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Land Ho!  Oh, what a feeling.  The shape of Molokai is forming beyond a cloud just beside the setting sun.  Suddenly, the few tiny spots on the chart are now real land, lighthouses blinking, the sky glow of Oahu back lights a perfect outline of terra firma.  A warm breeze in the middle of the night feels good.  Debbie is sitting with me in the pilot house.  “Good idea, huh?”  We’re not even there yet, but I must admit it was.

The passage is complete.  Eliana is tied securely at slip address K-91 in KoOlina, 2,363 miles from Ensenada.  The trip took 12 days including Thanksgiving.  Our average speed was 8.1 knots.  There were 289 hourly logs with 64 noted as Heavy or Very Heavy sea.  Eliana along with all hands arrived healthy, happy and safe.

First sight of land after 12 days.  Molokai dead ahead.  Click to enlarge.

The fly specks on the chart are suddenly large.

A trip like this allows one time to ponder the big questions of life.  After #60, Debbie remarked “Isn’t ‘Time Slowly Fleeting’ an oxymoron?”.  She does that to me all the time.  You know, using words I have to look up.  Anyway, it is a contradiction, but the reason I liked the song is because it reveals a paradox.  One that could be said of a long boat passage … or life itself.  How ironic to wish time could pass more quickly, then suddenly, ready or not, it’s over.
 
While Time Is Slowly Fleeting by Anael is the theme song for our trip because it ties in so well with this topic.  In the last post, I shared a 4 minute video (now extended to 5.5 minutes) using the song as background music.  Here are the lyrics I hope you’ll take time to read…

While Time is Slowly Fleeting
Long since begun, nurtured years of dreaming?
And faith has spun an altered sense of reason
As long as it’s leading you, the mind will hunt the vision?
But time is slowly fleeting, it’s fleeting from you?
And what can you do?

Well now’s the hour for dreaming?
Time to seek my newest Eden
I drift beyond to greet her?In a kingdom only we share
It’s always wonderful inside of me?
To find the soul’s been waiting?
And while time is slowly fleeting?
There’s still so much here to do

©2005 Nurtured Spontaneity Publishing

At the end I have provided a link to the updated, 5.5 minute version of the video.  It pairs the full length song by Anael with images from our trip start to finish.  I hope you will watch it again, this time with the lyrics in mind!

As a bonus, I have attached the complete version of Linda’s Daily Journal.  In it, she interestingly relates the experience through her own eyes.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Now for the details…

Ship’s Log
Each hour, at the top of the hour, a logbook entry is automatically started which marks the time, position, speed, heading and so forth.  To that, the watch keeper can add notes including, but not limited to such things as throttle setting, sea state and water temperature.  

One of the most important automatic items is the distance-made-good during the hour.  I transfer the number to a spreadsheet so we can later analyze the data.  On this trip, I wanted to better understand the relationship between engine RPM and speed.  I also wanted to confirm my own suspicion that sea state affected hourly fuel consumption more than I previously assumed.

To get the RPM analysis, we never changed throttle setting except at the top of the hour.  That way we could associate a particular RPM with the distance for that hour.  For the first couple of days, we changed RPM every hour assuming average conditions would be similar for all RPM’s.  As the pattern developed, we noted distance was markedly higher at 1500 than at 1400 without a large fuel penalty.  Higher RPM’s such as 1600 and 1700 yielded very little in speed, but burned significantly more fuel.  So for the remainder of the trip, we used 1500 as our standard RPM.

Then, the sea state question.  To do that, I made up four distinct sea state levels based on how the vessel responded rather than on wave size, shape, direction or period.  It made it easier for any of us to assign a sea state level each hour as follows:

1 – Light: Waves cause very little pitch, heading or speed fluctuation.        
2 – Moderate: Waves cause mild pitching and/or heading variation, but no speed changes, no pounding, no spray over the rail.
3 – Heavy: Waves impact the hull forcefully and produce spray above the rail.  Speed fluctuates up to 1 knot.  One hand rule in effect on board.
4 – Very Heavy: Significant wave impact capable of blue water above the rail, producing speed fluctuations of 1 knot or more.  Two hand rule in effect on board.

