Day 15 to Alaska-- Are We There Yet?

Noon position 6/28/16: 43 05.6873N 153 45.6452W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 125 nm
Total distance travelled: 1540 nm
Distance to Sitka): 1090 nm

We continue to just move along. We like these good mileage days for sure. We dealt with our low yesterday and though it wasn't comfortable, that was only due to the swell kicked up by the wind. The boat sailed beautifully at 5-6 kts under reefed mizzen and staysail alone. Merlin the windvane performed flawlessly. We hunkered down below and stayed by the heater. Given the boat's motion, neither Tor nor I slept very well, so it's pretty low energy around here today.

Definitely ready to be there, but it doesn't pay to start focusing on that, we've got a long way to go still.

It looks like there are some more higher winds on their way tomorrow, but we will hopefully take advantage of them to make for another good mileage day.

Day 14 to Alaska-- Two weeks and Halfway!

Noon position 6/28/16: 42 14.1589N 156 15.9771W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 113 nm
Total distance travelled: 1415 nm
Distance to Sitka): 1196 nm

Today on the two week mark of our journey, we hit the halfway mark! At 10:05 this morning, our distance from each of the way points in Sitka and Hanalei Bay were both 1206.28 nm. We had a nice celebration courtesy of Kristine and Fynn from Asunto. They gave Lars and Odin each a present to open when we hit the halfway mark. A sweet taste of our time in Hawaii, candy leis!

I do hope the second half takes less time than the first half, and we are definitely on track for that. Having the wind behind us and not having to beat into headwinds should certainly help. Things are pretty rocky and rolly right now, but we are making good time in exactly the direction we want to go.

We started our heater this morning and it was all nice and cozy. Then it quit. Tor found saltwater in the diesel day tank. Ugh. It probably got in the vent for the tank one or several of the probably thousands of times the cockpit was swamped with water in the last 5000 or so miles of sailing. He's draining the water off the tank now, hopefully it works and we can soon be warm and cozy again. A damp 63 degrees feels really, really cold after our time in Mexico and Hawaii!

Day 13 to Alaska-- Mileage!

Noon position 6/28/16: 40 50.0215N 157 48.7635W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 128 nm
Total distance travelled: 1302 nm
Distance to Sitka): 1306 nm

It feels really good to finally put a good mileage day in. The sailing and sea state have been comfortable. We are grateful. It's getting colder though. Since we go out on deck frequently Tor and I are bundled up, but amazingly Lars and Odin hang out below in t-shirts and bare feet. Brrr!!

It looks like tomorrow we get to experience the first of the lows that characterize this part of the passage. It's looking like 25 kts of wind from behind so not too bad, but we do prefer the 15 kts we are seeing now. Not much we can do about it though!

We continue to live in Lego city and Lars and Odin have been really wonderful about making sure Tor and I can get the naps we need during the day. It's usually about 4 hours of parental napping that they have to deal with by playing quietly. They are troopers and the best crew you could imagine.

Day 12 to Alaska-- Hull Speed

Noon position 6/27/16: 39 18.1583N 159 41.5880W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 101 nm
Total distance travelled: 1174 nm
Distance to Sitka (straight line): 1432 nm

The highs and lows of voyaging...last night the solenoid for our propane control on our stove quit working. We don't have any spares. Tor and I were both thinking we might have to make the rest of the trip without any ability to cook. Nightmare. Fortunately Tor was able to bypass the solenoid and though we now have to turn the gas off and on up on deck, at least we can cook. What a relief!

For the first time on this trip we've reached hull speed while we are going in the right direction. The first couple of days out of Hanalei bay were fast, but we were going northwest, halfway opposite of where we needed to go. In fact, we haven't yet quite made up the distance west of Hanalei bay we travelled. Wow. Yay for 15 kts of wind on the beam, we are sailing along quickly now and it feels great.

Day 11 to Alaska-- North of The High

Noon position 6/26/16: 38 04.3393N 161 02.5047W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 83 nm
Total distance travelled: 1073 nm
Distance to Sitka (straight line): 1529 nm

We spent the rest of yesterday motoring, and around bed time finally got some wind from the NW, though it was very light. We spent the night motorsailing slowly and then at 4:45am I was able to shut off the engine and we've been sailing in light winds since. The winds are currently from the N at 8-10 kts and we are on a course of about 30-35 degrees. Yep, continuing to make eastward progress!

