land ho!

Tues. July 19,2005
Aloha from Ohana Kai,
All is going well here. We have had a few amazing days of sailing in all types of weather. We have had great wind to push us along, with the exception of the last 24 hours. We have been motoring for the last day and through quite a bit of fog. That's the California coast for you.

We have made remarkable time covering up to 150 miles a day and will arrive in Fort Brag, CA this morning just in time for sunrise. (it happens to be 4am right now and you are keeping me company on my watch, thanks) We did end up going out about 40 - 50 miles offshore to avoid so many fishing boats and crab pots. It worked! We were lucky if we saw one boat a day. Now we just see them on our radar screen and they are usually about 8 miles away. It has been an amazing concept to me to set the sails, point the boat in direction you want it to go and not have to readjust them for an entire day or night. Wind is an amazing power.

The water has been relatively calm lately and no animal life to see out there except an occasional bird, but as you often hear with boats, there is always a project to do. We are certainly no exception to that rule!
Of course we jinxed ourselves with commenting on how smooth it was going. Within a couple of hours, the whisker pole(a pole that helps to hold out the front sail) bent in half. Keep in mind the thing must be 10" in diameter and 7-8 feet long. So while Bruce was out on deck attending to that, I was trying to cook some dinner in my new pressure cooker when it blew a gasket and sent steam and stuff through out the entire galley. Luckily for me I had just stepped away from the stove. As boating (and life I suppose) goes, you fix it and move on. Bruce got out his roto blade saw and repaired the pole. I cleaned the kitchen and can say that the dinner actually turned out great despite my techniques. I was able to find the blown gasket piece, replace it and hope to be more successful at that another day. We were back in action and very blessed.

We will touch base again once we get settled in Fort Brag, CA.
love,
Lisa & Bruce

1st overnighter

Saturday July 16, 2005
We have covered a lot of ground in a few days. We made it to Port Townsend with out trouble and got a spot in the marina for one night. We were up and out there quick to get to Port Angeles early the next day. Once we got there and tied up in Boat Haven Marina docks, Bruce had projects to do. He hoisted himself up the rigging to hang a bigger radar reflector.(This will allow other ships to see us easier on their radar. Good thing.) A few older men were watching him and by the looks on their faces I still couldn't tell if they thought he was ingenious or crazy. The martin gang drove up and joined us for dinner.

We were up and out of there early Thursday am and off to Neah Bay. Apparently a huge fishing area. The line up of boats waiting to get fuel was so long that we decided to dock first and carry our own fuel cans around by hand. I have to say there are pro's/con's to both. Met a nice fisherman who quite his computer job, sold his truck and bought a fishing boat. He hopes to make enough money this season to go down to CA and commercial fish there. We also ran into the couple we bought our wind generator from (Sally & Jerry on Aquarius). They are also leaving out to head down the coast the same time as us. They have some extra deck hands which turned out to be the people who helped redo our own rigging this year. A second boat named Rose is following them down also. We are all out here in the big blue together so we set up a check in time and touch base at 9am and 6pm to make sure everyone is doing fine. Aquarius is about 15 miles behind us, and Rose is about 25 miles behind us. We are making great time with full sails today. Winds have been steadily picking up today and are now about 15 - 20 kn. The swells are picking up as well unfortunately which makes for a rolly ride. We are currently about half the was down the Oregon coast.

We have been sharing shifts on watch during the day while the other one cooks, cleans or sleeps. We try to follow the same pattern at night with 4 hour watches, and so far it is going great. I have to say the time goes by much faster than I anticipated. I did spend my shift from midnight to four dodging crab pots and fishing boats. So tomorrow night we will go further off shore into the blue water route, approximately 40-50 miles off shore. Hopefully we will see less traffic.

Thumbs up for Scopolamine patches. (To prevent sea sickness) We have not had any trouble with feeling sick. I have never been seasick before but with these seas we didn't want to take any chances. So far so good.

Thanks for your emails. It is great fun to read them. Quick note. Please,please, please do not "reply" to our emails or add attachments or pictures. It is best if you cut and paste our address and start with a fresh letter to us. We can only receive straight emails with no extra frills otherwise it slows down the transmission through the Ham radio. If the downloads take to long they will kick us off the service. Please don't let that discourage any of you from writing. We love the mail.

talk to you soon,
Lisa and Bruce

Ohana Kai Shoves Off

Tuesday July 12, 2005

Greetings from Ohana Kai,

Whew, off the dock. Today was the day. Three years of planning, hours of dizzying preparation, and all with support from you, we have started our adventure. With a wonderful send off from friends and family we departed at noon after topping off our fuel tanks.
A quick recap on the potential itinerary. We plan to sail from Seattle to Fort Brag, CA., for our annual camping trip for a couple of weeks. We then hope to spend about a month in San Francisco Bay Area, Southern CA, and then San Diego each. Come November 1st we will head into Mexico and cruise warmer waters for about 5 months. We plan to go as far south as Zihuatanejo. Around April 1st we will depart from Puerto Vallarta and cross the Pacific Ocean to the Marquesas Islands. We will continue through the French Polynesian Islands, Samoan Islands, Fiji and end up in New Zealand. We hope to get there in time for their summer months and enjoy their fine country by land.
Currently, Sheila and Jared are watching the boys until Nana and Papa return from their motor home tour of Alaska. (Guess they didn't get enough last year). We may get the chance to hook up with them to have dinner in Port Angeles tomorrow night and then we are on to Neah Bay and when the weather permits, it is out into the ocean blue until we reach Fort Brag. We thought it best to send the boys on land for this first leg as it is some of the roughest stretch of water on the trip.
Tonight we will try to tie up or anchor in Port Townsend and enjoy the first night on the boat.
The web page is up and running. As with everything on the boat, always under construction. Take a peak. www.ohanakai.net You can use it as a link to email us directly, which we be able to access while we are out on the water. We will also be posting daily/weekly journals to the blog site. Use the blog link and sign up to send us comments or emails from the journal entries. We can not access the internet itself from the ocean, but when we are in port we will update the web page with photos and stories at internet cafes. Feel free to forward this on to family and friends and have them email us if they would like to get on the list. If you would like to be removed, please let us know as well.
We hope this letter finds you well,
all our love,
Bruce and Lisa