HOME AT LAST

31 July 18
We  arrived in Long Beach Ca.on the 23 rd of July and after finally clearing Customs we spent the night in Alamitos Bay. The following day we motored to Newport Beach where took a slip in the Marina Park run by the City of Newport, $60/day. After a 4 night stay we moved out to our new mooring. Lat 33'36.540N Long 117'55.093W.

We are now busy adjusting to life here in Newport Beach and the USA in general.

Hopefully my next post will give more details of our passage.

A WILD NIGHT

19 July 18
1200 Pacific Daylight Time
Position: 33' 05N 125' 29W

All is well aboard. We have 370 nm to go to Long Beach for our Customs/Immigration check-in. We need the wind to keep cooperating in strength, 12-18 kts please, and direction from the north. At present wind is North at 10-12 and we are making 4.2 kts. We do have fuel reserves but never sure exactly how much is in the tanks as there are no gauges.
Kathy had a wild watch last night with winds building from the start at 18 kts. till mid way through 35 to 40 kts. the forecast had been for 14-16. So much for forecasts!!!
Wind and fuel gods permitting we hope to be in Long Beach sometime late Sunday or early this coming Monday.

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WIND

11 July 18
Past Beer Time
Position: 35' 29N 138' 55W

After very light winds we now have some good sailing. wind is just north of east at 15 with some gusting to the low 20's. Forecast calls for the same over the next several days , hopefully backing to a beam reach for us.

All is Well Aboard.

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HEADING EAST

7 July 18
Almost Beer Time
Position: 36' 10N 144' 02W

We continue along, slowly. Light and fickle winds. Approximately 1250 miles to go to our customs clearance in Long Beach.

All is well, there is still plenty of provisions and my daily beer is cold.

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HAPPY 4TH of JULY

3 July 18
Unknown time in the Pacific
Position: 37' 30N 150' 15W

All is well as we sail along on our course toward Newport.
Our speed continues slow partially due to the fact the main is now kept in a double reef. Several days ago while removing a reef the main halyard jammed at the mast head. We are now using the topping lift for a halyard and are reluctant to do many sail changes.

We are happy to be sailing along making forward progress.

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SAILING AGAIN

30 June 18
1130 Local, Hawaii
Position: 37' 23 N 153' 16 W

We are sailing again as we head northeast. Not fast but sailing. The winds have been light as we make our way through high pressure. We sail if possible often at only 2.5 to 3 kts of boat speed with wind speeds of 6 to 8 kts.

We have plenty of provisions and still some fresh cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions and apples. There is also chicken breasts in marinade along with Italian sausages and both refrigerated and pickled eggs. There is also my supply of beer as like vitamins I have one-a-day.

The weather forecast has us continuing on this heading till sometime tomorrow then tacking over heading toward Long Beach for our Customs check-in. Best guess arrival during the week of July 15. Updates as we continue along.

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fORWARD PROGRESS

27 June 18
1700 Local, Hawaii
Position: 36' 13 N 157' 23 W

This afternoon finds us motoring along in a no wind zone as we transit part the the Pacific high pressure area. According to weather forecasts we may be motoring for a day or two.

All is well aboard. We actually have sunny sky's this afternoon after several days of fog.

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PROGRESS CONTINUES

Sunday 24 June 18
2300 Zulu
Position: 36' 48 N 164' 24 W

All is well aboard the good ship Po Oino Roa. Today we are headed due east at the above latitude. Of course that may change when next we check the weather routing program, usually at 0600 and 1800 local time. We are currently in Hawaii's time zone.

We have overcast sky's with some fog.
the water temperature has dropped to 59 degrees and this morning it was a chilly 67 in the cabin. Our wind is south at 14 and we are making 5.5 kts. We sail quite conservatively, today with a triple reef in the main and the headsail partially rolled in. We are just happy to be heading in the correct direction. We'll get there when we get there, almost sounds like a Yogi quote.

No interesting sightings of ships or sea life and we have not encountered the trash island that floats out here somewhere.

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COLD

Thursday 21 June 18
0100 Zulu
Position: 34' 01 N 167' 36 W

We continue along on the 34 degree latitude line and hope to for another two hundred miles. We have a pleasant north wind of 10 to 12 knots and sailing along at 5.5 to 6 kts on a beam reach.

