Donate a Pint

Arriving in Hawaii came as a huge relief – finally we had made our destination after all the trials and tribulations that the last leg had brought us, 30 days after we had left the perishing cold of Qingdao. It was very obvious to us that the other crews had been in port a while – they smelt fresh, looked clean and were very chilled out. The advantage was that they knew exactly where to go around town!

Fortunately in many ways, our new mast section hadn’t arrived and so we were able to enjoy a few days r ‘n’ r, touring the island’s coastline and taking in the stunning scenery, the beaches, the snorkelling, the scuba diving, the sunshine and all the joys of dry land. It wasn’t long though before our serene and tranquil world was rudely interrupted by the arrival of our mast and mainsail. Suddenly the endless jobs list, which was to engage us for the next week, became a reality.

Sadly my hopes of rejoining the fleet for the race to Santa Cruz were dashed as it became obvious that we wouldn’t make the startline in time. Seeing off friends onboard other boats on that Saturday morning was odd – it just felt wrong to be stood on the harbour waving them off, without any nerves in my stomach and without the buzz that comes from eagerly anticipating crossing another stretch of ocean. On the positive side, at least we had more time on the island and had time to do all the ‘little things’ like washing, emails, postcards, banking etc that can only be done on land.

The big advantage for me was that I could look forward to enjoying my 30^th birthday on land, with friends from both WA and the Durban boat, who had also been dismasted on the last leg. I’d planned to go surfing at first light, followed by a champagne bbq before heading out to sea but as progress with the mast went better than expected, we set off a day early. Nevertheless, I had managed to sneak in a couple of surfs as I was determined not to leave Hawaii without checking out the local swell!

Our passage started calmly enough which enabled me to enjoy a great birthday with whales breaching in the distance, a great big chocolate cake and beers to wash it down (the joys of not racing!). The crew very generously surprised me with a surf board I’d been looking to buy in Hawaii – I suspect it’s a little too small and fast for my clumsy skills but now that it’s all signed by the crew, I’m sure it will look great on the wall!

The following few days were pretty rough as we motored and sailed through some very damp, grotty conditions. We were heading straight into the wind, slamming off the choppy waves. It certainly reminded me of our voyage into Qingdao, although it was nowhere near as painful. As usual life onboard became uncomfortable as everything got wet again and sea sickness took a few victims. Crew were either getting damp on deck or hibernating in their bunks. At times like that, there is very little interaction between us – you’re either on watch, or you’re preventing/recovering/suffering from sea sickness in a horizontal position trying not to fall out! Thankfully the bad weather didn’t last the full week that we’d been expecting although it had slowed us down and any remaining hope of catching up with my brother, who had come to celebrate my birthday with me in Santa Cruz, vanished.

While it started to get colder, conditions calmed down a bit and we were able to motor when the winds died down. Even though we weren’t part of the race, we were keen to make the startline for the next stage of the race, which at times was looking doubtful. Now that would have been very frustrating! Without the motivation from the race, it became very difficult at times and dealing with the boredom became a real challenge. Some read books, some slept…I just annoyed people to see who would rise to the bait! The days, hours and watches seemed to go on forever! It wasn’t a completely uneventful trip though and we survived a fishing rope around our propeller, which needed someone to dive down in the cold water to free it and a minor flood in the galley which needed us to bail out water with buckets. There was enough rubbish and debris floating in the water, ranging from fishing tackle and buoys to plastic of every description, to tweak the consciences of even the most sceptical sailor. Thankfully we did see more wildlife than we’ve seen in a while including pods of whales, dolphins, albatross and seals which was a great spectacle.

Thankfully the conditions allowed us to do a lot of the maintenance before we got into port which was a huge help as we only had 48 hours in port before setting off, once more part of the fleet and back in the race…we have some catching up to do!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 11:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.