Landfall

Overwhelmed since we arrived, I could not find the time to update this blog. Between the paperwork and registration of the boat, the cleaning and securing the mooring - far from done yet - and the pleasure to be together again. I don't talk about entertaining the ex-crew on land :)

Smaller boat, and no sail.
 Since then, we fixed the outboard.

Long story short, all is fine and we are super happy to be home and on Maui.
After all those weeks of slow pace and disconnected from the Internet, I am still a little bit off. Hard return to the reality. And soon, time to go back to work and normal life.
Normal life ? not so sure.
Life is not be the same after the crossing. Something has changed.
Maybe the understanding there is a different way of life out there.
Not yet "pinned it".
But there is "Traces" of it.

Mexico-Hawaii Log7

• Day 18

We still have wind at 3am. I hope to reach Lahaina fr lunch .

The plan: we are gonna take a mooring, pump the dinghy, row, try the harbor, go for lunch.

04:00 wind died. We motor.  40 miles to go at 5knt. Eta 12:00.

06:00 Haleakala ! land !

Still motoring at 6knots. 24 miles to go. Eta : Before noon.

Sunday April 26 2015, 8:30am HST

Mexico-Hawaii Log6

• Day 15

Morning update: now, at least we have the sun and stars at night. But at what cost ? Those last few days the seas have been really annoying. Quite big, with at least two competing swells directions, short period and ill formed. It wear me down. Every move on the boat is costly, tiring and usually is paid in bruises and slides. Cooking is an experience by itself, a shower is a dangerous adventure. We crawl from one sitting position to another lying one. Reading inside the cabin feels like reading in a car : not for me. It has been a while I am not sea sick bit there are things that are forbidden to me. Daydreaming, napping and listening to music are my main activities. Taking the wheel is rewarding as usually we can ease the motion compared to the autopilot But it get old pretty fast and tiring in those seas. I always said it was not vacations but a boat delivery, now, I know why I was right. Once in a while it would be nice to prove me wrong :(
The good news : 420 miles   And less than 4 days to go. Closing in !

Realize it has been two weeks already. I am glad it will be over soon but I am gonna miss it too. Weird :) doing nothing is enticing somehow - lol.

• Day 16

This morning, sun is shining and wind is blowing perfectly. This is ideal conditions and my moral is up. We are getting closer, I am not tired anymore and the sailing is great. What can we ask more ?

Today: it was a great sailing day with almost perfect conditions. I even took the helm just for fun a couple of hours. No kidding. We are trying to get a landfall before sunset Sunday. Based on the previsional course, it should fit - always weather depending. We took a little harder aim and push the boat a bit. Almost feel we are racing - indeed, if we arrive too late, likely we are gonna spend the night at sea waiting for sunrise to drop anchor in Lahaina. Then now we are on a beam, our fastest point of sail, but the motion of the boat is a little harder to handle. At that point, we accepted the fact that there is a lot of swell in the North Pacific. This is a big ocean and we understand better why Hawaii are the islands of surfing. We have been at the source of it...

In the boat, nothing broke recently and the routine is really in place by now. Conditions have been steady along the trip, and overall very few real actions were needed. We reefed and unreefed a lot, though,  and we are quite good at it now. Today is our 15th day at sea, and weirdly enough, does not seem to be that long and boring. Days fly by, you just have to let go your old habits if trying to do something. You handle the boat demands, and the basics body needs, and after, just let it be. It might be what real vacations are. Unplugging from reality. Some kind of cryogenisation of the mind.  A frozen stasis. Miles after miles. Hours after hours. Dots on a map figuring an improbable but real progress.

• Day 17

Day-1: seems your (Christelle) previsional were good : we are on track to arrive tomorrow before sunset in Lahaina. We had a good 134nm yesterday, which makes us at 140nm Of the north tip of Maui. We are officially "safe" because under the range of a Coast Guard helicopter :) - we are likely to see some fisherman boat now We need to be a little more vigilante. We did not see any boat at all the last 3 or 4 days. Overall we crossed maybe 4 cargo path.