It has gotten cold for us so used to the tropics. Mid 60's in the cabin, not sure about outside in the cockpit. the water temperature is now down to 63' which influences the cabin temps. We had to dig out long sweat pants, jackets, and most important footwear. Days are not bad but quite chilly in the cockpit during the nighttime watches.

We still have a long way to go but our progress is forward.

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ALL'S WELL

20 June 18
2000 Zulu
Position: 34' 10 N 169' 39 W

We continue moving east in very rolly and rocky seas. Wind is from the NE at 18 to 20. Lots of hanging on.

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A GRAY DAY

15 June 18, Friday
Time 0100 Zulu
Position: 29' 51 N 177' 20 W

We have just gybed over to a port tack and a new course of 040 degrees true. Wind is 12 knots out of the WNW. Speed is 4.5 kt. down from the other tack that had us at 6 to 6.5 kts since early this morning.

The weather model has us on this tack till somewhere in the area of 33' north and 175' west, that's about 275 miles away so there will be some changes.

No sun today just a cloudy gray sky. running Miss Perky for the batteries and some engine drive refrigeration.

On passages it seems that there are always some water leaks and usually over the bed. We made a great effort to solve a leaky salon hatch before departing Pohnpei including a new gasket from the hatch manufacturer. I had contacted him to get the correct size. Once received it was installed, as you can guess it leaks. Today I have tried a new to us product called "Stay Afloat" Looks like a tub of very thick axle grease. I guess it's some modern polymer. I smeared it all along where the gasket meets the rim of the hatch, now to see if it works.

That's today update. All is well aboard with Kathy and I and our feline crew of Chica and Lucy

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THURSDAY 14 JUNE AGAIN

14 June 18, Thursday
Time 2240 Zulu
Position: 19' 42 N 179' 11 W

All is well aboard as having crossed the dateline we get to experience the 14 th of June again.

Having gone far south to lessen the impact of the storm that was to our north we are back to heading mostly east. We managed the heavy weather as we had perhaps 18 hours with wind above 25 kts and 12 of those hours in the 35 to 40 ki range. It would have been more pleasant to have hove to but without the staysail that was not an option. We used just a triple reefed main and changed to a 3 hour watch scheduled to experience the fun.

Now that the stormy weather has gone through we have no wind though we still get the big rolly seas. Our hope was during the no wind period to try to repair the jammed staysail but it's just to lumpy bumpy.

The forecast calls for wind later this afternoon, until then we are under Miss Perk's power making 2.5 to 3 kts trying to conserve fuel.

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MOVING ALONG

13 June 18, Wednesday
Time 0930 Zulu
Position: 30' 06 N 178' 20 E
All is well aboard. We are now headed more east after zig zaging SE in the hopes of avoiding some heavy weather to our north. It appears we will still deal with 30 knot winds but hope for not much more than that. We have encountered a problem with the furler for the stay sail and it may be out of commission for the rest of the passage, with very calm weather we may be able to fix it. Time will tell.
Today it's 100% clouds, and wind in the 10 knot range.

Next update after the weather system goes by.

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RAIN AND SLOPPY SEAS

10 June 18, Sunday
Time 0300Z
Position: 32'05 N 172'54 E

All is well as we now sail along a bit south of east. We have finally gotten some sun after the last couple of days of 100% cloud and sporadic light rain. We were especially glad to have our full enclosure during the rain. The cockpit stays warm and dry. Cabin temps during the dsy are low 80's, the water is 74. The wind has been variable with some squally winds now and then. At present the wind is steady from the south at 10 to 12 and we are making 5 kts.

We have just foraged into both our freezer and refrigerator. We still have cabbage, some peppers and the main treasure a bag of apples and a stash of 9 bags of tortillas. In the freezer several packages of sliced turkey and ham. We are eating well.

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PO'S WILD RIDE

8 June 2018
0045 GMT
Position: 32' 55 N 169' 07 E

All is well aboard but seat belts could have been useful during the last 24 hours.

Since noon yesterday when I finished working on Miss Perky, that will be another story, the wind has gone from SW at 10 to 15 and just below 20 Knots to above 20. Our sail plan has gone from full main and genoa to double reefed main with rolled in genoa. Boat speeds went to the high 7's and occasional 8 Knots. At 0430 this morning we tucked in another reef. After a bit we dropped the main altogether and are now with staysail only, with speeds still in the 6 knot range.

