Visit to Pearl Harbor

Brenda and I caught the No. 42 bus to Pearl Harbor yesterday ($2 round trip each) and visited the Arizona memorial and museum.

The first photo (top) is of the memorial, straddling the hull of the Arizona where she sank just off Ford Island. We were taken there by boat.

The second photo is of Robert contemplating the scene and planning his next diet.

The third shows on of the Arizona's aft turrets.

The fourth attempts to show the oil that continually seeps to the surface from the Arizona's tanks.

The fifth photo is of the Missouri, if my memory of when I saw her off Fremantle while sailing Chiquita is correct.

The sixth photo shows some of the many Japanese visitors, seemingly over 80% of the crowd. (Whenever one of the local men, Ron, a career navy man, is asked by Japanese tourists where the Arizona is his stock reply is "right where you left it".

The bottom photo is of Robert next to one of the Arizona's anchors weighing more than 19 tons (the anchor, that is).

Ala Moana Park

On the "other" side of Ala Wai Boat Harbor, on the Honolulu Harbor side rather than the Waikiki side, is Ala Moana Beach Park, 76 acres of public space with lots of grass, trees, public amenities, and several beaches.


We took the opportunity to take the photos at the right of Ala Wai Boat Harbor from a different perspective. The top photo shows "The Fuel Dock" jetty. If you enlarge the photo (left click on mouse) you will get clearer views of John's blue-hull Olympic 43 with her stern just in front of the white building on the near corner of the jetty. The next boat to the right is Pachuca, nose-in. To the left at the far corner of the jetty is the red stern of the Chinese junk Princess TaiPing.

The low white building is for storage. The main building of The Fuel Dock is the brown one just behind it.

In the background is Honolulu, with Waikiki at the far right.

The third photo is a pan to the right showing Diamond Head. The large building on the right with the rainbow pattern at the end is the Hilton, on Waikiki Beach.

The bottom photo shows one of the beaches at Ala Moana Park. It is man-made, with gaps in the breakwater at the right to allow circulation of sea water. Very clever. Very safe.

Minke

These are photos of "Minke", a beautiful wooden boat built by Chris Lowrey, shown discussing building techniques with two visitors.

Chris is a New Zealander who sailed for 5 or 6 weeks with the Larry and Lin Pardey and still keeps in touch. The experience seems to have inspired Chris to build a boat very similar to the Pardey's.

I heard Chris say that the length on deck of Minke is 29 ft 9 in. However, the length over all is a whopping 41 ft.

Chris and his wife Helen have sailed the boat extensively, including through the French canal system where even with a draft of only 5' 5" they touched bottom once or twice. Pachuca would have no chance with her 7' 6" draft.

The top three photos are of Minke on the way to the island of Kawai, the next island in the chain, an overnight sail to the northwest.

Anchor Well Final

I promise that this is the last word on the anchor well job.

The upper photo shows the upper shelf with the second rode of 70 meters of rope and about 15 meters of chain. (Yes, I know, one section of the chain should be either replaced or re galvanized.)

The middle photo shows the upper shelf in place with the main anchor rode of 38 meters fed through the hawser pipe into the chain locker below.

The bottom photo shows me varnishing the upper shelf of the anchor well after I had modified it to accommodate the extended hawser pipe. In the background are outrigger boats at practice.

Photos of Waikiki

Brenda and I went for a walk and swim at Waikiki beach yesterday. The setting is beautiful and the water a good temperature, but the sand was more gravelly that we are used to in Australia. (The sand is transported from Molokai.)

The top photo shows the two-mile stretch of Waikiki beach extending from Ala Wai boat harbor to Diamond Head in the background. The beach is sheltered by a reef.

The middle photo is of the "lagoon" next to the Hilton hotel. In the background you can see the masts of the boats at Ala Wai harbor.

The bottom photo is another view of the Lagoon,

Fuel Dock Events

We had been warned to expect heavy southerly "Kona" winds of possibly 40 or 50 knots last night. Brenda and I prepared the boat for heavy winds hitting Pachuca from the stern. Brenda removed the cockpit spray dodger and folded the frame forward, then she removed both rail spray cloths. I cleared the decks of loose items and stowed the Zodiac.

Pachuca is moored Mediterranean style with her bow to the jetty and her stern to the South. I was advised to do it this way for privacy and to be able to watch the glorious sunsets from the cockpit. Holding her stern out are three lines connected to anchors left by previous tenants. The state of the anchors and lines is unknown. Unfortunately I am not able to put down my own anchor because it would surely be fouled by all of the junk already on the bottom. So for the expected blow I got two more stern lines from the vacant pen between Pachuca and Impulse so that Pachuca wound up with 5 stern lines.

At the last minute I covered up our exposed non-waterproof "Lifetag" base station then jumped on the Alden on Pachuca's starboard side and secured her mizzen mast to make sure that it would not fly around and slam into Pachuca's pushpit.

The photo above shows Pachuca ready for the Kona wind. Her rail and cockpit spray dodgers have been removed and the frame folded down. A blue tarp has been put over the instruments above the companionway to protect the "Lifetag" man-overboard base station. At the stern you can see the 5 lines going out. On the other side of the cockpit is the boom of the neglected Alden that I secured. On the foredeck of Pachuca is the ground tackle that cannot be put into the anchor well area until I make a new opening on the upper level to accommodate the extended hawser pipe.

The beautiful thing about good preparation is that it usually turns out not to have not been necessary. We got winds of no more than 20 knots and very little rain - so far at least. But the work was not wasted. Pachuca is now prepared for any future blow that might come up from the south.

Yesterday I was honored by Nelson, captain/owner of the Princess TaiPing, diving into the murky waters below my bow to find a screwdriver that I had dropped. I had tried diving for it but the water was so murky and my bottom time was so short that I had to give up. Nelson was using fins which were a help. He also figured that the screwdriver had gone down point-first and only the green handle would be exposed. He felt around the bottom and found it.

Wally and Kerry are leaving for the mainland today to visit relatives. They expect to be back on Feb 1. For me the place won't be the same without them.

Brenda in Honolulu

My descriptions of Honolulu proved irresistible to Brenda and she flew in on 12 January for a month. She had originally planned to sail with us all of the way to Honolulu but because of our unexpectedly long stay in New Zealand she had flown back to Australia from Papeete. Yesterday we walked to the Ala Moana shopping center and Brenda, who had never been to the USA before, experienced many "firsts", such as: first time in Macy's, Sears, and WalMart; first time in a Drug Store (that sold everything from hardware to groceries to booze); first Starbucks coffee.

The accompanying photo is of the Royal Hawaiian Band playing at Ala Moana. It is an exceptionally good band and we enjoyed listening to them. The band was "founded in 1836 by order of King Kamehameha III".