There is still plenty of wind for now and we are doing a good 6 knots at least. The cockpit is unfortunately a bad place to be except in swim shorts. The occasional wave can hit us hard on the beam and the spray would cover you - head to toe. Well, it is already sunny outside, it might be refreshing. We discovered 2 or 3 new leaks on the boat. Funny, leaks appears depending on your point of sail, that will be fun to track them down ! Last but not least, We switch the paper map from Pacific North West to Hawaiian Islands one. symbolic : we are very close now.It will have to be from the North. The wind is now pretty much SE and I don't think we could reach the South Tip anymore FW: But the wind is still very strong and we are doing good speed. At this pace, we could be in Lahaina for lunch :) let s see why happen tonight though.

Last update: we are very close now. Less than 12 hours from the channel between Maui and Molokai. I am feeling impatient. Now I feel the pressure of time again. We are greeted by a small low system on Maui that bring light SE winds, rain and clouds. We might have to motor for the last night. As we did not run the engine the last 10 days or so, we verified it was starting properly. I don't like last minutes surprises. No worries from this side, it purred first try as old as this boat, but solid quality - as the boat. So close from the finish line. I will spread my emotional jam in the next blog posts, for now, I ll stick to the facts. We covered more than 2200 miles in 18 days, across half of the pacific, literally in the middle of nowhere. I believe it is - if not news - a great personal accomplishment.
I want to thanks Gilles to have brought a dose of safety and sanity in this enterprise by accepting to crew for me and trusted the boat to be well prepared enough to reach the other end. Even if we did not encounter anything crazy along the way, knowing I count on on his experience was reassuring enough.
We are gonna celebrate this with French Champagne for sure ! Alright ! Almost there !

Saturday April 25th

Wind map April 25 9pm HST

Mexico-Hawaii Log5

• Day 12

Not much going on a that point. Days start to repeat themselves. Wind did not shift yet and sky is still overcast. We have been 10 days at sea now and likely, the biggest part of the journey is behind us. We are making steady progress to the West at 6knots, 140 nm/day. The pace is around 7mph - I go  faster when I run :) - but the boat  goes on and on for hours. This keep astonish me. Only notable fact today was that I felt very tired, light headache and in a gloomy mood. Maybe the fallback of the stress if last week or the down of the energy level. Or just a small cold. It is still chilly on deck all day, with all those clouds. And the wind from the NE is cold as well. Hopefully the clouds will disappear as the wind shift, and it might even be tomorrow. But I have been saying that for days now. Anyway, white man problems at that point. The important is that we are on course, the weather is fine and the boat continues to sail herself. I am pretty sure she could reach Japan by herself no problem. She was made for this and she is doing it quite well, no doubts.

• Day 13

Today: around 5am we had the good news if the wind shift to the East, meaning we could head toward Maui and South. Around 6am the wind picked up and then the bad news : on this tack, the windvane could not handle it. After investigation, there is too much play in some parts of the mechanism for such strain. We were ready to take he helm for the next 7 days which would have been serious strain. After 2 hours of tweaking, we found a balance between heading, sails and the windvane that seems to be working. Joining the party, the sun showed up later on. We are back on track, at a pace down a notch. That should not delay our arrival to the islands more than one day overall. With the slow pace, the downwinder and the sun, this really start to look like lazy vacation. Only the swell shake the boat every now and then to remind us we are still pretty far out in the middle of nowhere.

Felt better today. Not sure what was on me yesterday. Maybe just tiredness. We just passed the 3/4 longitude marker of the journey. I am still amazed how we are just cruising along in the middle of nowhere. Did  I mention we saw some dolphins here and there? There is life under our keel. To finally feel some sun on deck was relaxing. And I can tell already the night will be a little warmer too. It feels we are back on tracks.

