ABOUT: Chris & Manuela departed San Francisco, California, on April 18th on their J-40 sloop to sail to the South Pacific and points west. We think we'll be sailing 2-3 years, and then return to our normal lives. ARCHIVES:   Sunday, May 11, 2003   After 18 days at sea, Doug, Seann, Manuela, and I arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, last Monday. Seann provisioning the boat prior to departure The passage was easier than any of our previous crossings, yet still had its hard moments. We left San Francisco on the morning of Friday, April 18th. The weather forecast for the next 5 days promised near perfect conditions, and we were in good spirits. The wind was plentiful once we were under the Golden Gate, and wouldn't let up for the next 4-5 days. In fact, the first night was rather rough. We were doing 8-9 knots (just about Argonaut's maximum speed) with a triple reefed main and a #4 (very small) jib. The seas were quite confused, resulting in frequent waves coming over the bow and the cabintop. At one point a wave hit the starboard (right) side of the boat, climbed up, and then emptied into the cockpit. Before I could get really worried about standing in 6'' (15cm) of water, the cockpit drains took care of business, and we continued along on our way. With daybreak, conditions eased up, we connected "Harriet", our windvane autopilot, to the helm (steering wheel), and started to settle into our watch schedule. The following days we made good progress, still with the #4 jib, but with fewer and fewer reefs in the main sail. Argonaut under Main Then the Pacific High, which in the summer months completely dominates the weather in the North Pacific, and which would provide us with the winds towards Hawaii, decided to take a break and just about disappear. The winds lightened considerably, and for the next 10 days we had variable winds that during many a night would disappear completely. We were struggling to do more than 100 miles a day, not the 150 mile average that I had thought we could do. At times we would just sit bobbing in the water, not a ripple on the water. Yet, the swells would rock the boat back and forth, slapping the sails each time. The resulting noise kept many of us from sleeping. A truly phenomenal sail in these light conditions was a small (800 square feet) asymmetrical spinnaker. It would stay full when the larger (1300 square feet) spinnaker would collapse due to its own weight. Doug at the Helm On day 16 we finally reached what felt like the trade winds. No more calms during the night, albeit also not yet the steady 15-20kns from the Northeast that the trades are famous for. During the night of day 16 the winds really howled (high 20's to low 30's ). We had kept the spinnaker up, having been accustomed to light winds for days on end. Argonaut handled phenomenally, but the conditions and sail combination exceeded my steering capabilities. I wasn't able to keep her in the groove, although she responded well to every steering input I gave. Manuela wisely called for us to take the chute down, not a small task in these conditions, since it wanted to stay filled. Sean and Manu finally wrestled him to the ground. Lesson learned. Chris pulling down a weather fax We approached Molokai, the island just south-east of Oahu, in the early morning ours of the 18th day. Seann, on watch, spotted the light-tower, which is visible some 25 miles offshore. A hand-bearing confirmed our GPS position. At 10:00am we entered the channel between Oahu and Molokai. The wind dropped, and for the first time since leaving San Francisco we turned on our engine. (Two 120Watt solar panels had provided all the electricity we had required during the trip). Five hours later we pulled into the Ala Wai Harbor in downtown Honolulu, where we are now located. It is a phenomenal location, with a gargantuan (as in: won't be able to see it all in this life-time) mall right across the street. The Ala Wai Yacht harbor in Honolulu The next few days we spent relaxing and catching up on sleep. Manuela tried surfing the waves with Doug, while I gave windsurfing a try. Seann turned out to be an extremely knowledgeable animal lover, visiting the zoo, and knowing just about every tropical fish we encountered. Manu with her huge surfboard We also had to spend some time organizing the haul-out of Argonaut at the local boat-yard, and ordering spare parts from the mainland. In general, Argonaut held up rather well; however, two major items need repair: - The large swells of the first and last few days took their toll on our rudder bearings. I had felt some play in these prior to departure, but the boat yard in SF as well as a surveyor had assured me that this was no problem. However, the groaning noise and thumping/shaking when a sideways swell hits the boat are strong signals that they have to go. - Our alternator charge controller malfunctioned, and the resulting high voltage fried our VHF radio, as well as a good number of the sailing instruments (central controller, depth, & digital compass). We had a spare VHF as well as regular and hand-bearing compasses on board, and could make it without knowing depth. Crew & Anna (Doug's better half) hanging out in Waikiki Things that worked really well were: The solar panels; we never needed to run the engines, which was really really nice (quiet), apart from making our 30 gallons of diesel last a long long time. The Ham radio (Icom 718). We used it to successfully pull down daily weather faxes (maps of the weather systems in the North Pacific). We also talked with the Pacific Seafarers Net, their control station in Washington state, and vessels in transit in various parts of the North and South Pacific. Sails: the very small jib (#4) and the small chute were the sails we used 80% of the time. The remainder of the time we used the reaching #2. The #1 and #3 stayed in the locker. The big chute was either too much sail for the wind, or too heavy to stay full. We'll see if this holds true for the remainder of the trip. If so, 2 of our 3 chutes, and a couple of jibs are going home sooner or later. Well, that it for now. The boat will be hauled out on May 19th, and will be on the hard somewhere around 3-6 days. After that, we l probably hang a little longer around here, reprovision, and then head out for Samoa, our last long passage for a while. More on that later. Christoph 2:26 AM