Hikianalia Update | Sep 3-4, 2018: Dolphin Show

Our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch is seeing the sunrise earlier and earlier each day because we are traveling east and will continue to stay on Hawaiʻi time until we arrive in California.

In the 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch, we were able to see the sunset and had clear skies for a while before our sky closed up to be at 100% cloud coverage again. At the beginning of the watch, we were able to view the stars Nahiku, Hōkūpaʻa, Iwa Keliʻi, Hōkūleʻa, Pimoe along with the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. We used the stars and planets for as reference points for a while before the clouds completely covered out night sky.

For our 10 p.m. to – 2 a.m. watch we had no stars, just clouds covering a sky full of darkness.

During our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. watch, the wind shifted to star house Nāleo Koʻolau for a few hours so we put up our genoa sail #21, main, and mizzen for that duration. Towards the end of the watch, we had winds clock back to La Koʻolau, Hikina so we took the sails down. It was short but fun sail.

Overall, we covered 36 nautical miles of easting in the last three watches toward Hikina. So as of 6 a.m., we have covered 796.06 nautical miles of easting and are at 42 degrees and 21.747 minutes. We were excited that the skies might be clear for a latitude check last night, but the horizon was covered with clouds so we were not able to do so. Maybe tonight!

During our 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. watch, we headed 12 nautical miles in star house Hikina. We could not see the sun, just swells. We tried our best using the swells for steering.

During our 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. watch, the giant pod of naiʻa returned! So we watched it for quite some time. We covered 12 nautical miles in Hikina to be at 820.06 nautical miles of easting and at 42 degrees and 21.747 minutes in latitude.

During our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch, the winds sped up again so we put  some sails up, but due to the wind coming from Lā/ʻĀina Koʻolau, we were steering ʻĀina Malanai and our course ended up being Noio Malanai. So we covered 11.64 nautical miles of easting and 7.78 nautical miles of south during our watch averaging 3.5 knots. We tried to stay as close to the wind as possible during our watch and so Kapena Lehua decided to take down the sails right after our watch was pau – they were sending us in a direction that we didn’t desire. Still 100% cloud coverage so we think it will be a night of no stars, planets, or moon. We are hopeful to have some more winds in a favorable direction soon so that we can start sailing again.

On our 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch, we headed toward the star house ʻĀina Malanai  at 3 knots. We used the main and the mizzen but dropped the head sail during this watch to keep it from luffing and so that we can hold our course a bit tighter. During this watch, we covered 11 nautical miles east and 4.5 miles south. We had 100% cloud converge during this watch.

On our 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. watch, we had small swells and light to no winds. We headed Hikina during this watch and our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. watch and covered 16 nautical miles of easting during our 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. and 12 miles of easting during our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. This puts us at a total of 858.7 nautical miles of easting and 69.467 nautical miles north of 41 degrees of latitude. So it puts us at 42 degrees and 9.5 minutes north.

Today, during our 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. watch, we cleaned the deck and the wind shifted from west to north to east to south…so we ended up on a starboard tack. Towards the end of the watch, there was steady wind from the south with sunny skies… finally!

During our 10 a.m. -2 p.m. watch and our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch, we held the star house La Malanai with the starboard tack. So we ended up with Hikina over water and covered 20 nautical miles and 18 nautical miles respectively. So as of the end of today, we have covered 920.7 nautical miles east and are at 42 degrees and 9.5 minutes north in latitude. We hope that we have some stars in the next few days so that we can do some latitude checks, but so far, no such luck.

We also had a navigation team meeting with kapena Lehua and we are all learning so much from Lehua and from each other. We are all so thankful to have these experiences and we are very well aware of how lucky we are to be here.