21.21 N
155.09 W
Distance travelled: 118 NM - 128 to go!
All going well, today will be our last full day at sea. At the moment, we are just coming up to the north side of Maui. We can faintly see land in the distance, but most of it is enshrouded in cloud and haze. We may see more land as we will pass closer to Molokai. We have heard that the volcano on the Big Island may blow its top, but we see no evidence of anything different from our perspective. If it does blow, the fall out will be downwind of Oahu, so it is unlikely we will notice a thing.
Last night was a quiet one and we both slept well on our off watches. The stars were once more incredible, but that was all we noticed - no wildlife, no shipping of any kind. However, we have begun hearing Hawaii Coast Guard notices on the VHF. We sailed through the night on a reach and this morning we shifted back to wing on wing to keep our course. The forecast is still holding good for us. We expect the winds to pick up this afternoon, but they are supposed to die down later in the evening. We will pass through the channel between Molokai and Oahu in the wee hours and pass by Diamond Head in the morning.
Last night on the Seafarer's Net we asked that someone call the Hawaii Yacht Club to notify them of our pending arrival. Jane did it for us and they are expecting us. It was a busy night for them as several boats tried to join the roster, but the reception was not great. We heard that a boat heading to Honolulu from Tonga lost its rig and had to return under power. Another sailboat, with a 74 year old solo sailor aboard, has been reported missing somewhere between the Galapagos and Hawaii. We are thankful we have such a sound boat and we are capable of such a journey.
Today I went through the provisions for the last time. I made up a big tomato sauce to freeze, with as many vegetables as I could and the rest I had to throw overboard. Hawaii does not allow us to bring in fresh fruit and vegetables and I feel we need to respect that. At first I was a little chagrined by how much I had to throw away - potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, ginger, limes, and peppers - but then I realized that I had planned our stores for a possible 30 day passage. We would have eaten these things if we had been that long at sea, so I believe my planning was close to perfect. And it's better to throw a few things away, than to not have them at all. Of course, we still have plenty of canned and dried foods, so we are a very long way from starving. On another note - we still have over half of our fresh water supply. Are we good, or what???
Tomorrow I shall try to post our arrival, so stay tuned. There may not be a lot of detail, but that will come later. Thanks to all of you who have been following our passage - we appreciate your thoughts and prayers - all that positive energy surely helps!
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