Moku pe'a Report

28 April 0600 position 19-45.5N 157-53.2W. 110NM from Kaneohe Yacht Club

"I'd rather be lucky than good" is my favourite saying, and lucky is how I
feel right now.

We had originally planned to depart on Friday, 25 April, but about a week
earlier I started doing research on clearance procedures in Christmas
Island. I found out that one does not want to arrive there on a weekend.
If you do, then all of the officials necessary to clear you in to the
country, Customs, Immigration, Agriculture, etc., have to work overtime
all paid for by the arriving vessel. So I did some arithmetic. It should
take just over a week to get to Christmas. Yikes! If we left Friday we
would likely arrive on the weekend and put a serious dent in the cruising
kitty. So we postponed our departure until Sunday, and we are lucky we
did. It was blowing hard on Friday and Saturday which would have made a
miserable start to the trip, but by Sunday the wind and sea had mellowed,
and we have had a great sail for the past 20 hours. Rocky had overcast
and some rain on the six to midnight watch, but the skies cleared later
and I have been enjoying the Milky Way ahead of us.

We were lucky to have good friends and family come down to wish us well on
the voyage just before we departed at 1020. Lori and Sherri Phillips
climbed to the top of Makapuu to watch is go by and we could see Lori
waving the American flag at the summit.

We put a reef in the main at the Mokuluas and have had it in since. The
wind has been up and down in the lee of Maui, and the reefed main does
better than the full main when we are slatting. We even had the engine on
for an hour just after dark.

Just before sunset we passed close to a tug pulling a barge heading East
and I wondered if my pal Jeb Baker was the skipper. I thought it might be
deja vu since Matt Dyer and I passed Jeb on his tug as we headed home from
Tahiti in 2011. I turned on the VHF to call the tug, but Channel 16 was
tied up by some lolo on a 17 foot whaler off of Waianai had lost sight of
land and without compass, chart, or common sense couldn't figure out which
way to aim to get home.

Our course has taken us along the western edge of Penguin Banks. Lots of
birds and fishing boats. We even saw mahi jumping behind the boat but
we're not fishing today. Apologies to Fred Morelli and Randy Reed, who
gave us some beautiful lures, but we had too much on our minds to want to
fish.

Our first way point is at the latitude of South Point on the Big Island
and longitude of Kaena Point on Oahu. By heading there we hope to avoid
the worst effects of the lee of the Big Island. Ever since passing
Makapuu we have been fighting to keep down to our desired track. There's
quite a bit of North in the wind, and when it lightens we find ourselves
having to heat up to the East to maintain speed and keep from slatting.

Chilli and rice for dinner with a nice green salad. Nothing too ambitious
as I was feeling a little nauseous. Don't think its seasickness as it is
about as calm as it gets out here. Probably just the jitters of leaving.

Just one minor window leak because I didn't dog the port forward port
properly. Otherwise Moku pe'a is in good shape and performing superbly.
I think she is happy to be here.