Recap: Hawaii Passage (w/pics and vids!)

We departed Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on 18 April 2014 and arrived in Hilo, Hawaii, on 12 May 2014. We covered 2594 nm in almost exactly 24 days (576 hrs). Pics and videos to start, then some final thoughts on the passage, and finally data at the end.

Day 1: Departure from Cabo, 18 April 2014

Day 1

Day 1: Passing Lands End one last time

Day 1: V-berth converted to food storage

Day 1: Breaking into the passage chocolate cake

Day 2: Sailing into the sunset

Day 3: Matt ecstatic to be at sea

Day 3

Day 3: Beam reaching under full sail

Day 3: Life in the cabin

 

Day 4: Outhaul breaks

Day 4

Day 4: Matt making 'al pastor' tacos

Day 6: For my (Matt's) mom

Day 6: Reaching

Day 6: Windvane fix working nicely

Day 6

Day 7: Pulling weather data

Day 7: Capturing how blue the water is with contrast

Day 8: Matt breaks out the ukulele

Day 8: Almost every cargo ship we saw crossed us within two miles

Day 9: Plotting progress on our chart

Day 10: Fresh bread!

Day 12: Raising the C-0

Day 12: Beautiful clouds and ocean

Day 13: French toast celebration at the halfway mark!

 Day 13

Day 13: Sunset

Day 16: Sunset

Day 17: Light wind frustrations...

Day 17: ... channeled into making key lime pie

Day 18: C-0 halyard chafes through, Matt goes up the mast at sea to relead the halyard

Day 18: The doing-the-dishes bracing pose

Day 20: Twin head sails!

Day 20

Day 20

 Day 20

 

Day 23: What Rachel looks like every morning on her watch

Day 23: Fresh cheesy bread!

Day 24: This guy lands on the solar panel, then gets rolled down onto the BBQ. Highlight of the morning...

Day 24: Calling our mothers on Mother's Day with the satellite phone

Day 24: Sunset

Day 24: What Matt looks like every evening on his watch

Day 24: Land ho! Seeing Mauna Kea at sunset 63 nm out

Day 25: Landfall! The Big Island at sunrise 12 May 2014

Day 25: Landfall! Sunrise selfie

Day 25: Landfall!

 Day 25

Day 25: The lushness of the Big Island on approach

Day 25: Anchor down in Radio Bay

During the passage, we posted real-time recaps after each week passed:

Week 1 Recap
Week 2 Recap
Week 3 Recap

Schedule of a typical day (or what we arrived at after the first week or so):

0800 - Matt gets up and makes breakfast. We eat together.
Morning slot - Boat chores, meal prep, weather call and check emails OR cockpit showers (alternating every other day)
1200 - Rachel makes lunch. We eat together.
Afternoon slot - Rachel naps. Matt naps. Music break for entertainment. Boat walk-around.
1800 - Alternate making dinner. Try to have clean-up wrapped up by 1900.
1930 to 2230 - Rachel sleeps. Matt on watch.
2230 to 0130 - Rachel on watch. Matt sleeps.
0130 to 0430 - Rachel sleeps. Matt on watch.
0430 to 0800 - Rachel on watch. Matt sleeps.

On top of this general framework is sailing the boat 24 hours a day, which means interrupting sleeping shifts for sail changes or to deal with a passing squall. When issues come up, you do your best to deal with them right away as compounding problems are your worst enemy. Matt had difficulty napping during the day, so sometimes breakfast would slide to allow for more sleep during that shift. Rachel had no trouble sleeping at any time of day.

Some final thoughts on the passage:

(Matt) It is difficult to distill the thoughts and feelings of the passage into words. It was a good passage. We had prepared well, both the boat and ourselves. We were diligent during the passage and had to work hard to sail the boat and to address the equipment issues that invariably arose. The fatigue of running double-handed (read: not sleeping for more than three hours at a time) for such a long period of time definitely takes its toll. Having to hang on to something or brace against the motion to do everything from cutting a tomato to using the head can test your patience at every turn. We also had to deal with the stress of being completely dependent on each other, and on AEOLI. Despite all of this, I feel like we did very well with our first big passage.