As tough as it was to swallow just how far west we went and how much we fought going further west, I think it did end up being a good thing. From the weather models, it looks like even though we didn't avoid the high completely and spent yesterday motoring, we crossed it at a very skinny spot because we were so far west.

Day 10 to Alaska-- We are in the high!

Noon position 6/25/16: 37 21.5886N 162 29.3614W
Noon to noon distance travelled: 85 nm
Total distance travelled: 990 nm
Distance to Sitka (straight line): 1604 nm

We are finally making way to the East! We are slowly motoring now that we are in the high and there are just very light winds on the nose. We are keeping engine RPMs down to conserve fuel and just getting through it. The engine may be loud, but with the engine comes the ability to turn on the little engine driven heater,think heater in a car, that we installed for our last trip to Alaska. With calm seas due to no wind, no heeling and cozy warmth down below, it feels mighty comfortable thank you very much!

Our weather models show that if we continue doing this we will pop out on the other side of the high late tonight or early tomorrow morning and will then have westerly winds perfect for getting us NE to Sitka. We will take it!

We don't have an autopilot, so with motoring comes hand steering. To hand steer we have to be actually out in the cockpit, not hiding under the dodger, so the full warm clothing came out for night watch last night. It definitely feels like we are coming home.

Kauai

I prescheduled this posting. We are currently at sea and am not able to make such elaborate, photo heavy posts. I figured I would break up the string of passage related posts with some of our Hawaii memories.

Oh Kauai how we love thee. Almost 16 (!) years ago Tor and I honeymooned on Kauai, then we returned 11 years ago to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We were very excited to come back and share the island with our boys, so we made sure to budget plenty of time to spend here before leaving on the passage to Alaska. We made the overnight passage from Honolulu to Hanalei bay on the North side of Kauai, the traditional jumping off point for passages to the Northwest. Hanalei Bay also meant reunion with Asunto for a few days before Kolby left with crew to sail the boat to Sitka and Kristine flew home with the kids (they will fly to Sitka to reunite with Kolby and Asunto). 

Kauai has not disappointed. It’s every bit as great as we remembered, maybe even more so because we’ve had more time here to meet locals and we’ve learned the most fun ways to play in Hawaii for our family after spending 6 weeks or so here. For a few days while Asunto was still here, we each rented cars and did some playing and sightseeing together, as well as Costco provisioning (again with the provisioning!)

My best day here? The day Kristine and I took a surfing lesson! The instructor was great, the beach was perfect  for the dads and kids to play on while we were in the water for two hours, and the waves gentle enough for us to comfortably learn and big enough to have fun. I got up a bunch of times and truly had a blast. Kristine said it was her perfect Hawaii day, and I completely agree.

We even met a family actively working toward cruising with their three kids. They invited us up to their house which is on 27 acres in the mountains (they are caretakers) with a pond for swimming and boating, wide expanses of grass for running around in, a trampoline and lots of animals to watch and hold…not to mention the kids to play with. It was heaven for Lars and Odin, and so fun for Tor and me to meet another family on the cruising path.

All in all we couldn’t be happier with our time in Kauai.

Odin happy to get to to Hanalei Bay

The one clear view we got of Waimea Canyon

This is what it mostly looked like at Waimea Canyon

The kids made the best of the foggy wet weather at
Waimea Canyon and found trees to climb in. It felt
distinctly Pacific NW like.

The crews of Yare and Asunto at Hanapepe

Damming the stream at tunnels beach

Lars, Odin and Fynn happy as clams at Tunnels Beach

Surfing lesson with family involvement!

Tor got video of us catching waves, but no still pictures.
Way too fun!

We look professional, no?

The post surfing lesson photo

Rock Quarry Beach where we had our surfing lesson
was perfect for the whole family. Lars was particularly
enamored with the rope swing.

Rainbow shave ice, a necessity!

I had the gourmet ginger and lilikoi shave ice, a sweet
ending to a perfect day of surfing and beach play.

Pre passage chore, haircuts!

Beautiful sunset at Beautiful Hanalei bay.
We saw the green flash for the first time ever!

Photographer Lars catching some evening cockpit time.

Lars and Tor hamming it up

Lars playing 'Tarz-man'

Beautiful Hanalei bay, with a full rainbow. Amazing.