Saturday Report from Hōkūle‘a

Palmyra Voyage Log - Date 3.14.09 9:57 AM

Greetings from Hōkūle‘a,

We’re close hauled in 10-12 knots south easterly, light chop, scattered cumulus clouds under full sail at about 5.5 knots. Large smooth north swell surging us along.
 
In the past 24 hours, we sailed through squally weather with significant rain, north winds. Overnight passed through clearing, calm band into current wind. During the night we passed near the fishing boat Holly. This morning, we switched from genoa only to full sail. Currently, sailing with genoa, foresail and mainsail.
 
This morning, tightened shrouds and moved running backstays and forestay into upwind mode. Currently we are steering Naleo Kona or south southwest. This is as close to the wind that we can steer. We are currently averaging 5 knots but were closer to 3.5 knots overnight.
 
Stars and planets used overnight include Hōkū Pa’a, Hōkūle‘a, ‘A‘ā, Southern Cross and the moon due to cloud cover. Actually, we navigated for hours by wind direction alone. Hōkū Pa’a is estimated at 15 degrees above the horizon, the moon is waning.
 
Last evening we had tunafish, (unfortunately canned). This morning granola, oranges, pineapple and MOCHA. Still fishing…

Kaina felt stinging during his bucket shower and hauled in a tiny blue jellyfish and small blue button in the next bucketful. Both are the deep blue like the rest of the open sea surface feeder community that includes the Portugese Man-O-War and violet shell bubble snails that feed on them.

The canoe is very cheerful this morning. After about 30 hours of rain squalls and tricky (but fun) down wind steering, sun, steady breeze and welcoming blue water have gotten everyone excited as we pass through our halfway point. I’m impressed with diversity of experience and good humor on board. Conversations range from mahi recipes to molecular biology (a subject that was just getting invented when I went to school and now is part of college lab courses – yikes). For me personally, and I think the whole crew, settling into the ocean’s schedule and adjusting to her moods is a purifying experience.

Yesterday, Kaina prepared mahi while Keala steered.