Each hour the watch keeper picked one of the above four to represent the previous hour.  It was remarkably easy to agree which level should be assigned.  We adhered strictly to the description above.

In addition, we took an daily inventory of fuel to compare fuel burn with the average sea state for that day.  After 12 days of data, we measured the effect on fuel consumption and the results were dramatic.  Our average fuel consumption was 9.58 gallons per hour when running in Light to Moderate sea.  Outstanding!  But when running in Heavy to Very Heavy conditions, our fuel burn averaged 13.69 gallons per hour.  We found that high fuel burn occurred regardless of which direction the heavy sea was coming, the direction we were hitting it (or it hitting us) or what RPM we tried to run.

This is important information because it proves we can’t plan fuel consumption without knowing sea conditions ahead of time.  That said, when planning long passages, we now have a benchmark to calculate from if we can at least estimate how much time will be spent in each of the four conditions.

The hourly spreadsheet.

Waves pounding the hull consistently causing spray over the rail constituted Heavy sea condition.

Thanksgiving
We wanted to make Thanksgiving normal as possible.  We were blessed with beautiful skies and moderate sea.  If ever there were there were a Thanksgiving to be thankful, this ranks right up there.  Something about being in the middle of the ocean made our thankfulness even more meaningful!  We set 2:00 PM as dinner time and enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by our three girls.  We did miss football!  Oh well, next year.

They brined the turkey breast.  It was awesome.  A little bit was left over to make turkey soup.

Thanks was given and we celebrated the gift of being OK in the middle of nowhere.

Weather
The weather threw us one curve ball after another.  The only thing we knew for certain was that each day’s forecast would be different from the day before.  Finally, I decided it made no sense to outguess it, but rather make a straight course to our destination and take what comes.

Because we were recording sea state each hour, I can definitively say that we had 122 hours of 1 – Light; 104 hours of 2 – Moderate; 45 hours of 3 – Heavy; and 19 hours of 4 – Very Heavy conditions.  The worst came in the last three days.  It was interesting to see how Eliana handled it.  The waves towered higher than I’ve ever seen before.  To estimate wave height, I sight it from the wheelhouse, a height off the water (~20 feet) and add my estimate of the wave portion above the horizon.  There is no doubt in my mind we had several instances of combined waves in the 30’ range for several hours.  They approached us from various angles on our starboard beam.  Eliana rode up and down like an elevator with a decent ride most of the time. 

Occasionally the shape of the wave would throw her off and we would have a brief roll.  Anything on the counters or tables unsecured would crash to the floor.  The Trac stabilizers have always done a magnificent job of preventing most of the roll, but believe me, these waves were so large and moved so fast it was virtually impossible to prevent all of it.  We also took two or three significant blue water hits to our salon windows.  I was so thankful for the storm plates we put on in San Diego.

Not to give you the wrong impression, we also had many days of good weather.  One in particular was absolutely glorious so a lot of time was spent out back in the cockpit.

It’s hard to do the huge waves justice in a picture.  From a 20′ high eye level, they still towered way above us.  Click to enlarge.

Another one.  These push up way above the horizon.  Click to enlarge.

Sunsets were always glorious.

A perfect afternoon on the patio.

Random Notes
We decided to set ship time to Hawaii on November 25 at 12 noon.  Linda offered to make the watch accommodation by lengthening hers to five hours.  Otherwise watch schedules remained the same.

Wish we would have known we could have had a flying fish smorgasbord.  We threw off dozens of them during the trip.  Don’t ask, I have no idea why they jump in but they do.  

One day, Peter put two lures out the back and within a couple hours hit two Mahi Mahi.  He thought it was a male and female.  I don’t know, but I do know we had fresh fish that night and it was good.

