On the Way back

Well, I had more pictures, but I have been stolen my phone at the pool, and there weren't uploaded yet. Grrr.
But thanks to the ever growing technology, I was able to upload few of them, while sailing between the islands.

The day before the passage, the sky was clear and inviting.
The forecast was accurate ;)

Decided to celebrate my last day in Waikiki.
Went for a "Hawaiian" burger. Not that bad ;)

Leaving Oahu, in the early day light.
Calm motoring.

Motoring setup. Inelegant and noisy.
But it works.

Sunrise in the Kaiwi channel, between Oahu and Molokai.

Diamond head

I think I was sailing by then. Light wind, full sail out.
Actually, felt pretty good this channel crossing.

Beating party in the Kalohi Channel,
Between Lanai and Molokai.

Sunset, closing on Maui.

Unsurprisingly, beating upwind in the channels is unpleasant, for hours. Only between Molokai and Lanai you really have the wind on your nose, and you regret it pretty fast. I picked an easy day, only 10 knots of wind, accelerated in the channels, I would guess 15 to 20 knots. Well, my anemometer is still broken, then , who knows. Wasn't that strong, but pretty slow progress. I eventually ended up in the lee of Molokai, a no wind zone, and used it to motor until the wind veer north east, and the beating is - at least - in the right direction.

I have hard time to imagine how it could be in actual typical conditions, with 25 knots of wind on the nose. I think it is better to aim to go south Lanai and avoid this channel upwind at all. I could see a battle for 12 or more hours to go through this little stream of water. I suspect there is good current working against you too, but again, my electronics are inexistent, then, hard to say. I was going with VMG of 3 knots, which is, really really slow. And that was in easy conditions.

Coming into the mooring at night, without moon, was actually wayyy trickier that I thought. Alone, no one to light in front, I almost hit a half-million catamaran, totally, unlighted, and dark hull. Well, that decided me to add some lights on our boat at the mooring. I don't want an apprentice sailor like me hit our boat because it is unlighted. Except that, it was very calm water in the last mile next to the mooring field, then the picking of it was actually quite easy, even alone. The hard part was to actually see the buoy.

Not many pictures, obviously, it was dark as tomb at that point. I think that night was the first I slept on the boat at our mooring. After 18hours of solo sailing, I slept quite well, I have to say.

Gosh. It was good to be home.