Mid-August, 2021, overlooking Molokai Strait
It’s been nearly a month since we arrived in Honolulu, the unlikely city on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Aumakua, Protector of those who use and enjoy our ocean. Waikiki Yacht Club, Honolulu, Hawaii
We came here on a sailboat that we rebuilt over two years in Washington state. Now we live aboard the same boat, and myself, my husband Jesse, and a few other humans are sailing around the world.
The boat is named Mikmaks, and my name is Samantha Osborn. I run a sailing logistics company with Jesse. We voyage plan, teach sailing, deliver boats, fix and repair boats and sometimes even just sail boats, for a living. For the next two-three years, we are the core crew for Mikmaks, Jesse as the captain and myself as logistics coordinator and sailor.
This blog is to keep family, friends and any one else who would like to know up-to-date on our where and what-abouts. I’ll try to include some stories from the sea and keep in sufficiently interesting to warrant the read.
Most recently we sailed from Los Angeles to Honolulu in the perhaps the most storied yacht race in America – the Transpacific Yacht race. Mikmaks, a Stevens 47, is not one of the usual candidates for a downwind sailing race. The term sled is used to describe these Transpac boats, because most of the race is downwind and racers seek to plane down on the waves, like a surfboard, rather than displace water as heavier boats like Mikmaks do. Weight is everything to these boats. They have few amenities besides a working head and some sort of berthing for crew – usually not enough for all the crew at the same time. Not so for Mikmaks. She is a beastly 32000 lbs, with a full mahogany interior, teak and holly cabin sole (aka the floor inside the boat), and rooms, not just bunks, for the crew. Compare that to the 16000 lbs or so on a Transpac 52 – a boat designed for the Transpac Race and 5’ longer than Mikmaks. So, knowing we were heavier, slower and more luxuriously appointed than the race boats, we set out with a crew of eight to have fun, cross an ocean and sail respectably enough to not embarrass ourselves. Crossing the finish line 14 days later we did all of those. (The uber-speedy racing “sleds” do it in 5-8 days, as a comparison.)
Mikmaks hefty weight makes her quite a good offshore boat in other ways, but that I will leave that for a future post.
So on July 13, we started the Transpac. Eight crew in total, none having done the race before, and only having sailed together for 30 hours on an overnight race the month before. We got along, got better, made plans, made mistakes, resolved them, learned, laughed and crossed part of the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. This two-week, 2225 Nautical Mile passage is only about one-third the way across the mighty Pacific.
My diary entry from July 14:
“Started shift becalmed. Wind picked up to 5 knots, started sailing. Very light air for the entire shift. Now nearly 10 knots, westerly. Realize how much sailing I have done. I don’t get panicked, move thoughtfully, raise and lower sails, willing to put in the effort. Odin is a master at his craft and continues to learn. Staying hydrated and calm.”
My diary entry from July 20, 8 days into the race:
“Spinnaker flying, boat moving fast, everyone happy. 1280 miles to go.”
Our shifts were 6 hours on, 6 hours off, teams of 3 (Jesse and our youngest crew mate were “floaters” and didn’t take a shift.) At the end of 6 hours, for me, some food and then sleep, blissful sleep. Not always the easiest to get, depending on the sea state and our point of sail, but I always tried! You can see how my diary entries, already spare, got lean like prisoner of war food rations, as I skipped writing for sleep after a week at sea.
Jesse won the Mark Rudiger Celestial Navigation trophy for his celestial navigation work (celnav) on our voyage across. YAY JESSE! This was a BIG goal for him. While we did have the GPS on, Jesse’s work was stand alone and we easily made landfall without help from our electronic guidance. I am proud as punch of my competent husband. He worked very hard to develop his skills for this trip, and went from just decent to excellent in his celnav skillset. This is his trophy – soon to have his name on it!
The Mark Rudiger Trophy for Celestial Navigation - an antique sextant. It works, Jesse tried it!
We are getting set again to leave in a few days. Our sails are repaired. The parts we needed have arrived and are now installed. Waiting in Honolulu is no chore, and we spent our month here with ease. It’s hot here, 85F daily and 75 at night, (that’s 30 C and 23 C for my Canadian friends), so it might be too hot for some, but after years spent in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, I’m okay with it. The water is gorgeous and accessible, there are food delights even at the local convenience store (spam musabi anyone) and although I don’t surf, I do enjoy watching the beautiful people ply the waves on impossibly small boards. One of our favorite things to do is to walk or run in Ala Moana Park at sunset and visit the feral cats. The cats all live along a breakwater on one side of the park. We started calling the area the Cat Bank. I don’t have any photos of the glorious, color-melting sunsets we saw from the beach at the park, but I do have a photo of one from the marina.
The vibe here is family-oriented, fun, friendly and beach-y…a sand in your toes and sun on your nose kind of place. I hope to come back again some day. Thanks, or rather Mahalo, Hawaii!
What’s next for us? We’ll back to the mainland USA, our course out of here due north at first, then east, a circular route around the top of the North Pacific high pressure system. It should take us about three weeks. I’ll let you know!
One of our crew made a video about the race – it’s great. You can see it here:
Bye for now,
Samantha