Hikianalia Update | Aug 22, 2018: Mahi Burritos in the North Pacific
Hikianalia Update by Hye Jung Kim
Aug 22 | AM Update
We hope that everybody back home is doing well – Kapena Lehua got an update last night from Nainoa about the hurricane Lane. Sending lots of aloha to everybody back home.
Updates and navigation reports often make reference to “star houses” – segments of Nainoa Thompson’s Hawaiian star compass.
Here’s our navigation report: our 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. watch held Haka Koʻolau and with 1 house leeway, we were able to make ʻĀkau course over water. We used the sunset, Venus, Hikianalia and Hokupaʻa to check their heading throughout the night. We were also able to get a latitude check with Kamaka and Shaula and the Kapoho and Sargas pairs. Our estimate of 29 degrees were accurate with our latitude check.
Our 10 a.m. – 2 a.m. watch held Haka Koʻolau as well and with the leeway, ʻĀkau heading. We used Iwakeliʻi, wind and dominant north swell.
Our 2 a.m. – 6 a.m. watch held ʻĀkau average, taking some easting away during our night. We tried to get higher into the wind, but we started luffing each time we attempted. We first used the moon to check our heading along with Hokupaʻa and Ka Heihei o na Keiki rising. We also used the navigator’s triangle‘s humu and keoe setting to check out heading.
Aug 22 | PM Update
Today for breakfast, chef anakala Gary made mahi burritos – his salsa was the BEST! We are very thankful for anakala Gary for finding creative ways to serve the mahi that we caught. We have dried mahi for snacks and it almost immediately dissappears as soon as it gets dried.
We caught two mahis today and one of them had an empty ōpū. We trained more crew members to carry out the stomach content/fin/science portion and so we have many more on the citizen science team.
Here are our navigation observations for this segment of the voyage:
The wind picked up today so we are going 6-7 knots on average today.
Our 6 a.m. -10 a.m. watch held Haka Koʻolau to have ʻĀkau course over water. We estimate that we went above 30 degrees north in latitude today. We will do another check tonight if we have clear skies to see the stars.
Our 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. watch held the same course as well. We were averaging 7 knots in speed so we made a lot of progress during this watch. There were opala in the ocean every minute. Most of the opala were small pieces of plastic, but we did see a bigger bundle on our port side today. We estimate that we will be seeing more and more as we make our way not only north but also when we travel east.
Our 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. watch held Haka Koʻolau for the duration of the watch. We went through some squalls and sped up for some time before coming back to about 6.5 knots. Towards the end of the watch, with the sunset, we were heading Nā Lani Koʻolau! We saw at least two pieces of opala every minute of the watch.
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