Next is some more weather checking.

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UPDATE END OF DAY 15

6 June 2018
0100 GMT
Position:32' 24 N 165' 03 E

I have gone to GMT or Zulu time as I have no idea of local time. I do know that with the clocks still on Pohnpei time the sun comes up at 0445. We will set clocks ahead one hour and see what happens.

We continue north and a bit east. If the weather routing and gribs hold true to their forecast we will be heading due east sometime tomorrow.

We have sighted a few whales, unknown what type, the last few days and now have a Boobie bird that occasionally sits on the bow pulpit.

The sailing is great and all is well aboard.

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UPDATE START OF DAY 14

3 June 2018
1200 Local Time
Position: 29'21 N 163'41 E

Sailing along in light winds on a course of 050 degrees or northeast as we head for a point of 34 degrees latitude and 166 degrees longitude. That's still 1600 miles west of Hawaii and that line would leave us 700 north if the islands.

I did not know what sort of weather to expect as we made this passage but thought that perhaps we would have a bit more wind. We have less than 10 knots lots of the time but we continue to sail.

We do run the engine daily for batteries and the engine drive refrigeration systems. We also run it during our water making time every 3 days. The water maker uses AC from the inverter and we make 20 gals/hr. To check fuel consumption I poured some fuel from on deck today and we are using .6/hr. With that in mind we do have plenty aboard and could even run Miss Perky for propulsion for a couple of days if necessary. Our plan is to sail.

The temperatures are cooling to mid 80's in the cabin during the day, the water is 79. We are hoping that being able to turn at 34 degrees north it won't get to cold.

All is well aboard.

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UPDATE END OF DAY11

1 June 2018
1145 Local Time
Position: 27'18 N 161'10 E

Our winds finally shifted to the ESE yesterday allowing us to make a right hand turn to the east. Our course is now 060' true as we make our way toward Southern Calif. rather than Alaska. Eventually we will turn further east. Our wind is light 10 kts. with boat speed of 4 to 5 kts.

Shortly after sending out yesterdays update we saw a ship. At least our electronic devices did. The AIS showed the ship to be 18 miles away and on a crossing course that after over an hour from then would cross our path by about 1/2 mile. We finally had a visual and radar contact of when it was about 8 miles away. Eventually the ship crossed our intended path about 2 miles off our bow. We continue to be dazzled by this electronic gadgetry.
Kathy has just made another sighting, an Albatross circling about.

All is well aboard as we make our way along.

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UPDATE END OF DAY 10

31 May 2018
1200 local Time
Position: 25' 48 N 160' 26 E

All is well on the good ship Po oino Roa. Sailing along at 5.5 kts. in 12-14 kts of wind and following along on our proposed route. We have blue sky's, bluer water, white puffy clouds and the crew is happy. We see very little sea life an occasional bird and now and then a flying fish skitter across the water.

Just Living the Dream!

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UPDATE START OF DAY 9

29 May 2018
1400 Local Time
Position: 22' 15 N 159' 26 E

We just continue to sail along in mostly 13 to 18 kt. winds on a close reach. A few squalls during the night usually on Kathy's watch. We are now enjoying a full moon. We saw one ship on day 2 but nothing since then.

As expected on a vessel on passage there are minor breakage's. I need to replace a failed saloon fan. Yesterday while shaking out a reef a line jammed requiring me to remove the end of the boom to free the line caught in the sheave. When these occur I often fail in blog updates as it cuts into sleep time.

Our current position puts us at the latitude of Hawaii but 2300 further west. We continue along heading north and east till several hundred miles north of Hawaii and then east back home.

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UPDATE DAY 5

25 May 2018
1430 Local Time
Position: 14' 23 N 157' 52 E

More enjoyable sailing. Wind is from the NE at 14 kts and we continue to progress mainly north. We just had a squall to wash the enclosure windows off and I have finished talking on the Pacific Seafarers net, giving our position and weather information.

The wind was quite calm overnight and with calm seas I fixed ham and egg burritos for breakfast instead of cereal.

All is well aboard and we are enjoying the sailing.

