Kuewa's First Pacific Crossing Video

I finally got a couple of rainy days here in Kaneohe which put me in front of the computer to finish the crossing video.

If the box above doesn't have the video, you can link directly to it at YouTube here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-sjzgkaLhg

Passage Wrap-Up

It's been more than a week already since Kuewa and I ghosted into Kaneohe Bay on a spectacular Friday morning. The previous 24 hours had been a little tense, with Kuewa's electrical system developing some problems and sleep being hard to come by, sailing within 12 miles of Moloka'i at 9pm as we turned gradually more westward. The wind backed slightly to the north as we made the curve so Kuewa could point straight for Moku Manu, the twin islands at the point before Kaneohe, without my having to jibe the whisker pole again. Because of the electrical problems, the wind vane blade was steering, rather than the autopilot. The vane followed the wind shift, I didn't touch a thing, and Kuewa headed straight for home.

We had been on port jibe, with the jib on the whisker pole out on the port side, main and genoa out to starboard, for 4 days (except for one little test jibe 2 days out). We were making excellent speed, with Kuewa and the autopilot taking off on surfs down some waves at up to 13 knots. I just stood there in the main hatch with a big grin, amazed at the ease with which Kuewa did this without any input from me!

Noodle advised that the high pressure system expanding southward was gong to suck up the wind to our north so the southerly course was the best to stay in the breeze. This brought us to within 47 miles of Pepeekeo Point on the Haumakua coast of the Big Island on Thursday morning, where we jibed and started our curving island tour. The Big Island never did peek out of the clouds, and anyway, we were going so quickly in the solid trade winds that shortly we were within sight of Haleakala on Maui. I was a bit nervous about approaching the islands this way, putting me close to hard things for 30 hours. I came into it a little sleep deprived already, for no other reason than the brain would not shut off long enough to give me complete rest during the previous two days. Prior to that, I had been getting 8 to 10 hours sleep in 24, which was beautiful.

But Noodle's calm advice was spot on. The island tour was so fun, watching all of them peel by so quickly, and that wind shift with the vane following it to aim us right towards home seemed cosmic.

The dawn arrival in the Sampan Channel to Kaneohe Bay was full of emotion. It was so absolutely beautiful, the orange, pink, and yellow sunrise highlighting the spectacular Ko'olau mountains that rise 3,000 feet behind Kaneohe, the gentle wind, the slight swell, and water so clear the coral heads racing by under the keel looked way too close. I knew the channel was 10 feet deep but after years of sailing California's murky waters, it was disconcerting and amazing at the same time. Then Mokupe'a hove into sight with Noodle and Lori aboard. They had gotten up at 4am to come out and greet us. As they approached, Noodle blew the conch shell. Wow! Tears of relief at the success, but mostly from just finally having Kuewa here in my favorite place.

We sailed together all the way up to the Malukai cove, dropped the sails, and motored in to meet my sister Kit and her husband Felipe, who came out in the dinghy and kayak to help tie up to the mooring. The mooring pennant had become wrapped and wouldn't lift easily. We tied temporarily, and I got into my scuba gear and went down and retrieved the pennant. Kuewa was home.

Mokupe'a came alongside, lei, hugs, haupia cream pie, and POG. Thanks Noodle, Lori, Kit and Felipe for the wonderful welcome! Home!

This last week has been a whirlwind of bureaucracy and administrivia and play. Kuewa passed her State inspection but Allstate dropped us like an 8,000 pound mooring block. Kuewa is 46 years old, and lots of insurance companies won't touch that. Changing states triggered Allstate's abandonment. But I found someone who will write both loss and P&I for her. Of course, the boat needs to be surveyed (standard). I haven't found out whether there is an out-of-water component to the survey, which means another dry docking on the other side of the island.

I have hiked Moanalua Valley, walked on Kailua Beach, spent hundreds of dollars already at 2 marine supply stores and on-line for stuff that failed on the crossing (mostly electrical), finished installing seats in the Hawaiian dinghy, worked on the mooring some more, bought a truck, attended two membership interviews at the Kaneohe Yacht Club, helped with one work party at the Kaneohe Yacht Club fixing docks, and sailed the bay three times with family and friends.

