15 November - Land Ho!

0600 position 19-44N 155-03W. Tied to the dock in Radio Bay, Hilo. Day's
run 120 miles.

At 1015AM we got to within seventy five miles of land in the Hawaiian
Islands, the geographic limit of Moku pe'a's insurance policy. She is
insured again! Now I can stop being careful.

We spent twenty two hours on port tack sailing into Hawaii from the south.
Unheard of! The trade winds south of the Big Island are probably some of
the most reliable winds in the world. This is probably the first and last
time you will ever hear of that happening. The cause is a low pressure
system moving to the east north of us. Sound familiar? It's similar to
the low we latched on to that took us from Tonga to Raivavae.

King Neptune put on a fireworks display to welcome us home. As it got
dark the lightning started. The Sea King was more enthusiastic than we
wanted though. Some of the lightning was scary close to the boat. It is
disconcerting to be the only thing sticking up in the sky in an otherwise
flat ocean in a lightning storm. I don't know why more boats aren't hit.
Moku pe'a continued her lucky streak and we escaped unscathed. No need
for caffeine to stay awake last night! We had quite a bit of rain as
well. As we approached Hilo the rain and lightning stopped, the clouds
disappeared, and the stars and moon came out.

When we got to within fifteen miles of Cape Kumukahi at 8PM the wind shut
down and we powered off and on the last thirty five miles into Hilo. We
finally turned the engine on for good at 5AM, dropped the sails, powered
in, and were tied to the dock at 6AM. We've got lots to do like clean up
the boat, check in with Customs, and get ready for Lori's arrival this
afternoon. Just under eighteen days, almost exactly the same as our two
previous passages between Hawaii and French Polynesia. This was the
smoothest, lightest wind passage I've ever made though. It was a good
one, and I'll summarize more tomorrow.