BYE BYE HONOLULU – HELLO HANALEI BAY

The breeze in the bay smells like vegetation and flowers, there are high green cliffs all around and huge waterfalls falling down off them. Where are we? No, it’s not Keehi Lagoon… and yes, we are in Hanalei Bay, in Kauai, the most beautiful anchorage… at least in the whole of Hawaii.

After working really hard to get Bamboleiro ready for the next big passage back to the cold and foggy weather, we finally took off from Keehi Lagoon and we sailed 115 miles NW to Kaui. One of the most important changes in Bamboleiro is that now she has a new third crew named Josh. Josh is the perfect crew, he doesn’t eat, drink or whine, mainly because he is just a mechanism that steers the boat in relationship to the wind; he is our new windvane, and so far he’s working like a dream. In our trip to Kauai we didn’t get tired of watching Josh work; the boat moves away from its course, then the wind paddle gets pushed in one direction or the other and that moves a whole mechanism that at the end moves the paddle in the water, which pulls the lines that are attached to the tiller in the right direction so that the boat goes back to the right and initial course, right at the same angle with the wind that it was set at the beginning. We decided to name it Josh in honor to the guy who helped us drill, bend and smash the heavy stainless steel tubing we made into brackets to mount the vane. He wasn’t the most friendly, talkative or social person ever, but he was very efficient, just what we expect from our windvane, and so we thought it was a good name for it.

Apart from working on Bamboleiro, we also enjoyed the last weeks in Honolulu. We hiked the three peaks of Olomano and we kayaked to the Mokes from Kailua Beach, where we found a World War II plane sunk and stuck on a reef; sorry, can’t post the coordinates because they’re secret. And of course we did some surfing as well. Our last time turned out to be quite epic due to a big summer south swell. Last week in Honolulu we sold our surfboards and bikes. Although it was really sad to get rid of the boards, we want to believe that there will be some more surfing in our lives hopefully not very far away in the future.

Our plan right now is to stay in Hanalei Bay for a week or maybe two… In that time we want to explore the area a little bit, maybe do some kayaking, hiking and swimming in this beautiful bay, while we prepare ourselves mentally to do some +2000 miles of cold sailing back to San Francisco at the beginning of July. 

Here are some photos of our last weeks in Honolulu

Bye bye Waikiki

Josh, our new monitor windvane

Hike to the three peaks of Olomano

Kayak trip to the Mokes in Kailua

We were not the only ones there

Bye bye Keehi Lagoon. Yes! this is Keehi

View of Oahu as leave the island towards Kauai

Hello Hanalei Bay, it's nice to have a nice sand beach again!

Just like in French Polynesia, there are canoe racing every afternoon

On the road again

Time flies, especially when you are having fun. This has been our case since we arrived in Ala Wai Marina in Oahu at the beginning of November last year. Being so close to Christmas it wasn’t very difficult to find jobs in retail and we found ourselves working almost straight away after our arrival on the island. With our first paychecks we bought 2 things; a dometic fridge for Bamboleiro and 2 used surf boards. In front of the marina there was a pretty amazing reef break called “bowls”, with perfect waves for beginners, and so surfing became part of our daily life. Soon enough, we got hooked into “the sport of kings” as they call it here. At sunset or at sunrise, with clouds or with sunshine, with friends or alone, with waves or without them, we were out there having fun. Of course, as if that wasn’t enough, we also got into the island tradition of barbecue. At least twice a week we went to a beautiful park with green grass, palm trees, music from the hotels and Hawaiian torches, right in front of Waikiki beach. Anything was good to throw on the barbecue; pork chops, bacon, chicken, hamburgers, all accompanied by beer! Surfing makes you hungry!

I almost forgot to say that between surfing and barbequeing Carl took his test to get his captain license, so he is now officially a real captain.  Just recently we also visited the family in Spain and we have to say we really appreciated eating real quality food after so long at sea. Once we gained a couple of pounds however it was time to return to Honolulu.

Like everything good, our time in Ala Wai came to an end too soon. After our 6 months (2 months last year, and 4 months this year) of temporary permit that the State marina lets you stay as a transient boat we’ve left the Ala Wai. Oh well, you have to follow the rules, so we moved on to Keehi Lagoon State Marina, where we are now. This marina got pretty much destroyed by the tsunami in 2011, and 2 years later they are still working on it. They put us on a brand new floating dock with a huge shinny dock box, with water and electricity. It’s pretty nice, but unfortunately this place is still pretty sketchy. Its ok for being for a short term “transient” but not to stay. So now what?

