Hikianalia Update | Sep 7-8, 2018: Happy Birthday ʻAnakala Kalau

We are continuing to navigate using natural clues and it has been a challenge due to the fact that we are still at 100% cloud coverage so it becomes harder to check our heading and we have had our winds change direction from time to time as well as our swells, so it has been a bit challenging, but we are that much appreciative when a star or the sun comes up and we can actually see the location.

During our 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch, we headed toward the star house ʻĀina Malanai averaging 6 knots so we have covered 24 nautical miles total and 22.2 nautical miles along the reference course and 9.2 nautical miles south from our reference course. So that leaves us at 1183.37 nautical miles of total easting along our reference course and at 41 degrees and 41 minutes north in latitude. We were still unable to do a latitude check because we have had cloud coverage.

During our 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. watch, we headed ʻĀina Malanai averaging 6 knots as well. So another 22.2 nautical miles along the reference course and 9.2 nautical miles south from our reference course. At the end of the watch, we saw the star Hoʻokele Waʻa (Sirius) on the starboard side then move over to our port side. For most of our watch, we stayed high on the wind but when the winds died we came off our course that we were trying to hold.

During our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. watch, we continued to have 99%-100% cloud coverage and averaged 5 knots. During the middle of the watch, we had the sun-ish (because the clouds were covering it) so we used it to check our heading. We checked again using the sun’s altitude when we could spot the sun-ish (again, lots of cloud coverage). Then we used the wind and swells to keep heading. We put up a stay sail in the middle of our watch and we were going 6 knots at some point until the winds died down to do 4 knots. We moved some more stored water jugs to our stern (shifting/balancing weight can help steer the canoe!) so that we could fall off the wind a bit to hold our course. We were excited to have seen some light behind the clouds to be able to guess where the sun was. Also, for our supporters & followers, the sun rises in the middle of our watch because we are staying on Hawaiʻi time until we arrive in California.

During our 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. watch, we were heading Lā Malanai averaging 6 knots covering 24 nautical miles total. So in doing so, we have made 23.5 nautical miles east and covered 4.7 nautical miles south. Our swell direction was Lā/ʻĀina Hoʻolua and our swell was 2-4 feet in height.

During our 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. watch, we held Noio Malanai averaging 5 knots so we covered 16.67 nautical miles east and 11.167 nautical miles south. We used the swell, sun, but higher on the course towards the middle of the watch with the winds.

During our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch, we headed Hikina to make sure that we didn’t go too far south. We are gearing up for ʻĀina Malanai but since our 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. watch held Noio Malani, we tried to compensate by holding Hikina. We covered another 10 miles of easting.

We are excited to be sailing and navigating – mahalo piha for your support!

We had an awesome 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch with all the stars! We were enjoying each otherʻs company and at sunset, all the stars came out. Kapena and lead navigator Lehua did a lesson on the stars and we got to see everything. Did I mention how amazing it was to see all the stars out? During our 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch, we headed Hikina averaging 3 knots so we covered 12 nautical miles east.

During our 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. watch, we headed Lā Malanai for 4 hours averaging 4 knots. When our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. came up for watch, we noticed that we were going too far south. When the sun came up, we confirmed that we were heading too far south and that the winds have clocked. So we changed from the spinnaker to the kite. Then to do more easting, we changed to jib 33B. Our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. watch headed ʻĀina Malanai averaging 4 knots.

Our 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. watch headed Noio Malanai averaging 5 knots to cover a total of 20 nautical miles. We covered 16.7 nautical miles east and 11.2 nautical miles south. We used the sun, swell, and wind for this watch. It was a beautiful day of sailing.

Our 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. watch headed ʻĀina Malanai averaging 5 knots to cover 20 nautical miles. 18.67 east and 8 nautical miles south. We kept the northwest swell to our port aft manu and we used the sun as confirmation.

Our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch used the sun to head ʻĀina Malanai. Our wind direction was pretty consistent today (all the other days, they had clocked by the time sunset came along) so we relied on that along with the sun to steer. Our wind picked up so we averaged 7 knots covering 25.9 nautical miles east and 10.72 nautical miles south. So overall we are at 39 degrees in latitude and 1379.05 nautical miles east.

Our navigation team had a meeting today and all of us think that we actually covered more south than reported. We just did multiple latitude checks using the stars and we agreed on about 39 degrees in latitude. So from this point onward we will reset at 39 degrees in latitude.