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We put a lot of miles on the truck getting ready for the departure. The driveway to the house was only accessible from one direction. When going to the house from the marina it was best to pass the house and make a u-turn and then come back. |
The chaos of the previous days had settled down and this mid-morning was the scheduled blessing by their family friend. I had never participated in one of these and it is a common Hawaiian tradition to bless vessels that leave the shore.
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| Gib, the minister & Jackie with the Ti leaves from their backyard that would get attached to the bow pulpit. |
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| Acting on a suggestion from one of their mutual friends that brought about a slight chuckle, the minister literally blessed and cursed in the same breath while crossing his fingers behind his back. |
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| Mark attaching the Ti leaves to the pulpit. |
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| Chasch Mer's rudder. |
It is nearly impossible to be here and not take in the sights. On one of our trips into Honolulu I figured out the route over the mountains that would take us by the Pali Lookout and we made the detour. We had been working non-stop getting the boat ready and it made sense to see something before departure. I've been to this look-out before but this time was different. Now an attendant catches you just after you park your car to make sure you buy a parking ticket. This is a new feature. Ah yes, squeeze the tourists for more money. We weren't on the tourist bus and tried to negotiate with the attendant letting him know we were 'locals' since we had a local car but didn't get very far.
We took in the sights and headed back to the cars. Bill & I in the nondescript little something or other and Clive and Mark in the yellow truck. And par for the course, the truck would not start. Not being from here and on a time schedule we were not too keen on this development. It seemed to be flooded for some reason. We let her sit a little while and then pushed her out of the parking lot while pointed downhill. Mark popped the clutch and we were back in business.
That business was a meeting with Jackie in downtown Honolulu at their office so she could take us to Costco and get us in. Yes, we did the standard Costco run to provision a sailboat prior to departure.
Many weeks before we arrived on Oahu I took upon myself the task of preparing a provisions list. I have a lot of experience working in sailboat galleys while underway and wanted to influence the operation. I've seen too many times that meals are made by others that would be difficult to produce on land. Keep in mind, the boat is moving, the stove is moving, everything on the counter is moving.
I am a big fan of putting a can of something in a pot of water to heat it. I prefer to eat it out of the can. And, honestly, we follow the rules on trash and do not throw any plastic over board. We do in fact throw cans and glass and paper. While underway I prefer to not have to wash dishes but sometimes it happens. The more you mess the more you have to clean. I try to make meals that can all be done in one or two pots.
In the back of my mind I was convinced that we would hit rough weather soon after departure and again while approaching California and I tried to create a menu with that in mind. Meaning, when it was rough you would be pretty much on your own. Tuna out of a can makes a good meal and you learn to roll with it.
Shopping for provisions is much harder than you think and I'm pretty sure we had no black pepper or hot sauce, undiscovered until well off-shore. I know! Tragic. Not only thinking about what you want to eat you also need to figure out quantities, for 4 guys, for 18-20 days. That's 12 individual meals a day. That's 180+ meals.
One meal that stands out is the Dorado. I cooked it in the oven and timed it so we were all in the cockpit at the same time as I did most meals. The boat was comfortably underway with the sun low in the late afternoon sky amongst scattered clouds. It was one of the perfect moments of sailing; eating a good meal and reveling in the beauty of nature while anticipating the sunset.
I made a point of having dinner cooked and cleaned before sunset for safety and ease. I'm proud to say that we had extra food when we arrived in Long Beach. I'm proud to say that we had some very good meals given the conditions.
We thought we brought in a good haul until Jackie said, "Is that it?". Then we got a little spooked. Although, we still had to make a Safeway run to round out the supplies. In the end we had plenty of food and lots of food leftover. I've been on provision runs in the past and now I casually state that we can cut in half all the stuff in the carts at the grocery store. I'm pretty sure that we spent about $700 at Costco and another $150+ at Safeway.
It's amazing how much time is taken to prepare a boat for departure. There are big projects and then there are lots of little things to do. One of the little things was to locate dry ice. We never did get around to it and ended up buying a dozen or so bags of ice from Safeway. For the record, don't use ice for long-distance passages. Since we had no on-board refrigeration system we were committed to using the one icebox and another larger cooler on the floor. We utilized the fact that we had an oven and did in fact buy frozen foods. We figured they would also help the cooler stay cold.
But, Wow! That ice melted quickly. The melted ice water was eventually diluted with exposed food, and yuck, what the hell happened? You can only keep things organized for so long and then it's just a mess. Things tip over. Things fall out. Things spill.
I had to work up to the point of telling myself that it was time to get rid of the water in the ice box and cooler. We knew it had to be done and seriously we did it about a day or so late. After quickly consuming all the frozen food and throwing out the rotting stuff it was time to turn a page. Sparing the details, I took everything out including the water, wiped it down and moved on.
A new stove had been installed in the galley but it turned out to be a bad fit. It was a little wide and when it swung on the Gimbel the upper retaining rail would get stuck. That would be a huge problem if there was something on top being heated. That was a minor problem compared to the missing pot holders. These stoves need metal arms that attach to the rails around the perimeter of the stove top and two are used to secure a pot over a burner.