We recently bought a wind vane, which is a self steering mechanism that steers the boat in relationship to the wind. We decided that 7,000 miles of hand steering was enough! This month we will be working on installing it and preparing the boat for a new passage… Where?? First Kauai for a couple of weeks and then…. Back to San Francisco at the end of June or beginning of July, or at least that’s the plan right now. We would love to stay in Hawaii longer but the state marinas only allow us to stay 3 months per year, and the private ones are way too expensive. Besides, they say that in order to finish a voyage you need to return to the place where you started, so at this point we feel like returning to San Francisco to finish Bamboleiro’s trip is the right thing to do.

So for now we are prepping the boat and we’re getting pretty excited about a new passage, back to the north this time out of the tropics. Stay tuned…  more posts coming up soon.

Here are some pics of these 6 months in Oahu. 

Waikiki from Diamond Head

Hiking at Koko's with our frinds SV Ustupu (Silvie and Dan)

View of the ridge from the top at Koko  Head

Kayak trip with http://www.gobananaskayaks.com/

Around the island with a Fiat 500 with our friends Fabio and Fernanda who came for a visit 

 

Our friend Fe feeling like at home in Brazil.

Another marina, another sea, another city.. Barcelona!

 

With the family in Barcelona ( at Cosmo Caixa Museum)

Our friend Ben from SV/Lisa Kay came for a visit. We went hiking to Sacred Falls with  Mal and Kevin

Can you feel the spirit of the Valley, the Mana?

Friday races at Ala Wai

Sorry, we don't have photos of us surfing but this is more or less how we do it... 

Showers at the beach at Bowls surf break

Bowls breack at sunset...snip snip...missing it already!

After 10,000 miles…back in society

2 years have passed since we left San Francisco aboard Bamboleiro bound for Mexico, with unknown plans, destination or timeline. When we cut off the dock lines we only knew we wanted to go sailing, travel, explore new places, meet different people and experience a simpler way of living.

Perhaps, one of our dreams when we left was to end up in the Med, back in the port of Barcelona (Spain), where I come from. Instead, we ended up in Hawaii. So… what did go wrong? Well… nothing, really! Along the way we learned that this trip was never about the destination but about the journey. We met lots of people with fixed plans; ”we are going around the world, we have two years”. That’s something we didn’t want to do.

Of course, by not having definite plans, sometimes it was kind of hard to make decisions. Go back to the Sea of Cortez or head south towards Central America? Cross the Canal or go to South Pacific via Galapagos?? Decisions were sometimes made last minute, but we never regretted them. After all, that’s the beauty of travelling with your own boat, you just need to say “let’s go” to make it happen.

After almost 2 years cruising we found ourselves in Bora Bora, where we decided we had accomplished everything we wanted and it was then time to bring Bamboleiro back home to the States. In all this time, we have sailed a lot (10,000 miles is not bad at all, considering that around the world would be around 30,000). We have traveled and explored so many different and new places that sometimes it’s hard even to remember their names. Our route took us all the way down the Pacific coast, from San Francisco to Panama (visiting Mexico, all Cental America), then crossed to the South Pacific (via the amazing Galapagos Islands) to stay 4 ½ months in French Polynesia (Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands) and then end up in Hawaii. Wow… what a trip!

Along the way we met awesome people. Our closest friends, others cruisers from all over the world, they were all very different from us and also from each other. However, there was always one thing that kept and hopefully will keep our friendship alive; love for sailing and adventures at sea. Needless to say, we have also shared wonderful experiences with locals, experiencing their generosity, hospitality and sharing their happiness have been one of the highlights of this trip, hands down!

After spending 2 weeks in beautiful Hilo, where we enjoyed the relaxed hippy/Polynesian way of living, we moved on to Maui, anchoring off the touristy town of Lahaina. The first night there, we lived our first tsunami experience, having to go out to sea for 5 hours in the middle of the night. Kind of scary, really!

We are now tied to a dock in Ala Wai Marina in Honolulu (Oahu Island), right next to the famous beach of Waikiki. Walking along the beach can be overwhelming by how touristy this place is, but ahhh! When the sun goes down, there’s really no sunsets like the ones in Waikiki’s beach!

Sadly we need to announce that there won’t be any more adventure posting on Bamboleirosailing.com for the immediate future as we’ll be settling down to work here. But the future is a blank page, what about one more possible trip to San Francisco in the spring…. But that’s still to be decided! Meanwhile, we want to thank “Ranger” for building the awesomest boat in the world, the Ranger 33, for Bamboleiro definitely exceeded our expectations. Of course, we also want give special thanks to all our followers (specially to Jess Glidden, our number one forllower and comentator, thanks Jess!) for their support, encouragement and compliments that we have received in all this time. Thank you for accompany us in this amazing trip.

