Logbook

Logbook - Kaiulani Voyage to Hawaii, 2005

Date	noon position N lat. W long		noon-noon distance nm	speed knots	wind dir/ speed	swell ht ft	dist to go nm	temp air/wat °F	barometer in. Hg	comments
Mon 6/13				7						Arrived in Astoria from home port of St. Helens, Oregon
Tue 6/14										Waiting for storm passage
Fri 6/17				5				55/--		Departed Astoria for Hawaii about 1 pm. Bar crossing was great. Marty was the only crew member to get ill perhaps because he was in the galley making bread.
Sat 6/18	45° 20'	125° 58.8'	93	7	E 15	6	2123	--/58	29.70	Visibility unlimited, sky very blue. Katrina and Martin had a little trouble with seasickness, but the medication is starting to work. AnnaLee brought along her Irish harp (very small) and is entertaining herself and the crew. She said the "V" berth (bedroom at the bow of the boat) is fine. This berth gets the worst of the ship's up-and-down motion.
Sun 6/19	43° 36'	127° 45'	129	6-7	E 10	6	2006	--/59	29.5 inc	Sky 10% with spotty clouds, visibility unlimited. Crew had first meal that wasn't soup and bread: mac & tomato sauce. Saw jellyfish, flying fish, and dolphin. Mark's sinus infection is getting better, but the girls seem to be catching it. One is running a functioning fever and is being watched. Anna played her harp while dinner was being prepared. They are still wearing regular clothes in the cockpit so air temp is warm. They didn't comment on how Marty's bread tasted.
Mon 6/20	42°28.3'	130° 00.4'	120	0-7.5	N 10	-	1861	55/58	29.7	Cloudy, visibility unlimited. No sea sickness, but three have sinus troubles. Otherwise, they are having a blast. They ran from a storm that came through the Portland area on June 19. That may have cost them one day.
Tue 6/21	41° 12.7'	132° 27.9'	133.3	-	W 10	2	1727	62/58	30.5	Overcast, visibility unlimited. Saw an open spot on the horizon and sailed towards it, missing some bad weather. Katrina has a full head cold now, but Anna has recovered. More porpoise sightings.
Wed 6/22	39° 45'	134° 36'	134	-	NW 10	6	1596	65/60	30.24	Cloudy to clear, visibility unlimited. The seas are getting more active. Katrina still has head cold.
Thu 6/23	38° 7.1'	136° 7.8'	117.5	6.5	N 10	2	1478	65/60	30.3	Broken clouds with unlimited visibility. Rough seas are hampering Anna's harp playing. Katrina is getting over her cold. Tried fishing but no luck. Heard two Russian ships talking last night. Saw a container ship bearing towards Long Beach, CA, and tried hailing without response. Saw an Albatross, a good omen. The crew is appreciating Marty's cooking, especially the bread. They sound like they are in good spirits but unable to take long walks!
Fri 6/24	36° 54'	138° 11'	129	7	N 5-10 incr. to 15-20	-	1349	65/63	30.31	Cloudy, visibility unlimited. The day started with winds N 5-10, increasing towards evening to 15-20 at which time full sails were deployed. During the night AnnaLee was disturbed when she sighted a ship on her watch. She woke Mark for advice. The same happened later to Katrina who woke Mark yet again. Both ships passed behind. Mark didn't get much sleep. Mark caught an albacore in the morning, providing a fresh albacore dinner that night. Mark's position estimate based on star sightings was within 0.1 nm of their GPS position, proving that GPS is right.
Sat 6/25	35° 17.4'	140° 37.5'	153	-	N 10-15	4	1180	70/67	30.27	Sky 100% overcast, visibility unlimited. Very few comments from the crew. They must be busy.
Sun 6/26	34° 6.6'	143° 21.2'	152	6-10	N 15-20	6-12	1040	70/69	30.25	Sky 50% cloud cover, unlimited visibility, and 6-12 ft swell. Speed averages 6-7 knots with peaks as high as 8-10 knots, exceeding hull speed. Today's report is from AnnaLee. They passed the half-way point in the early hours of the morning about 3 am, and celebrated with a bottle of champagne at dinner. During the day AnnaLee and Katrina spent some time on deck catching some "rays" and watching the big waves. Marty made a special treat of potato chips. Their friend the albatross continues to keep them company, and they have been fascinated with the aerobatics of the flying fish and the "flying" squid with beautiful blue eyes tossed onto the boat by the big waves. AnnaLee stumbled into the lighted stove (due to the big waves) and all consider it a miracle she didn't ignite. No phosphorescence as of yet. AnnaLee has read 5 books in the past week and Katrina's head cold is gone. A correction to Friday's report: it was Marty and not Mark who caught the ten-pound albacore and AnnaLee who helped clean it.
Mon 6/27	33° 33'	146° 12'	154	-	NE 10-15	4-9	929	72/71	--	Report from Mark: Sky 100% overcast, visibility unlimited. They still have flying fish and squid. They are planning to do south tack before their next call. The new expected arrival date at Hilo Hawaii is July 4th.
Tues 6/28	31° 5.3'	146° 54.2'	152	-	NE 10-20	4-8	804	75/73	30.23 falling	Katrina reporting. Sky 75% overcast, unlimited visibility. The ocean is warming to swimming pool temp. according to the girls. Wind was 20 knots through the night, dropped to 10 during the day. They expect it to increase again to 20 knots tonight. The weather is so good the girls sat out in their underwear and got really wet. They added 10 gals of extra fuel and changed the fuel filter because they think they have mushrooms growing in the diesel fuel causing the line to clog. They will have it checked in Hilo. They had to put up a second reef in the main. The topping lift* and outhaul* of the mailsail broke. This line holds up the boom in the wind and without it the boom drags in the water. Everyone helped with the replacement and all is well. Lots of video being taken. Glossary: Outhaul: line used to pull out the foot of a sail usually a line or tackle, an outhaul is used to pull the clew of the mailsail towards the end of the boom, thus tightening the foot of the sail. Reef: to reduce the size of a sail to shorten sail, usually by partially lowering it and tying it off the reefing lines. **Topping lift: A line or wire rope used to support the boom when a boat is anchored or moored.