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UPDATE DAY 4

24 May 2018
1300 Local Time
Position: 12' 29 N 157' 59 E

We are sailing along at 5.8 to 6.1 kts. the wind is from the ENE at 11 to 14 kts. We have settled into the passage and so have the cats. We are happy with our progress as we still are traveling mostly due north from Pohnpei. According to the Predict Wind routing app we are trying now to start to make more easting. We do not really have a set waypoint that we are aiming for but update the routing app twice a day and try to then follow the projected course.

We have had sunny sky's and no squalls of late. We are getting good solar power for the batteries though we run Miss Perky for 1/2 hour twice a day for our additional engine drive refrigeration.

Miss Perky was a bit reluctant to start yesterday and we have discovered some water in the port fuel filter bowl. A few days ago Kathy had noticed that the fill cap on the port tank was a bit loose. I have just drained water from the filter bowl and we will continue to check on it.

All is well aboard.

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UPDATE DAY 2

22 May 2018
1330 Local Time
Position: 08' 55 N 158' 26 E

We managed to get away from the customs dock in Pohnpei at 1130 hrs. yesterday, motored out of the pass, hoisted sails and we were off. Now abit more than 24 hrs. later we are beginning to get into a routine though getting used to the 6 hr. on and 6 off watches takes a few days. the sailing has been great after 9 months in the marina. At least for Kathy and I our newest 4 legged crew spends her time hiding and the older one had a bout of Mal de Mer but is doing fine now though mostly sleeping.

Our winds have been consistent from the NNE from 7 to 15 knots. We have only had two squalls and both during daytime ours. The new equipment we recently installed is working great. Allis well aboard.

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DEPARTING POHNPEI

20 May 2018
Pohnpei, Micronesia

Today has been very busy preparing for departure tomorrow. The dinghy has been hoisted on deck and secured. Final fueling and provisioning finished. Earlier in the week I cleaned the bottom and the propeller along with fluid changes for Miss Perky. We also had hoisted the main sail and rolled out both handsails to check them.

We have been on a constant weather watch for the last week. Tomorrow was our chosen day though it now appears that the wind will be a bit lighter than forecast earlier in the week. The direction is good and as we're ready there is no sense in waiting. Our course for the first 1500 miles or so is East of North and though lite the we should be able to sail in that direction. Wind speeds are forecast to increase as we move north though still less than 20 kts. Of course that is only the forcast not what we will actually have.

We will be using the PredictWind offshore app for weather routing. It has come highly recommended by others, we'll see.

I do plan on doing updates as we make our way.

We hope to be back in Newport the first part of July

POHNPEI

29 April 2018
1500 Local
Mangrove Bay Marina


Since I haven't written an update since we were underway from Palau 8 long months ago and we will soon depart here to cross back across the Pacific to our homeport of Newport Beach  California I figured some sort of an update was necessary.

My last blog entry of September 1 2017 found us mostly motoring from Palau to Pohnpei. I had so much trouble trying to connect with position reports over either our Sailmail or Winlink connections. I just failed to continue with entries once we arrived here.

Our passage from Palau was definitely a motoring one and thankfully we had put additional fuel on in the form of a 55 gallon drum.

PUMPING FUEL

ONE OF THE FEW VESSELS WE SAW

NO WIND BUT LOTS OF SQUALLS

On our arrival we had only 24 gallons left! We sailed whenever  but the winds were never truly in our favor. The worst of our problems was the inability to get weather forecasts. No matter when I tried I was unable to connect via the high frequency radio. It was not the radio as I managed to check in daily with the Pacific Seafarers net. This difficulty has led us to make a purchase of an Iridium Go and signup for the PredictWind offshore app for weather forecasting on the upcoming passage.

We arrived in Pohnpei on the 14th of September, 354 after our departure. We logged a little over 1500 nautical miles at an average speed of 4.2 knots. 260 hours of motoring and 94 hours sailing.

Shortly after our arrival we moved into the Mangrove Bay Marina. The docks are sort of funky constructed of plastic and put together like legos. We have water but no electricity . Our moorage fee is $200/Mo. The restaurant and bar are only a few steps away.

THE HOTEL FROM OUR SLIP

Shortly after moving into the marina we added a new crew member. Lucy is a black and white tuxedo and our best guess is that she was perhaps 6 weeks old. Our older
cat Chica was not to happy about the new addition but she has gotten over it.

Enough typing for today I will continue Pohnpei adventures tomorrow.