View from the anchorage in Maui

Lilikulani, bound for Seattle in November 

Old courthouse and banyan tree  (Lahaina, Maui)

Back in the society, cars, people, shop, sales... overwhelming!

Honolulu after an overnight from Lahaina (Maui)

Several hours later we take a seaworthiness test to get a slip in Alla Wai Marina

Sunset at Waikiki beach 

Bamboleiro resting peacefully in Alla Wai, recieving a so deserved fresh water washp up, after 10,000 miles of awesome sailing

Marquesas to Hawaii - overview and photos

Marquesas to Hawaii – Passage Overview and Photos

*Miles: 2056 (1900 as the crow flies)

*Days at sea: 16 (including 5h stop in Eaio)

*Average speed: 5.34 nm/h

*Tacks: 1 (starboard the whole way)

*Motoring: 24 h motor-sailing (during doldrums located between 6 30N and 8 N)

*Course: we followed Jimmy Cornell’s advice. From Marquesas straight up north until reaching the northeast trade winds. After that, fall off straight to Hilo.

*Legs:                  Nuku Hiva to Eiao Island

                              Eaio Island to Equator (at 141 28 W)

                              Equator to turning point (at 7N 142W)

                              Turning point to Hilo

*Wind angle:        Day 1 -4: tight reach becoming beam reach (predominant E wind)

                              Day 5 -7: beam reach becoming broad reach (predominant SE wind)

                              Day 8: Doldrums (light and variable or no wind)

                              Day 9 -16: mainly beam reach (NE to E winds)

*Wind speed: 10 – 20 knots (mostly 15-18 knots consistent)

*Hurricanes off Mexico coast during passage: 1 (tropical storm Olivia on day 11 to 15, located at 15.5N 120.8W, 1500 nm away from our location at that point).

*Squalls: mild squalls encountered in the doldrums bringing light showers and up to 20 knots of wind for short duration. Approaching Hilo we also encountered line squalls the last night 20+ knots with heavy rain. We didn’t see any lightning.

*FOB(fish on board): 2 (1 Dorado on day 10, near location 10 43N - 145 32 W, and 1 yellow fin near location 15 46N – 150 06W) Lucky lure: purple cedar plug with sparkels

Days 14, 15 & 16

Day 16 October 10-11 - Land Ho!

As the sun came up we searched ahead for signs of land but the horizon boiled with dark squall clouds. The GPS showed we were approaching, we kept scanning the sky for signs of land and  the tall volcano of Hawaii. Then, 15 miles out a dim gray point, low in the horizon materialized below the clouds. Land Ho! Hawaii at last. We tidied up the boat, searched for the sailties, shoes and anchor. They'd all be needed pretty soon. As we rounded the point entering Hilo bay the wind lightened, and we motored in, dropping and stowing the sails and preparing for landfall. We rounded the long breakwater, the town of Hilo spread out before us. We motored back up into the harbor past the town, past sailboats on moorings in Reeds Bay and some hotels along the waterfront. Radio Bay lay behind the main industrial wharf where a cruise ship was parked.

As came through the small channel to the anchorage a port authority security guard hailed us. "Do you have clearance to be here?" She questioned us. "Yes, we're going for clearance now. To the port captain." We replied. "No,  they're closed. You cant come in." She said. We asked her where we should go. She replied she didn't know, so we told here fine, we'll go in and wait.

She didn't like it, and it sure didn't give us a very good feeling about entering the US, but we motored into the bay and dropped our anchor at 1600, bringing Bamboleiro to rest after 2100 miles in 16 days. We showered, ate and for the first time in a long time we went to sleep with no night watches, the boat still and quiet. We slept like rocks. Tomorrow, the next adventure, checking in.

Day 14 & 15 Oct 8-9-10 – Hello again old friend

At 150 miles out from Hawaii we thought, hey, we should be able to pick up some VHF from the islands soon. I turned the radio on and switched through the weather channels and there on #1 loud and clear was the familiar robotic voice of NOAA weather radio giving buoy observations. It brought us right back two years to our time sailing down the California coast. We're getting close now. We saw a tanker cross a couple of miles in front of us yesterday so we're doing tight watches day and night now.

Day 14 miles done; 145

End of day 14 position: N 16 49 W 151 38

Day 15 miles done: 141

End of day 15 position: N18 24 W 153 27