The crossing itself was amazing and so much fun! Kuewa performed so very well. The electrical failures were due to my not believing water would find its way into the back of the electrical panel. Twenty years of observation during rainstorms and some rough San Francisco sailing didn't reveal the weakness that allowed a small amount of water in when the boat was tweaked the way she was during the crossing. The amount was so small it didn't pool, but it was enough to fry half the switches and cause bad corrosion. I re-wired stuff underway to keep things going, but by the second-to-last night, pretty much everything had given up, except the AIS and engine starting, which I had wired into separate circuits. The InReach tracker also runs separately provided it can be charged with a USB cable. The solar charge controller malfunctioned on the third day as well but I was able to wire around it to get one leg functional to charge one battery bank. All of this was due to my not recognizing how much waterproofing should have been built into that panel.

The only other real issue was chafe. I replaced the monitor steering lines three times, meaning four sets were used in 2 weeks. Hmmm. And the main topping lift almost chafed through. I caught it in time by doing a masthead inspection with binoculars, and ran a replacement. The mainsail reefing line chafed through at the clew (minor).

Food was very good. I lost no weight during the crossing. I ate pretty much what I eat at home. Sleep was better than expected for the bulk of the trip. The last 4 days were a little tough, caused mostly by unnecessary insomnia. To compensate for the grogginess that finally set in on the last night off Molokai, when I was 16 miles or more from land, I set two alarms in 1-hour sessions, to ensure that I would not run up on shore if the boat changed course for whatever reason. I got 3 solid hours this way and had the energy to scuba dive the mooring immediately after arriving. I've been sleeping a lot since.

The biggest successes were Kuewa's sailing characteristics, the Solent twin headsails, and the Pelagic autopilot (which steers via the Monitor steering vane). What a team! We spent almost half the time with mainsail, 155% genoa, and 100% working jib all set at the same time, giving wonderful downwind sail area. I won't rhapsodize too much further, but just say: 62 year old guy singlehanding a 46 year old boat 2,294 miles in under 15 days (from the Golden Gate Bridge to Sampan Channel buoy one, 14 days, 21 hours). Quite respectable. It was the 46 year old girl who did it all. I feel as though I just stood there in the companionway and watched the whole time. And hung on!

Thank you all so much for following along! It was just so great receiving all your notes and encouragement.

A video is in the works.

inReach Passage Log Entry #11

Land Ho! Haleakala on Maui 49 miles away. Still 143 miles to Kaneohe so won't arrive until the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #10

Less than 400 miles to go. Thinking about loneliness, how it hasn't been an issue. I know all of you are there following along. Thanks for all your notes!
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inReach Passage Log Entry #9

Flying along with 3 sails set, surfing down tradewind swells. This is what the brochure said it would be like. My 3 tropic birds are still with me, my kia'i.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #8

Rolling along in the trade winds. Gray dawn, big waves pushed up by Barbara. Kuewa tending herself nicely now so getting lots of sleep. What an amazing planet!
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inReach Passage Log Entry #7

Passed the half-way point a few minutes ago, 1100 miles to Kaneohe. Two Tropic Birds overhead, squawking. Wind slowed a bit overnight, 150 miles last 24hrs.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #6

Happy July 4th! Speed back up again, if it holds we might pass the half way point this evening. Hurricane Barbara to SE will pass south of me. All's well!
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inReach Passage Log Entry #5

3 days of light wind finally gave way to better breeze this morning Boat speed back up Third of the way there 1,460 miles to go White Tail Tropic bird sighted.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #4

Started engine at 1400 yesterday, ran until 0830 Sailing now but still light South of high center now so pointing at Kaneohe, much as wind allows All's well!
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inReach Passage Log Entry #3

Beginning of Day 4. Lighter wind, slower sailing, 131 miles in the last 24 hours. Beautiful weather though. The Milky Way and meteors were amazing last night.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #2

Still making excellent time. 1,784 miles to go. Beautiful sailing with sunshine every day. Got some good sleep the last 24 hours.
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inReach Passage Log Entry #1

Kuewa is flying. 184 miles first 24 hours. Windy, wet and cold last night and this morning. Gray dawn. Now sunny and the wind is backing off. All is well.
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Sea Trial Wrap-Up

Light wind was the meteorological theme of Kuewa's sea trial, sailed Monday through Wednesday of this week. Had I known it would be that light out there, I probably would not have left the dock. I'm so glad I forged ahead, blithely optimistic, as usual. The desired mileage plan was ludicrous, given the conditions. But what is a mileage plan? Just numbers. What I received instead was the most amazing farewell to California waters from the cosmos.