Mechanically, we were very lucky.  Only one slightly problematic issue.  The controller board on one of the generators went bad which prevented it from running.  Nothing wrong with the generator itself, just an erroneous fault message that wouldn’t go away.  We ended up running the 40KW the whole way and it never missed a beat.  Based on our fuel tracking, it must have been extremely efficient.  Better than I thought it would be.  Anyway, I was glad we had a third generator to back it up.

As the sea and water temperatures rose, we ended up running the air conditioning most of the way.  It was good to have the doors and windows closed when the weather kicked up.

Before Closing
You may recall from Linda’s Daily Journal that she got sea sick in the first days of the trip.  I’m happy to report she was a regular old salt by the end of it.  I’m no expert on seasickness, but one thing I’ve noticed is that a strong will usually figures something out.  We were thankful Linda was a trooper and hung in there.

As promised, here is the link to While Time Is Slowly Fleeting, the 5.5 minute version of our official Hawaii Passage video. 

Also, don’t miss Linda’s Daily Journal.  

We would like to thank you for your interest in Eliana’s Journal and for your warm comments and best wishes.  The crew of Eliana wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Rick Heiniger
N7617 Eliana
Lying: Ko Olina, Hawaii
Total Mileage: 11,127 Miles

Imagine the pioneer in a covered wagon moving slowly across the continent to California.  His family and all their possessions move little faster than a walking pace.  No sign of civilization, roads, buildings or people along the way.  T…

Imagine the pioneer in a covered wagon moving slowly across the continent to California.  His family and all their possessions move little faster than a walking pace.  No sign of civilization, roads, buildings or people along the way.  The path he takes is of his own choosing.  Always present in his mind is the raw fact that they’re on their own.  

From San Diego, the distance is greater to Hawaii than to Maine.  The Pacific, at 64.1 million square miles covers about a third of the earth’s surface.  It’s larger than all the earth’s land mass combined with enough left over to fit in another Africa.  At it’s deepest, the Mariana Trench is over 35,000 feet deep.  A boat in the Pacific is nothing but a tiny micron of matter.  There will be no signs of civilization.  No gas stations, hotels or people for that matter.

I don’t mean to compare what we’re doing with the faith and courage of the pioneers.   On the other hand, setting out to cross 2,400 miles of the Pacific feels eerily different from what I imagined five minutes before we decided to do it.  Let’s see … what might go wrong.  Well, there’s Mother Nature for example.  Hmmm, she holds all four aces so we can’t assume a winning hand.  Murphy’s Law?  Of course, but we’ll do the best we can and pray for the rest.  Just like our pioneer forefathers, we won’t be the first ones to look upward for assurance.

Sunset over the Pacific.  (NASA) – Click to enlarge.

Debbie brought up the idea of going to Hawaii on Sunday morning.  We made the final decision on Tuesday and left Wednesday, eight days later.  This entry is about getting ready to go, and the first few days at sea.  I have included a four minute video at the end entitled “While Time Is Slowly Fleeting” about our first days at sea.  As a bonus, I’m including Linda’s Daily Journal.  It’s about life aboard Eliana from her perspective as a crew member.  It’s very interesting and has a lot more pictures than what I’m providing.  I encourage you to open it for a good read.

Eight Days of Preparation
Because of the distance, we thought it was important to learn a bit more about Hawaii because it’s now our thought this will be an extended stay, probably several months.   It’s too far not to stay while. We found Ko Olina Marina to be clean, well managed and moderately priced.  Hawaii doesn’t have predatory taxation on visiting boats so we’re safe on that point.  It allows us to set up our home in the heart of the 50th state and gives us plenty of time to choose the right season to explore different parts of the islands with Eliana.  We have all the current charts.

I contacted our insurance carrier, Pantaenius America and sure enough required an addendum to our policy to cover us while in Hawaii and including the transit both ways.