Part of the preparation work involved going to Gib's house and digging through the garage and side-yard shed looking for boat parts. We could not find any pot holders. The word went out and someone delivered a set to the boat causing us great joy but they turned out to be the wrong size and would not attach to the rails. It escapes me at this time but somehow in the final moments before departure a correctly-sized set magically appeared.
---------------------------------------------------
The night before departure I sent this message:
830pm on the way to gib's we had a flat tire.
Sent from my iPhone / Please excuse brevity and errors.
That afternoon we had traveled to a town on the coast to get something of which I cannot remember and got lost in the process. We eventually went into some stores and got a couple things but not what we were really looking for. On the way back to the boat we were a few miles from the marina and got a flat tire. So, there we were on the side of the road changing a flat tire on a tiny rental car.
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| Pali Lookout with Kaneoh'e Bay in the distance. The boat is located at the far right end of the bay in the picture and just behind the hill. Across the water is a spit of land that stretches out from the right. That spit of land ends and the Sampan Channel is there. The reef develops here and continues all the way across the entire bay to the land on the far left where the Mainship Channel is located. |
That business was a meeting with Jackie in downtown Honolulu at their office so she could take us to Costco and get us in. Yes, we did the standard Costco run to provision a sailboat prior to departure.
Many weeks before we arrived on Oahu I took upon myself the task of preparing a provisions list. I have a lot of experience working in sailboat galleys while underway and wanted to influence the operation. I've seen too many times that meals are made by others that would be difficult to produce on land. Keep in mind, the boat is moving, the stove is moving, everything on the counter is moving.
I am a big fan of putting a can of something in a pot of water to heat it. I prefer to eat it out of the can. And, honestly, we follow the rules on trash and do not throw any plastic over board. We do in fact throw cans and glass and paper. While underway I prefer to not have to wash dishes but sometimes it happens. The more you mess the more you have to clean. I try to make meals that can all be done in one or two pots.
In the back of my mind I was convinced that we would hit rough weather soon after departure and again while approaching California and I tried to create a menu with that in mind. Meaning, when it was rough you would be pretty much on your own. Tuna out of a can makes a good meal and you learn to roll with it.
Shopping for provisions is much harder than you think and I'm pretty sure we had no black pepper or hot sauce, undiscovered until well off-shore. I know! Tragic. Not only thinking about what you want to eat you also need to figure out quantities, for 4 guys, for 18-20 days. That's 12 individual meals a day. That's 180+ meals.
One meal that stands out is the Dorado. I cooked it in the oven and timed it so we were all in the cockpit at the same time as I did most meals. The boat was comfortably underway with the sun low in the late afternoon sky amongst scattered clouds. It was one of the perfect moments of sailing; eating a good meal and reveling in the beauty of nature while anticipating the sunset.
I made a point of having dinner cooked and cleaned before sunset for safety and ease. I'm proud to say that we had extra food when we arrived in Long Beach. I'm proud to say that we had some very good meals given the conditions.
 |
| This is not all of it. |
 |
| As seen on the window of a car in the Oahu Costco parking lot. |
It's amazing how much time is taken to prepare a boat for departure. There are big projects and then there are lots of little things to do. One of the little things was to locate dry ice. We never did get around to it and ended up buying a dozen or so bags of ice from Safeway. For the record, don't use ice for long-distance passages. Since we had no on-board refrigeration system we were committed to using the one icebox and another larger cooler on the floor. We utilized the fact that we had an oven and did in fact buy frozen foods. We figured they would also help the cooler stay cold.
But, Wow! That ice melted quickly. The melted ice water was eventually diluted with exposed food, and yuck, what the hell happened? You can only keep things organized for so long and then it's just a mess. Things tip over. Things fall out. Things spill.
I had to work up to the point of telling myself that it was time to get rid of the water in the ice box and cooler. We knew it had to be done and seriously we did it about a day or so late. After quickly consuming all the frozen food and throwing out the rotting stuff it was time to turn a page. Sparing the details, I took everything out including the water, wiped it down and moved on.
 |
| Yes, that's a pink kettle. |
A new stove had been installed in the galley but it turned out to be a bad fit. It was a little wide and when it swung on the Gimbel the upper retaining rail would get stuck. That would be a huge problem if there was something on top being heated. That was a minor problem compared to the missing pot holders. These stoves need metal arms that attach to the rails around the perimeter of the stove top and two are used to secure a pot over a burner.
Part of the preparation work involved going to Gib's house and digging through the garage and side-yard shed looking for boat parts. We could not find any pot holders. The word went out and someone delivered a set to the boat causing us great joy but they turned out to be the wrong size and would not attach to the rails. It escapes me at this time but somehow in the final moments before departure a correctly-sized set magically appeared.
---------------------------------------------------
The night before departure I sent this message:
830pm on the way to gib's we had a flat tire.
Sent from my iPhone / Please excuse brevity and errors.
That afternoon we had traveled to a town on the coast to get something of which I cannot remember and got lost in the process. We eventually went into some stores and got a couple things but not what we were really looking for. On the way back to the boat we were a few miles from the marina and got a flat tire. So, there we were on the side of the road changing a flat tire on a tiny rental car.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(from Facebook: Mark posted this)
Finally ready to go.
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