Monday's fluky northerly wind pushed us, off and on, out past the Farallones by mid afternoon. There were many whales, seven different groups of them spouting and working. No breaches or other playing.

Way out past the Farallones, I was standing at the helm in beautiful sailing conditions when I noticed ahead some kind of buoy-looking thing, but it was sort of undulating and flashing a shiny reflection. Time passed and we seemed to close with it quickly. Eventually I determined that it was actually closer than I thought, a mylar party balloon. Blown off a cruise ship or something? It's speed downwind varied a lot. Sometimes it was slowed by its contact with the water, and then a wave would launch it into the air, helped by the helium, and it sped along, restrained only by its length of ribbon tied to a plastic toy, skipping along the water. It was a bit of work to try to intercept it, but it was Erin's birthday and a balloon seemed the right thing to bring aboard, especially considering the environmental issue. We (Kuewa helped a lot) succeeded in positioning just downwind of it as it accelerated and snagged in the starboard shrouds within my reach.

Happy Birthday Erin!

Sunset was amazing.

The northwesterly held until 10pm when we were near Gumdrop Seamount, then died completely. The water went glassy with undulating swells. The best tactic seemed to be to furl all sails, secure the boom against banging back and forth with the rolling, and get some sleep. At 2am I came on deck to a magical night. The sky was cloudless, a mass of stars with the glowing band of the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. It was so quiet and the whales were spouting all around. There were also some small fish trying to escape their predators and would boil to the surface in a glowing mass of bio-luminescence that mingled with the refection of the stars. We were suspended in sparkly space.

At dawn it was still glassy and we were joined by four albatross, Robert, Mira, Caddie, and Rory. They were around most of the day, paddling to keep up with our drift, occasionally flying off. Each time they left, I thought they had moved on but a while later they would return, one at a time, execute one of their ski landings and paddle up to the stern again.

Robert, Mira, and Caddie

Rory flew around a lot.

At one point, a 6-foot shark came slowly towards us, its swimming pattern and speed indicating some sort of problem. It was going too slowly and there was some seaweed trailing from its dorsal fin. Several times it swam right under the four albatross, nearly touching them. The albatross behavior was interesting. They arched their necks, tilted their heads and looked down at the shark as it passed but showed no excitement or perception of any danger. I could now see that the shark had a severe entanglement wound, likely from some monofilament fishing line that was embedded around its torso a long time ago. The tissue was in bad shape. Entanglements are affecting everybody out there. I think it was checking to see if Kuewa was a dead whale that it could feed on, and checking if the birds might somehow be digestible.

The whales were a constant presence. I think they were all humpbacks, feeding deep down on the seamount, on the schools of squid that were drawn there by the nutrient-rich currents around it. These whales were working so hard that there were no breaching or tail displays. They would surface and take three long, deep breaths, and dive for a long time. There were enough of them around, though, that there were almost always some on the surface. A couple of times they came over to check us out.

There were also many mola mola (sunfish) around. Picture not very good, but you can see the weird shape, upper middle.

Moa mola.

Gumdrop Seamount

Drift pattern.

After 16 hours of absolute calm, we had drifted in a rough circle, sort of around the seamount. At 2:30 pm, a fresh southwesterly came along and we rushed off to the south, leaving the Gumdrop party behind. It was nice to be sailing again, but sad to leave all our new friends. Just before 9pm (Tues.), we were 75 miles due west of Santa Cruz, and we tacked back to the north northeast. The wind went light and sporadic from the southwest until about 10pm again, then tapered off completely. Once again, sails furled, AIS collision alarm and VHF radio on, and off to bed. This time I slept solidly for 5 hours.

