat is ever fully prepared, you can only do the best you can.
Second, concerning our departure date. I had been monitoring the storm patterns for months prior to departure and there were several things I noticed.
1) All storms tended to take between 7 - 10 days to roll up the coast after the National Hurricane Center, (NHC), issued a probability rating of a low becoming a tropical depression, and then a possible tropical cyclone, aka Hurricane.
2) All early season storms headed out to sea South of the Sea of Cortez and then would dissipate approx 200 - 300 miles West of Cabo San Lucas. Once a storm entered the cooler waters it could no longer sustain itself.
After careful discussion between Chris and I we made a joint decision to leave when we did. We knew that if we were caught in a storm we would be on the un-navigable North side, but that we could also head North into cooler waters where the storm could not be sustained. We left Mazatlan on the heals of Hurricane Calvin which was just beginning to arc out to sea South of Cabo, comfortable that the storm would track well West of Cabo and considering that it would take us three days to cross the Sea of Cortez. One day out of Mazatlan the storm had dissipated, was downgraded and no longer being tracked by the NHC. We stayed in Cabo for about 36 hours and prior to our leaving checked the 11:00am PST Eastern Pacific Tropical Weather Outlook, which showed no storm formation expected in the next 48 hours. Knowing that it would take 7 - 10 days for a storm to come up the coast and head out to sea once there was a predicted storm, we left knowing that we would be 700 - 900 miles offshore, well outside the normal 200 - 300 miles that early season storms track West. This was a sound decision and we had good seas during our entire passage to Hawaii.
Concerning storm probabilities, according to the Storm Tactics Handbook by Lin & Larry Pardey, the accuracy of the National Hurricane Center to predict a storms track out 72 hours is exceptional and based upon Lee Chesneaus' storm models. These show that over a 10 year period of time that in a 72 hour period the NHC was able to predict a storms track within 300 nautical miles. The NHC reported that they were able to predict Hurricane Dora's track within 250 miles, five days out, considerably better than average prediction.
I had more than one person suggest that we take a more Southerly route perhaps at 18 degrees North Latitude. If we had done this, it would have placed us on the navigable side of any storms and in theory less danger. The problem I saw with this approach is that we would not be able to seek the shelter of cooler waters. This worked to our advantage. If we had taken the Southern route Hurricane Dora would have been on our heals since we would have lost 2 days of Westerly travel heading to the more Southern Latitudes. As it is, the closest a downgraded Tropical Storm Dora came to our position was 600 nautical miles and from the first warning on July 18 of Tropical Depression Four - E, (what Dora was called prior to being designated a Tropical Storm) it took six days before it crossed our track from Cabo San Lucas. There is no doubt that Dora was a fast moving storm, but it never posed any danger to us. During our 27 day passage there were storms that tracked out to sea, but all started at a more Southerly Latitude then dissipated as they arced North off the coast once hitting cooler waters, exactly as the models predicted and I saw in other early season storms.
Each day we were reporting our position to the Pacific Seafarer's Net
http://www.pacsea.org/index.htm and listening to the US Coast Guards High Seas Forecast. The good people at the Pacific Seafarers Net were more than happy to read the NHC forecast to me and report Hurricane Dora's center until I was satisfied that the Windward Star was not in any trouble. Another good reason to have a single side band radio and your general class amateur radio license.
You can see our plotted position on a daily basis at
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=N9SUB
NOTE: I will not start reporting our position again until we have left Kauai on approx September 1st.
July 8th, 2011
It was another beautiful Summer afternoon in Mazatlan. After taking our last showers and saying our goodbyes to the marina staff and Don, Chris, my crew member and I, walked down to the Windward Star, two adventurers about to set sail on our first ocean passage. I started up the trusty Farymann diesel which roared to life making its usual chugging sound as the single cylinder swept through its rotation. Chris readied the lines and after several minutes of allowing the engine to warm up I put the transmission in reverse, brought up the RPM's and Chris started walking the boat out of her slip. As her bow swung out of the slip, Chris hopped aboard and began stowing her mooring lines and fenders as we would not need them for several weeks. The winds were light as we motored out of the marina and moved smoothly through the water at a good pace after getting the prop re-pitched. We passed by El Cid Marina and then slipped out of the breakwater. There was a slight chop, which Windward Star took with ease. We motored out to Deer Island, turned her into the wind. Chris raised the mainsail on a port tack as we unfurled the jib. I idled the engine as we took off into the wind. Chris raised his hand and we gave each other a high five on our adventure across the Pacific. We shifted our clocks to UTC
The winds were moderate and we made good time for our first several hours heading in a Northwesterly direction. The day before we had bought steaks at the Old Mazatlan Market, whose tile floors are stained with blood and the sharp smell of slaughter is in the air. Chris fired up the BBQ and I brought out two huge, thick steaks, which I had selected the day before from a clean and reputable butcher. Chris cooked the steaks to perfection, making sure there was no red meat after seeing their source. Each steak overflowed our plates as we sat down to our first meal afloat, two happy sailors. After dinner we started our port and starboard watches, each of us taking 3 hours on, 3 hours off. I took the all balls to 0300 watch.