Next is crew.  We were able to quickly assemble a pick-up team of five that has incidentally turned out to be a good combination.  Peter and Paige St Phillip are boat dock friends from Dana Point.  They are both experienced at sea, in excellent health and fortunately were able to work this into their schedule on short notice.  Debbie’s sister Linda also accepted our request to help with watches.  Another duty of hers is to write the daily journal from her perspective.  She teamed up with Peter to have him take pictures.  Debbie and I knew the chemistry would be good but are finding this is a nice ratio.  The three women, two men combination seems to work, although would have loved to have Linda’s husband Bill with us.  Good food and a happy household goes a long way to making a pleasant trip.

As you might suspect, I shopped fuel and found prices $1.25 cheaper in Ensenada, MX, just 60 miles south of San Diego.  That meant we had to check in and out of Mexico at the same time, fill up with fuel and be on our way.  The exercise cost us a day, but was well worth it.

I updated all the run-times on equipment with hour meters and checked near term ‘future’ preventative maintenance to do anything I could in advance.  Checked spare parts inventory.  One never knows for sure, but I thought we were in pretty good shape.

Valley Power visited to inspect the main engine and adjusted valve lash and injector heights.  Afterwards, we completed a sea-trial to verify the engine was purring like a kitten.

I was suspicious that one of our water makers was not working up to par so Village Marine came down and sure enough there was a slightly defective membrane that needed replacement.

All safety and emergency gear was double checked and organized.  I realized we had never practiced putting out the sea anchor.  For that matter, I didn’t actually want do it for real because we would just have to clean it back up and repack it.  I did think it might be a good idea to do a dress rehearsal, lining up all the parts stored in a single locker within the confines of the Portuguese bridge.  We then connected all the parts as they would be used and rehearsing the procedure for launching it.  The sea anchor consists of a 28’ under water parachute with a combination of tow harness and line totaling 730’.  

We also installed storm plates on the salon windows.  All the other windows and hatches are storm proof, but the large plate glass windows have enough extra area, they need protection.  Since they are a little awkward to mount, I thought it would be a good idea to put them on before we leave and not worry about it.

To be safe, we installed an additional covering on the upper aft deck settee which not only protects the settee, but that’s where our emergency gear, ditch bags, etc. are stored adjacent to two 6-man Switlik life rafts.

Debbie and Linda did a magnificent job of provisioning.  The pantry, freezer and refrigerator were all full.  They laughed because the last trip they made was ONLY done because there was just a wee bit of space left.

The Eliana Crew L to R: Debbie, Linda, Paige, me and Peter

Protective plexiglass storm plates were installed on the salon windows.

The sea anchor is stored in this locker with all components in order, ready to go.

Conducted the monthly test on the EPIRB in case we need search and rescue.

A cover was made for the upper aft deck settee which is where much of our emergency gear is stowed.

Getting Underway
Initially the forecast looked favorable for the entire trip hence the haste to get moving.  I like using the .grb weather files that download to MaxSea.  They are usually pretty reliable especially in the short term.  I also use passageweather.com.  For such a long trip, I consulted with Bob Jones from Ocean Marine.  With all the best planning possible, we finally defaulted to a direct route via great circle navigation.  It’s the absolute shortest distance so unless weather pushed us off, there would be no reason to divert from it.  The alternative would have been a rhumb line on a constant heading all the way to Hawaii which would have built in a southward bend.  

As luck would have it, one day into the trip the forecast abruptly changed and a series of fronts were forming that threatened to push south of our route.  Looked like the rhumb line route might have been a better choice.  We knew it wouldn’t be comfortable, so I immediately diverted southward to a 230 heading hoping to be south of 25N latitude by Sunday when the first front was predicted to pass.  The cautious move gave me some peace of mind and the weather did develop with 15’ to 20’ sea (mostly swell) in 25 – 30 knot wind.  Turned out not terribly uncomfortable, so we decided to continue with slightly more confidence directly to Honolulu.  Now we reassess each successive front 2 to 3 days in advance to see if any other correction might be necessary.

