Monday/Tuesday. I've never seen it calm south of Niihau in my ten prior trips past there. This time was different. The wind never filled in, and Moku pe'a continued to motor sail toward the Big Island until late Sunday afternoon when we reassessed the situation.
We had been under power since the boom broke off of Kalalau. That's approximately 22 hours of powering, and nearly half our fuel was gone. The weather forecast called for continuing calm for at least another day, and we knew we might need at least 15 hours of fuel to get through the lee of Kona. The numbers didn't add up, so we altered course 20 degrees to port and headed for Koolina on Oahu to refuel.
Good thing we did. We had four hours of blissfully quiet sailing, but otherwise powered the entire way to Koolina arriving just before 5PM Tuesday. We even had to empty the emergency 5 gallon jerry jug of diesel into the tank to ensure we'd make it. Amazing. We didn't use this much fuel on any leg in either of Moku pe'a's South Pacific voyages.
I had a great time last summer on my powerboat adventures in the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps this was King Neptune's way of getting back at me for my dalliance on the dark side of the force. "You say you like powerboats? Hah! Try this!"
I called the Koolina office when we got within cell phone range. Their self service fuel dock was open 24/7, but we couldn't get a slip without 2 day's advance notice. We pulled in, filled fuel and water, and departed at 5:30. Moku pe'a anchored for the night off Electric Beach two miles to the north.
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