July 9th, 2011
We were becalmed with light winds and flat seas the weather was warm and we decided it was birthday suit sailing weather. Chris dropped his board shorts, unhooked the starboard lifelines and dove into the light blue water of the Sea of Cortez. He came up letting out a holler in excitement and pleasure, beaming from ear to ear. He swam alongside and around the boat basking in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez. After a bit he climbed aboard and I enjoyed my turn. The water was warm and inviting, a beautiful light blue color. It was invigorating to swim alongside the Windward Star as it made a knot in light winds. Soon I had had my fill and I climbed up the stern ladder I had fabricated and installed in Mazatlan, one of the most useful upgrades I made to the boat.
Crossing the Sea of Cortez
Crossing the sea was great with beautiful blue, warm water we saw countless turtles, porpoises, false killer whales, and just before arriving in Cabo San Lucas, stingrays leaping out of the air welcoming our arrival. We ran the engine for about 30 hours during the crossing due to light winds. We entered Cabo to update our weather information and attempt to repair the starter, which was fruitless.
Passage to Hawaii
We left Cabo San Lucas on a beautiful day and weaved our way past the water taxis jutting every which way. We made our way under motor just past the infamous arch, then turned West towards Hawaii. As we past Cape Falso the seas built to 15' as we were beating against the wind. The boat took quite a pounding over the next three days and faired well. The alternator went out so during this pounding I took the old alternator off and put on a spare, but it didn't work either, (I later found out in Oahu that the negative terminal was incorrectly marked.) We relied completely on solar power during the passage and had a few problems, but with good power management were able to keep the navigation lights on except for that last day before arriving in Oahu, due entirely to charging cell phones and laptop for navigation.
The passage was great and took us 27 days. We caught three tuna after leaving Cabo, then caught another 11 Mahi Mahi the rest of the trip. It did get a little stale eating so much fish, but it was better than digging into the ships stores. During the passage we saw lots more turtles, whales, porpoises, and unfortunately lots of lost fishing nets floating by. During the entire passage from Cabo to Oahu we only ran the engine 3.5 hours which included leaving and entering port. We were becalmed about 1100 miles East of Hawaii and decided to go for a swim. We dropped the sails and I lashed the tiller and Chris and I both jumped in the Pacific Ocean over 1000 miles from the nearest land. The longest we went between ship sightings was 17 days.
Gung holing around Hawaii
We spent a week in Oahu making repairs to the starter and alternator. I put in a new 90 amp alternator and had the starter rebuilt. I put the batteries on charge and after four days load tested each one. I found one was bad, one weak, and two good. Chris put the two good ones in battery bank two and I bought two new batteries for bank one. Chris invited some of his friends over, (Matt, Levi, and a girl) and we went day sailing out to bouy R2 off Diamond Head. We reprovisioned at the Commissary at Pearl Harbor after a weeks stay. I would like to thank all the friendly sailors at the Hawaii Yacht Club who often took us on errands to pick up supplies or lent us equipment. The Hawaii Yacht Club is an awesome place to stay if they have space for you.
After a week we left Oahu under sail and made our way to Lahaina on the Island of Maui. We tied up to the courtesy moorings ball of the Lahaina Yacht Club and spent the next three days hitchhiking around the island. Just before the start of the road to Hana, we got picked up by a flat bed truck carrying a bagged pallet load of manure. This guy drove the road like a bat out of hell and we held on for dear life in the back. Multiple cars either honked or flipped the guy off as we weaved through the narrow road with its one lane bridges. He pulled in to a place called Hana Farms which is a hippyish farm just outside Hana. They had lots of fruit for sale and were making clay oven pizza where you could sit around a fire. It was lots of fun and we stayed until around 11 before getting a ride to a local state park which has a black sand beach. We camped on the beach over night before continuing our trek around the island. We saw beautiful waterfalls and were fortunate to get picked up by two 20'ish Swiss girls in their rental car. The insisted on having us travel with them to take pictures and later on invited us to dinner.
After three days we made it back to the boat and sailed down to Little Beach and anchored just offshore and swam to the beach we spent two days there before pulling anchor and heading to Molokini for an afternoon. Molokini is a small atoll where lots of tourists snorkel boats go. We grabbed one of the mooring balls and went snorkeling ourselves. Chris swam over to one of the tourist boats and announced that he was a pirate. He procured some beer and swam back with his booty.
We left Molokini after several hours and it was a two day sail to Hanalea Bay, Kaua'I, which has a nice pleasant anchorage that we can sail in and out of easily. We spent most of our time entirely around Hanalea and camped most nights on the beach. We met several people who were interested in going out to a beach about 15 miles West of Hanalea and they offered us $100 to take them there. We left about noon and took 2 ½ hours to sail down to the beach, but it took us another 16 hours to get back to the anchorage. It was a beautiful sail, but all our passengers got sea sick, with two vomiting over the side.
Kaua'I to Puget Sound
Today we are departing for Puget Sound. Please wish us luck and good seas on our passage and I will have an update once we arrive. I expect the passage to take 35-40 days.
Cheers,
Nick