Eliana at the fuel dock in Ensenada.

The great circle route vs. the rhumb line route.  The GCR (top) appears curved, but on a globe is straight.  The rhumb line appears straight, but on a globe curves to the south.  Interestingly, the GCR requires slight periodic heading changes to achieve a straight line, whereas the rhumb line is one constant heading all the way.

Meals have been spectacular thanks to having three great cooks aboard.

And so has the scenery.

Peter washing off salt from two days of bad weather.

Before Closing
As I write this, we are at 135W longitude, nearly half way to Hawaii.  All is fine aboard Eliana and with her crew.  I am planning to debrief our readers after we arrive.  Then I will report any problems we have had, speed and fuel performance, plus anything else noteworthy.

Please don’t forget to watch the 4 minute video “While Time Is Slowly Fleeting”.  I named it after the song I used for background by Anael who I think is great.

The other bonus is the first six days of Linda’s Daily Journal.  She has been sending this to her close friends by email each day, but I have assembled them all in one document for your enjoyment.

In the meantime, the crew of Eliana wishes you a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Be sure to leave your comments and questions at our web site by clicking the link below.  Feel free to track our progress using “Track Eliana”

Rick Heiniger
N7617 Eliana
Underway: Position 26.1N 135.1W
Miles so far:  1,055
Miles to go:  1,330
Total Mileage:  9,805
Track Eliana

It must be a full moon.  Autumn in San Francisco … Halloween in Dana Point.  We have much to talk about, but first I would like to announce we have changed our travel plan, diverting to Hawaii instead of continuing to Mexico.  More on …

It must be a full moon.  Autumn in San Francisco … Halloween in Dana Point.  We have much to talk about, but first I would like to announce we have changed our travel plan, diverting to Hawaii instead of continuing to Mexico.  More on that later.  Let’s catch up first…

San Francisco
As we began preparations to move Eliana to Dana Point, we decided to put on our tourist hats.  The weather couldn’t have been nicer and we knew life was about to get more hectic so we took a break.  Here are a few photos of our time in San Francisco.

Cheese counter at the ferry terminal.  Good thing I don’t walk by here on my way home from work every day!

The iconic Trans America building.

Cell Block C, Alcatraz

Chinatown.  Did you know Chow Mien was invented here, not China?

We had to buy something.  Debbie purchased this beautiful pillow case.

SF to Dana Point with Roger & Rich
Tim Juan is President of the Ta Shing factory in Taiwan where Eliana was built.  Some months ago he called, offering the services of two engineers to come aboard for a thorough vessel inspection and to help us crew during a live passage.  I jumped at the chance and thought this would be the perfect opportunity since San Francisco is a reasonable connection from Taiwan, then likewise the return would be from Los Angeles.

Roger and Rich came with a gift of Pineapple Moon Cakes.  Tim sent them along knowing I love them.  These are traditional during the Chinese Moon Festival but you can get them any time.  With only two days to get ready for departure, Debbie prepared a delicious meal of pork chops, rice and veggies.  For desert we celebrated their arrival by toasting a sip of 1986 d’Yquem which went perfectly together with the Pineapple Moon Cakes that were incidentally formed in the shape of the Taiwan Island.  Strangely enough, we toasted to a full moon with moon cakes!

It was interesting to see Eliana through their eyes.  They already knew every square inch having spent months building her layer by layer.  This was, however, their first opportunity to enjoy the finished product as a functioning home.  Roger remarked that his biggest surprise were the various sounds.  He knows the systems and what they do.  He just couldn’t get over the subtle clicking, whirring and gurgling sounds that soon become familiar. 

The trip to Dana Point was flawless.  It took slightly more than 50 hours nonstop, an easy trip but still comforting to see our old familiar spot there.  Garrett Severen, our project manager greeted us at the dock.

