News
July 8, 1200
Under 500 miles to go and we're flying, in every sense of the word. Our boat speed is consistently averaging over 9 knots, we're getting some killer drone footage, and apparently charging hard through schools of suicidal malolo (flying fish). We gybed early this morning and the sunlight revealed about six dead flying fish strewn about the foredeck and on our sail stack. Reading other boat updates, it appears we're not the only ones.
Life is good on board the Ho'- Cecil's awesome cooking and Ty's mastery of transom grilling keeps the morale high. The boat is getting lighter and faster as we dwindle our food and wine selection down to the final meals. Every morning we wake up to crystal clear skies and a warm breeze. Two more sleeps and we'll be at the barn door.
July 7, 1000
We're deep in champagne sailing territory now. Sun is out for the whole day with a few scattered clouds here and there. Night time is epic, with billions of stars giving us a show in every direction. We pass the time looking for satellites, shooting stars and the ISS, even some "unknown objects".
We're roughly 660 miles from the finish, and have a handful of gybes left, but the wind is starting to become more consistent, making it easier to plan our entry in to the Molokai channel.
The doom and gloom is no more, which makes for some epic drone footage, so enjoy...
July 6, 1200
What we all signed up for..
We're finally beating our way towards the island, Molokai channel in our crosshairs. We made our first gybe in the middle of night at 0200- Led by Fizz and Fuzz Foster, the entire crew on deck, briefed of our duties, it was executed perfectly. Not an easy task on this boat, let alone in the darkness. Now our main goal is to keep ourselves pinned between Spin Doctor and Hawaii the whole way.
The true icing on the cake though are these sunsets. The last few nights have been amazing, watching the orange soaked sky kiss the deep blue Pacific during the final hours of the day. One more check on the bucket list of this trip.
July 5, 1200
Half way there! Still beating westward on a 250ish heading. The wind is refusing to cooperate and give us that nice chute down towards Hawaii. Watching some of the faster boats in Division 5 about 200 miles ahead of us show we may be sticking to this course for a while. The models are changing on a daily basis, so we're taking that info with a grain of salt.
Yesterday afternoon was some of the best sailing on the whole trip. Perfect temps, perfect seas, perfect sky. Just what this crew needed.
Here's a little taste of what we got to experience...
July 4, 1300
Happy 4th of July! The vitamin D hath finally spilleth upon us. Clouds are starting to break and we're inching closer and closer to that barn door and closer to that wind angle for the famous "champagne sailing".
Last night's full moon was spectacular, making short appearances through the break in the clouds, so bright at times we almost needed sunglasses. The sun today has finally brought out that crystal clear blue diamond Pacific ocean water. We're reaching deeper into our sail locker, and were finally able to pull out the bigger A2 spinnaker- a much more manageable kite than the A3 we had up for the last 24 hours, which was a chore to keep under control in the confused wind conditions.
Enjoy a brief bit of action courtesy of our bowman Jake throwing up the A2.
July 3, 1100
Hello? Sun? Are you there?
A few of the crew seem preparing for some sort of ritualistic chant on the transom. I'm getting worried as I keep hearing the soft muttering of a "sacrifice to Helios" as they look my way.
The good news is we finally got into some decent pressure. Real decent. Winds were touching 20 knots last night and luckily blowing the swells in a favorable direction. We're keeping an eye on Spin Doctor as they're basically in the same weather we are and holding steady at 10-11 miles behind us.
Phil is confident the kite will go up today- its a good thing as the crew's eyes are getting tired of rolling. Most of them can't remember the last time they've had to sail reaching this far to Hawaii before.
July 2, 1030
We've all been watching the tracker keeping an eye on the fast boats and the pain they've been suffering with their start.
Well, we're currently feeling a bit of their pain with light winds in the 4-7 knot range. We're doing our best to race west into the dropping pressure zone where we're hoping we can finally throw our kite up before it gets dark.
The caveat to the light winds is that boat is finally level after three days of being on its ear- giving us trouble with the water maker inlet being in and out of the waterline, causing us to run out of water early this morning. Luckily it's back on line making a plentiful 10 gallons an hour and filling our tanks. Showers all around tonight.
Follow the Ho'okolohe adventure on their Facebook page throughout the race.