Wed 6/29	28° 59'	148° 21.1	147	-	NE 15-20	6-9	638	75/74	30.13 falling	Katrina and AnnaLee have the first official sunburns of the trip acquired while working on same trouble from yesterday. Katrina caught a 25lb Mahi Mahi at about 1435 hours and they are looking forward to a yummy dinner! They are learning celestial navigation?? But the big news from these adrenaline junkies was that at approx 11:30 Kaiulani was broached by a 12-foot wave. She heeled over so far that the entire starboard gunwale* was submerged and water came into the cockpit and through the open windows. Cap'n just missed being skewered in his bunk by an errant knife! They all sounded quite jolly and unperturbed and are counting down the miles to Hilo and a Happy Fourth of July! Glossary: *Gunwale (pronounced "gunnle"): most generally the upper edge of the side of a boat
Thu 6/30	27° 45'	149° 45'	140	-	E 10-15	4-6	515 (?)	80/77	?	Report from Cap'n Mark. Visibility unlimited. Some difficulty with the satellite phone connection. Still estimating Hilo on July 4. (We may not have received the current position correctly.)
Fri 7/1	25° 25'	151° 07'	119.7	-	E 10	2-3	393	80/77	30.05 steady	Sky 10% clouds, visibility unlimited. One reef in the main. Saw one ship, passed 2.5 miles away. Last night on watch, AnnaLee saw 4 airplanes, Mark also. No problem with sunburn. Spuds and carrots gone, but there is an abundance of Mahi Mahi and Tuna, three meals of each so far, and more in the fridge. The Hilo-by-July-4 estimate is beginning to look optimistic.
Sat 7/2	23° 34.7'	152° 30.4'	134.4	-	NE 10-15	4-6	252	80/77	30.00 falling	The Captain is still hoping to make Hilo on the 4th but Marty is not as optimistic as they are going more west than south. They need the wind to be coming from the east. For those of you who believe in the power of prayer the crew wouldn't mind requesting a change in the direction of the wind. They will make a course correction in the next 12 hours or so. The crew believes that the ocean is playing a joke on Marty because it can be more or less calm but the minute that Marty decides to cook, the waves increase in size and intensity! He was making bread today and was thrown from one side of the ship to the other and sustained a bruise on his hip. The crew, however, is looking forward to Mahi Mahi sandwiches! The rye flour is holding up well and makes good bread when mixed with the unbleached flour! All but Captain really like the brown rice but it is too crunchy for Captain. Marty makes a great rice pilaf with it.
Sun 7/3	22° 52.3'	154° 22'	131	-	E 15	2-4 occ. 6	182	80/79	29.98 falling	Sky 30% clouds, visibility unlimited. The crew is beginning to see gulls (land birds). Ran into a squall yesterday. Wind now from the east. Finished up the fish yesterday, still have cabbages, oranges, and apples in the fresh fruit locker.
Mon July 4	20° 38.6'	154° 55'	137	-	E 20	4-6 choppy	19.2 as of 8 pm PDT	84/80	30.00 steady	Mauna Kea was sighted about 11am their time but it wasn't until about noon that they knew for sure that it was land and not clouds. The girls performed the unbraiding of the hair ceremony at that time and both have quite the fluffy dos. At 5pm their time which was 8pm our time they could see observatories on the mountain and also trees. The Captain is hand steering as the auto pilot is not responding appropriately. Everybody is totally jazzed to be arriving American soil on Independence Day, July 4th, 2005. The Coast Guard will be towing them in as the engine is not functioning. They are hoping/praying that the repairs will be simple and not too costly at all. The satellite phone calls were completely garbled. Fortunately, they were within cell phone range of land.
Tue 7/5										Mark reported by cell phone at 12:25 PDT that they did not need a tow after all. Sometime during the morning of the 4th, the engine quit and would not start as late as noon. They sailed into the harbor and as they passed the jetty they tried the engine one more time. It started and ran well enough to get them docked. They had a police boat escort to make sure they made it safely. For the record, they anchored in Radio Bay, Hilo, at 22:27 local time, July 4 (01:27 PDT July 5). Unofficial en route time: 17 days, 12 hours, 27 minutes (Subject to correction by Captain).
Wed 7/6										Additional details reported by Katrina via Renee (her Mom) on July 5th 9:20 our time: They had plenty of wind until the sun started to set and then they went dead in the water. The engine hadn't been running so they called the coast guard. AnnaLee become the true Navigator then, and kept a watch on the blinking buoys, contacting the guard at regular intervals; starting at every hour and then every 30 minutes. Once they were at the jetty Marty suggested that they try the engine once again and this time it did start. Marty and Katrina brought down the sails, AnnaLee did the navigating and Mark was at the helm. The Coast Guard was their escort, just in case the engine failed again. Their actual arrival time was 10:00 p.m. their time, July 4th, 2005 [The Captain logged the time as 10:27 pm]. Today they did light sight seeing and should be hooking up to shore water. They think they have found the fuel problem thanks to AnnnaLee. She noticed what appears to be a collapsed fuel line on the low pressure side. They have made a few phone calls and have plans to have a mechanic come by this week to have a look. The weather seems to be draining their energy and they said they are moving slowly. That was all their news. Over all they were all doing well.