Rocky Point, NY, 26-DEC-2018 – We left Atlanta last Thursday for NY. We’ve feasted and hosted and visited. Now with time away from houses it’s time to think about the next sailing trip.
RAN – Written that way, I think of a Kurosawa movie. This Ran is a Swedish boat we sailed near in BC on our way home this year.
To prepare to sail to Hawaii this year, we decided we’d spend the spring researching the trip: Jimmy Cornell’s book, weather info, reading recommended books and watching videos. YouTube’s/Google’s search algorithm, being what it is, returned Ran’s Hawaii crossing video first.
At first glance, my reaction was what a coincidence; the second was, ‘‘Oh Yeah, big Google watches.’’
I watched the first videos Ran posted, in the fall when we returned. I learned about the couple on board and realized how far they had sailed to get to BC, and presumably Alaska. It looks like they sailed from Hawaii to the PNW. *
The two videos on their Central America to Hawaii voyage give some interesting trivia: I may change how we rig our preventer following their example. And, the videos make me question one of our anemometers. Their twenty knots of wind looks a lot calmer than our twenty knots.
The missing item for me is, what were the dates of their crossing? The videos were posted in May, but it is unlikely they crossed then.
Our current plan is to return to Port Townsend on Friday, spend New Years with friends and family, then three weeks of relaxing, which will probably include informal HI crossing research, next back to ATL to work on houses and then finally prep work in earnest back in PT.
Our friend Ray Penson sent the following PNW-HI-AK advice:
‘‘Your aim to sail across to Hawaii is a good challenge. The passage is usually quite easy (there and back) with the prevailing winds, as long as you get far enough south on the way out and far enough north on the way back. (Don’t try and cut corners as I did and seemed to get squalls every night for a week). Hawaii itself is not a good cruising ground, anchorages are limited and the trades dictate. Unfortunately when I visited there was no time to visit the places I had earmarked beforehand as I was on a schedule to meet a friend flying out from the UK and my daughter flying out from Asia. Trying to meet a schedule when cruising is disastrous (potentially dangerous), I don’t ever want to do it again.
‘‘Your future aim to go North to Anchorage is admirable and bold. A friend of mine did the trip from Japan via the Aleutians in a 36 foot boat single handed. He played the weather well and motored across the Gulf of Alaska! The place fills me with dread – I have had some stormy experiences up there and its scary even in big ships. But with the right weather window there is no reason it can’t be done in a well found small boat. It will be memorable.’’
Erwin will join us in April to redo electrics and electronics. I’m hoping to pick up a 100-ton license and to document Caro Babbo as well.
And then, when the calendar dictates, off we go.
*Actually, it turns out they did the trip we are considering, from Hawaii straight north to Alaska. They then sailed across the Gulf of Alaska in three days, after a few weeks in the area. Their tracking answers the rest of the questions about dates, etc.