Roger, Rich, Debbie and I

Our little celebration.  Sorry we forgot to take a picture of the moon cake before we ate it!  The wrapper will have to do.

Full Moon rising over San Francisco Bay

Rich checking bolt tightness on an exhaust flange.

Roger took copious notes in his book.  I was amazed.  It was page after page.  Every detail was meticulously recorded.

Important Guests
As expected, our activity level in Dana Point shot way up.  We had the honor of receiving Tim Juan and Jessica from the Ta Shing factory to visit Eliana.  They were traveling on their way home from the Ft. Lauderdale boat show.  Dan Streech, President of Nordhavn, was also back in town so was able to join us.  Jeff Leischman stopped by for a long visit.  It was a unique and memorable experience to have all these remarkable folks together at once.

As luck would have it, we also had the opportunity to meet Kristin and Reinhard, a wonderful couple from Munich (currently living in Mallorca).  They are building a Nordhavn 76, so we were fortunate to spend time with them, too.  Kristin brought her parents, Matthias and Renate who were a lot of fun.  Together we talked boats, boating and boat design endlessly.  It was fun to put lines on paper again and dream of  better ways to do things.

While we had the folks from Ta Shing, Nordhavn, Kristin and Reinhard there, we decided to take Eliana for a sea trial.  Nothing like a boat ride to get everyone smiling and having a good time!

Tim Juan, Jessica and I

Visiting with Dan Streech while under way.

Arriving.  Dan, Matthias, Reinhard and me on the bridge.  Renate and Kristin on the foredeck.  Garrett on the dock.

Kristin and Garrett having fun.

Halloween
You may recall a post I did on July 4, 2010.  We were in Dana Point then too, and I decided nobody celebrates Independence Day better than Dana Pointianites.  Well, I now believe the same is true for Halloween.  We laughed and laughed at the costumes going by.  Here are a couple pictures…

Must be something in the water at Dana Point.  They definitely know how to have a good time.

Definitely a full moon thing.  I think this guy gets the blue ribbon.

Hawaii
Here’s the scoop on Hawaii.  We were visiting with friends a few days ago and they were telling all the things they loved about Hawaii.  I knew it got Debbie thinking but she didn’t say anything until the next morning; “So what do you think about Hawaii?”  I knew right then any argument was hopeless.  We were definitely going.  Before the day was over we had arranged berthing at Ko Olina Marina and started to prepare for the 2,300 mile trip.

Getting ready for something like this isn’t to be taken lightly.  There is a lot to do.  But for quite a few reasons we need to get moving if we’re going to do it.  Our departure is set for Wednesday, November 16 and we’ll make one stop in Ensenada, MX to top off the fuel tanks, then we’ll be on our way.  Should be about 11 days across, which is the longest non stop passage to date for Eliana and for us.

We have an excellent crew of five selected.  Peter and Paige St Phillip, good friends and an experienced cruising couple will make the trip as will Linda Waldroop, Debbie’s sister.

I plan to provide one or two journal updates along the way.  In the next one, I will write about a few of the things we did to get ready.  In the meantime, you can follow us by clicking the “Track Eliana” link below.  Since we will be leaving the AIS range used by Marine Traffic, I will upload our positions manually.  

More to come!  As always, please post comments or questions on our website by clicking the link below where it says “You can access the blog entry here.”  I will do my best to answer questions.  And please invite others you think may be interested in following along, too.

Rick Heiniger
N7617 Eliana
Lying: San Diego
Mileage: 8,695 Nautical Miles
Track Eliana

The phone rang recently. It was our 5 year old grand daughter Anna who politely asked to speak to Mimi. Debbie took the phone and Anna blurted tearfully “Mimi, mommy says my imagination has gone wild.  What should I doooo?”   Debbie consoled “Anna, there is nothing wrong with your imagination.  What she said is just a figure of speech.  It’s OK to use your mind to imagine things. Anna was quickly calmed, but it got me thinking as I looked out the window. Never in my wildest dreams would I have…