Well, the big island of Hawaii is a magical place, but it sure does rain a lot in Hilo. Folks told us it was the dry season. Sure would hate to be there for wet season. So on the morning of May 18th we upped anchor chugged out of the bay, then far enough offshore to get away from the influence of the big terrain that creates a bit of a blue hole effect even on the windward side of the island. The day prior we had done our best to clean the bottom but wow was that water cold! We did a fair to middling job and knew we’d need to hit it a bit harder before arriving in Oahu.
Conditions offshore were a bit sporty and the Alenuihaha channel between the big island and Maui was considered a bit treacherous in those conditions, so we elected to sail up the East side of Maui overnight and on to the Northeast tip of Molokai, then we turned West and enjoyed the spectacular coastline on the North side of Molokai before hooking a hard turn to port around the Western most headland and tucking into a small bay to anchor for the night. It had been a nice sail and we were ready for a break. The terrain did little to protect us from the 20+ knots of wind but the water was flat and we got the anchor to stick in the scree, so all was good. We ended up hanging out 2 nights and cleaning the boat bottom and props thoroughly before moving on to Oahu and the Hawaii Yacht Club. We didn’t go ashore at Molokai; at that point we were pretty focused on a little city time, being tourists on Oahu, then moving on to Kauai.
The morning of May 21st I snorkeled over the anchor to develop a strategy for removing it from the hold in the lava flow where it was firmly hooked, and Isabel did a great job of driving the boat while I brought the chain in. Anchor up, we sailed with a single reef and jib on to Oahu, arriving at the Hawaii Yacht Club’s Aloha dock by early afternoon. Travis the Port Captain had moved some boats around so rather than raft up to another vessel we were able to moor directly to the pontoon. It was a tight fit but with both of us talking over our fancy new bluetooth intercom system we were able to maneuver to the dock in good form, and Marley the sailing instructor was there to catch our stern line, making our parallel parking maneuver almost child’s play.
Turned out that Friday around 1730 the weekly beer can race gets underway and we had ringside seats to the starting line. It was a total blast to see the boats maneuvering under sail in the small harbor - no collisions a testament to the skipper’s skills, and we perched on the cabin top with a cold frosty one to take it all in and cheer them on. Afterwards the downstairs bar was hopping and the grill was lit - we purchased cheeseburgers to support the kids sailing program and fill our bellies with more than just the killer mojitos the bartender produced.
-Hawaii Yacht Club is known as the “friendly” yacht club, and we certainly made some great friends over the following four weeks. During that time we made repairs to the screecher sail, the main sail, and the dinghy which decided to spring a leak. We washed and waxed the topsides, polished stainless, did water maker maintenance, repaired mast steps, cleaned out every cupboard and chased away the mildew. Hilo was a total mildew factory as had been French Polynesia the last few weeks we were there. Honolulu turned out to be pretty dry, so we got everything back in great shape.
We also got our second Pfizer vaccine jab about 4 days after arriving. Both Maui and Kauai had visitor rules in place prohibiting us coming unless we had been vaccinated at least 2 weeks prior to arrival, so we were pleased to get this done. That restriction contributed to our decision to blow off Maui and sail on up to Molokai, but it’s fair to say we were itching to get going anyway.
More about Oahu next time. . .
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