When I awoke at 3:30, there was an 8 knot northwesterly blowing. Kuewa was pointed directly at San Francisco. The tracker showed that she had been pointing that way for 5 hours and made 5.5 nautical miles towards home. She's good at watch-standing all by herself.

The moon had set, the sky was cloudy and it was very dark. We made sail and the wind pushed us along nicely, up over the Continental Shelf. The dawn was spectacular. The water began to boil again with bait fish being chased by something below. There were huge patches of this for several miles. We sailed right through one of them, and the water turned black with their bodies, but they were too shy, both predator and prey, to be close enough to see how big they were or what they looked like. There were some sea lions nearby so they were at least part of the fun.

The wind died again at 8am. The AIS alarm went off and showed a target, “Ocean Defender”, only 2 miles ahead on collision course. I couldn't see anything at first, but then could just make out a tiny craft, like a very small fishing boat.

As we slowly came closer together, I could see that the sole occupant was paddling towards Kuewa. I thought it was a fisherman in distress and would need a tow. He eventually paddled up to within conversation distance and introduced himself as Antonio de la Rosa, from Spain, having left San Francisco three days earlier to be the first to “paddleboard” to Hawaii. That's in quotes because his vessel is a small version of one of those boats you see that set rowing records across the ocean, with a pod forward big enough to crawl into, another enclosed storage space aft, and low amidships for reaching the water. Instead of rowing, though, he was definitely stand-up paddling the thing. Wow! We had a long conversation in his broken English. He estimates 60 to 90 days. I think about that and Kuewa is so luxurious by comparison. What a feat! When I head off to Hawaii, my shore team will send me his position from his tracker. I'll see if it makes sense to stop by and see if he's OK. He may be a lot further south than I want to go, though.

Antonio is no crackpot. Here's the English version of his website: https://www.antoniodelarosa.net/pdf/Pacific-SUP-Challenge-EN-dic2018.pdf

You can access his tracker at the Spanish version of his website: https://www.antoniodelarosa.net/

I'm looking forward to shaking his hand when he steps ashore in Hawaii in late summer or early fall.

Shortly after this amazing encounter 30 miles west southwest of Half Moon Bay, the wind finally returned, this time from the south southeast. The whales were still all over the ocean. In this area though, they were breaching, and tail-slapping, trying to make as much noise as possible. It sounded like artillery fire as they pounded the water. Sometimes it sounded as though two of them 5 miles or so apart were trying to out-boom one another. I wonder what their motivation is. So much we'd like to know about these incredible critters. Unfortunately, this behavior was all too far away to get pictures.

Then, of course, some dolphin sped by for a visit and briefly played in Kuewa's bow wave. They were working too, chasing down some breakfast.

The wind continued to build throughout the day from the south southeast up to about 15 knots. Kuewa rushed back to the Bay with the genoa poled out to starboard. After some very boisterous conditions under mainsail only, with the wind in the mid 30s from the Golden Gate all the way to San Rafael, we tied up in her slip at 6:20pm. What a fun 3 days!

This sea trial didn't test everything to the limit, but I found some improvements that need to be made. I'll be working on those and completing the provisioning for the next 7-10 days. I'm hoping departure will be sometime during the last week of June.

Thanks for your interest!

inReach message from Tony Hoff

The wind finally returned at 1430 and we've been charging along on a beautiful westerly. 16 hrs @ Gumdrop Seamount was very interesting. Amazing sea life!

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inReach message from Tony Hoff

Sea trial has taken an unusual turn. It's been flat calm out here at Gumdrop Seamount for 14 hours. So far choosing not run engine.

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inReach message from Tony Hoff

First half day of Kuewa's sea trial, all aboard is well. 58 miles sailed so far, not bad considering we were becalmed for some time.

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Video - Transition

Some exciting changes in the wind. Still not ready to depart for the South Pacific, but we're going to the tropics anyway.

If the box above doesn't have the video, you can link directly to it at YouTube here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEfmLPs0fr0