First Solo Sail leg begins..........

Hi,

It's Stephen at the helm of this blog. However, as Bob has had a communications upgrade he can send information to me directly. So this blog will be pretty much "self steering", with me posting daily reports as Bob sends them in. If you would like to pass a message to Bob, please send it to
pwazzxQ@gmail.com Please remove the Q from the email address, what remains is my email address. Shortish messages have a very good chance of getting through to Bob, no photos please.

So without further ado;

DAY ONE ------------------------------------

I motored out of Ala Wai harbor at 1 PM today.

I started the morning by doing some last-minute preparation of the boat followed by a visit the The Fuel Dock to wash a load of clothes, do some Internet work, and say good by to various friends.

It was a bright and sunny day and by mid-morning a gentle SW breeze set in. Some people suggested that I sail around the leeward (west) side of the island but the consensus was that going around Diamond Head, Koko head, then up the windward side of the island would be more appropriate. In the end I decided to head east.

Jeff helped me take the boat from her slip to The Fuel Dock to take on diesel (7.4 gal), ice (2 blocks), and a large chili beef and rice meal to go. I said goodbye to Carey, said said good by to Jeff and Ron Beach then I motored out with the USA and Hawaii courtesy flags flying on the starboard side and the Fremantle Sailing Club burgie flying on the port side.

Once I cleared the channel I headed Pachuca into the wind, put on the autopilot, and had no problem raising the full mainsail, using the larger jib winch rather than the smaller winch on the cabin top. I then switched off the engine, bore away to fill the sail, then let out the full jib. Pachuca has been ambling along on course 100 true toward Molokai, at just over 3 kt. I can't complain about this. At least I am moving in a reasonably good direction. Before dark when I am closer to Molokai I will do a jibe and head NW and try to clear the coast of Oahu, which also falls to the NW.

.. Wow! I've just had an abrupt wind shift and am heading 024 T on a beam reach doing 3.8 kt with a 9 kt wind. If this holds up I'll clear Oahu. I can't complain about that.

DAY TWO NOON REPORT----------------------------------

At 7.30 PM HST last night Richard, Jeff, and I had the regular radio session. Jeff was at Ala Wai harbor and Richard was 1100 nm north. Getting away from the many masts at Ala Wai harbor seems to have improved my radio reception because I had the best reception from Richard yet.

Richard has had a tough time. He left Molokai three weeks ago and has been plagued by weak and adverse winds. He found himself north of a nasty low pressure area and for a while had gale force winds pushing him toward Japan. Fortunately last night he was sailing east with a northerly wind and was making reasonable progress toward the Pacific High that is the key to this passage.

Jeff has passed the role of providing Richard with weather reports to me. I'll download a grib file of his area before our session at 7.30 PM tonight.

Incidentally the boat that fueled up before me yesterday was Canadian and headed for Alaska. They elected to pass on leeward (west) side of Oahu while to sailed the windward side. I'd love to know how they did.

I got a good wind shift early in the evening and made progress north at a modest 2.5 kt. At around 11 PM the wind started to back and weaken. Somehow the autopilot managed to keep me on course at a boat speed of 2 kt from a 5 kt breeze. I took three 1-hour naps throughout the night and the alarm clock woke me up each time. Sometime after midnight I dropped the mainsail and motored for one hour, making 4.7 kt on 1000 rpm. I resumed sailing and when the speed through the water got down to 1.3 kt I knew that it was time to give up and get some sleep. I rolled in the jib and was pleased to see that the weak wind was pushing Pachuca north at about 0.5 kt. I had been afraid that the well-known south-set current would drag me back south.

I woke up at 6 AM and took my time to make a pot of brewed coffee with three pieces of toast for breakfast. After that I raised the mainsail and rolled out the jib against a weak NE wind but I am pleased to report that Pachuca is now at 9 AM doing 4.6 kt on course 045 T with a wind of about 9 kt.

At 7.45 AM I tried phoning Klaus and got through. I told him that I was 17 nm east of Makahoa Pt. He was very pleased to hear from me and was going up to the 17th floor of his condo where he had a good chance of seeing Pachuca's sail on the horizon.

Last night I looked up and was surprised to see the Southern Cross. Its orientation looked different but it was due south, pointer stars and all. I've just seen that the declination of Acrux is 63 S and it seems to me that from 21.4 N I should be able to see the constellation. Then I looked north and am pretty sure that I saw the Big Dipper, which seemed larger than I recall. I'll have to confirm this.

At 10 AM I cooked a meal of four eggs and bacon. They were delicious. For me bacon and eggs always taste better at sea. After that I downloaded two weather faxes covering the N Pacific from Seattle to Japan and prepared a grib file request for Richard's position.