• Day 14

Interesting night so far. Of course, as soon as we realized our windvane was giving up, the wind decided to blow seriously. We had gust over 30 knots and the sea is still big, at least 3 meters waves. Gilles took the helm eventually as we were getting totally overpowered. Our limping autopilot couldn't handle this anymore. Now, for my watch the situation is under control but we are keeping close surveillance at the wheel. I don't think I have been at sea on those conditions yet. I am adjusting my references about what the boat can handle , the rig can yell, and the wind scream. Of course, no breaking waves at that point, it was always safe, still impressive. A boat is so noisy ... I read story of boat diving under waves, cockpit full of grey water, hard to imagine. Anyway, the good news is the heading is actually pretty good, and we are screaming our way in direct line. We will see what the remaining of the night got for us. In daylight, everything seems always more manageable. No wonder haunted houses are always pitch black. We like to scare ourselves here as well.

As for today, not much going on. Weather is quite similar than yesterday and we are making good progress. Seas are still very disturbed and quite big. That begin to wear on the crew. I don't think we had one day in calm seas since the beginning. I am glad it is coming to an end soon, I feel a bit tired. It will be good to be home, on a flat surface :)

Wednesday, April 23

Wind map April 23 2am HST

Mexico-Hawaii Log4

• Day 9

Grrrr. Wind is perfect, waves are ... Well ... As usual ... Quite big ... But the sky is overcast!
The good news is myrrh was right and we are gonna cross the mid point of our journey today. Yeah! No return point.

We just crossed the half way mark. From now on it is easier to continue than to go back (from a sailing standpoint that was already true because of the prevailing winds east ), but still this is quite an achievement. Who knew.
The boat is behaving perfectly. We eventually bypassed the hot water tank - we are not taking showers anyway - and managed to bleed this damn engine fresh water circuit : we can even use the engine if we had too now. Between engine repairs and philosophical discussions - let a call them arguments - do not put two French in the same cockpit and expect to come to a consensus, the boat continue to sail herself in light winds and moderate seas, imperturbable. Except the glover at sun - we are still waiting for the sun - it would be perfect. My sixth sense tell me we should clear of clouds in one day. Add some playful dolphins and you have the perfect sailing postcard. We are so lucky to have been able to make this dream to come to a reality. Half of it, at least. For now.

• Day 10

Today: back to the future. We decided to start to catch back on the HST as our clocks were still on Mexico time. We have 3 hours to catch in one week. Little bit like having the Daylight Saving time 3 times in a row the same week. But one hour at a time, we change our watches. The highlight of the day was the return of the sun, late afternoon. Still too cloudy  for a real sunset, but at least it was warmer on deck.
Surprise of the day was the first real gear failure with the windvane losing control after a line shafted and broke. Boat got weather helm, she just rounded up and wait for us to realize no one was at the helm. Fix was easy, but we will have to be more careful and look for shaffing there now. We replaced a halyard for re spinnaker, I.e. we are ready if the wind goes down, to try  that old asymmetric we found.
Last but not at least, we avoided a close encounter with another cargo ship. AIS warned us one half hour before predicted collision path, then we safely derouted a bit and slide 2 miles from it. Even at that distance, by night, those are really big and impressive. As for the sailing, it looks now we has the same sea and winds conditions for days. We are still reaching to much West, but we cannot go deeper than that with seas tormented like ours. Wind supposed to shift soon and will allow us to veer South. But overall, we are making good progress and will be back home soon.

• Day 11

Today : French haute couture. We brought down the genoa today, leveraging a below of average wind. This genoa is really big, 140%, and even in only 10 knots of wind, it was challenging for the two of us. After that, we started sewing the leech. Sewing sail cloth - Dacron - by hand,  is not an easy task, ask our poor fingers. We made slower progress than expected, and ended sewing all day, both of us. Just as the sun was going down,we managed the put the sail up. Broken back, crying eyes, bloody fingers, but it worked. Let s hope it hold until Hawaii now. Except that ? Not much. The boat continues to sail herself, The sun continues to hide behind the clouds, and the waves actually receded a bit, which makes the ride more comfortable. For sure, we are gonna sleep well tonight... Between two watches :(

Sunday, April 19

Wind map April 19 11pm HST