We were fortunate to have had mostly very pleasant conditions, though they were generally lighter than I had expected. Evaluating the weather constraints for the passage involved waiting for the North Pacific High to stabilize and develop, which generates the consistent and favorable trade winds we were looking for, while departing early enough to avoid the eastern Pacific hurricane season (mid-May until November, which made a record-strong start this year with Hurricane Amanda). We also needed a good weather window to get off the coast of Mexico. After picking our departure window, getting off the coast went very well. What we thought had been the stabilization of the North Pacific High was then disrupted by two separate low-pressure systems during our passage. This produced the lighter conditions and resulted in a few inconsistent days. Overall, the weather was fairly comfortable with daytime and cabin temperatures in the 70s and low 80s (warming as we went). Nighttime temperatures were lower, and found us layering up for watches with fleece pants, foulies, and our tuques early on, with some of these shedding as we neared Hawaii. We did have several squalls, and it was generally more cloudy and overcast than I had expected.

Achieving a long-time dream and life goal is an incredible experience. It has been more than I expected in every way.

(Rachel) We had a great passage: no major equipment failures that we couldn't handle, no really big weather, more than enough food and water so that neither was really a concern, and an established routine that allowed us both to rest and feel relatively comfortable most of the time. I was surprised by how increasingly anxious I felt as we got further and further from Mexico, into the no-man's-land of being more than 1000 miles from anywhere. I had to focus on the task at hand to keep my mind from wandering to all the worst case scenarios that could occur. I didn't expect to feel this way, especially since running and living on the boat continuously feels so familiar and almost like a natural state. I also felt more in control than I thought I would. Certainly we do not control the weather, but we do control how much wind loading AEOLI experiences because we control the sails. Being prepared to reduce sail as soon as it feels like too much was our best defense and allowed us to prevent a difficult situation from cascading. After this passage, I would unhesitatingly call myself a sailor (for the first time in this whole adventure!). Hearing about our passage, other people have remarked that it must have really taught us to rely on each other. In truth, I had already learned that I can rely on Matt in a tough situation, and would not have attempted a passage without feeling that way. Learning to handle stressful situations together by choice certainly improves our ability to handle the ones that we do not choose.


Data from the passage:

Below are some of our provision planning and consumption data. We were amazed at how well our produce kept, and we required barely any of the canned fruits and vegetables we had packed. Our 3 kg cheese stash kept perfectly well without refrigeration, and it made many of our meals more appetizing. We found that some things we usually enjoy and had planned to consume more of did not agree with our bodies or the schedule we had to keep. Caffeine and dairy definitely fit this category, so we drank decaf coffee, chose ginger ale over Coke, and made a light olive oil pasta sauce instead of our usual cream sauce. We opted for rice over pasta at almost a two to one ratio. We ate eggs much more frequently than we had expected. Early in the passage, we ate a lot of soups, both because it went down easily and because we needed to eat up our freshies. We snacked much less than expected.

Total water consumption was 49 of the 78 gallons we carried. Total propane consumption was 2.9 of the 8.8 gallons we carried. We used three rolls of paper towels and seven rolls of toilet paper.

Our list of dry food stores: pre-passage estimates, what we actually consumed, and new future estimates based on consumption

Our list of fresh food stores: what we actually consumed, how long that type of produce lasted (if no day is listed, it lasted through the entire passage), and new future estimates based on consumption

Our overall average speed was 4.5 kts, which is fairly slow but is right in the range that we expected based on our previous experience. We had a new record day of 140 nm broad reaching in Force 4 and 5 conditions under a single-reefed main and full 130 genoa. We were becalmed four times. We started the engine on three of those occasions (two of which also happened to be while we were dealing with equipment failures (windvane, head)). Total engine hours for the passage, including getting out of Cabo and into Radio Bay, were 29 hrs 35 min. Total fuel consumption was 9 of the 34 gallons of diesel we carried.

Our daily mileage summary

Passage track with daily positions plotted

Cabo To Hawaii Passage Album