When Windy and PredictWind forecast 10kts around Barbers Pt., but it’s actually 25 consistent on the nose 💩 trades are back babyyyyy

On the last leg of our circumnav of Oʻahu, the fuel issue saga continues. The last two evenings at Pōkaʻi were quite rolly. Winds went from onshore to heavy trades the first day, so had to re-anchor as there’s not a ton of room to swing if you let out a lot of scope. We purchased this boat last October with about 250 gallons of 10 yr old diesel sitting in three large baffled black iron tanks. We hired a diesel polishing service and they didn’t complete the job ($1000 later) because their polisher broke. To get rid of diesel on island, you have to schedule a haz waste pickup at least two weeks in advance of a blue moon and after all the bureaucratic 🐂💩 it’s simply not worth anyone’s time. Not to mention disposing of that volume of diesel is also a logistical nightmare. So, our solution has been to dump additive and roundup in the tanks and run through it, refueling as necessary. We’ve gotten about 150 gal through after countless replacements of Racors and secondaries on the Yanmar which, although has been no small feat, has proven generally successful. This morning, to our dismay, we found out that our last 90 gal has turned into strawberry milk. Puttered along from Pōkaʻi to refuel another tank at the Ko Olina fuel dock. Lost power literally perpendicular to the fuel dock which was mildly traumatic and oh so embarrassing. Drained the Racor and replaced the secondary and all was well again on Ciao Bella. Barbers Pt was windy on the nose, but the waves were small so it was fine. Lots of security zones between Barbers Pt, Pearl Harbor, and Honolulu Harbor we had to avoid, plus a multitude of FADs, buoys, and tugs and barges that always seem to move towards you at the speed of light. I’m having sleep for dinner tonight 🍽️

We left Haleʻiwa this morning with light trades. No space in the harbor for transient vessels and no safe place to leave the paddle board or dingy when we had to go ashore, so unless we all packed onto the paddle board and brought it with us wherever we went, every mission to shore was a solo one. Yesterday morning, we tried to stuff the board in a mangrove to walk around town together, but were immediately met with wandering eyes from the local chronic population. The downwind sail around Kaʻena Point was ~15 kts of trades and ~5’ short period swell. I was reading ‘The Great Alone’ and Dave was watching the Manchester Utd match when a massive humpback breached less than a boats length beside us. It’s pretty late in the season for these guys over here. Caught a glimpse of them on the surface as we sailed away. We were going to anchor off of Mākua for a few hours for lunch and to dive, but the wind changed onshore and our engine began to give us some trouble again :( continued our sail to the protected Pōkaʻi Bay to try and sort out the issue this time.

Saw a few green sea turtles sunbathing on the muddy river banks. Porter fell off the board chasing a school of fish 🐠 could probably stay at least a week or two cruising north shore! Seeing if the harbor can accommodate a vessel our size, otherwise we’ll cruise to Mākua or Pōkaʻi Weds or Thurs.

We were accompanied by Hawaiian spinner and bottlenose dolphins from Kāneʻohe to Haleʻiwa 🐬 Porter is unsure if they are friends or foes! Hearing the bottlenose clicks/echolocation from the surface was 🤯 The windward side of Oʻahu is so beautiful. I wish there were more places to anchor over here. Had a following swell which made the sail from Kāneʻohe to Haleʻiwa speedy. Around Kahuku point, the seas were confused with colliding currents. Today the conditions are super ideal, but I can imagine that with stronger trades and bigger swell, this area would be really dangerous, so would stay well offshore. Passed by Waimea to see if we could anchor there, but it looked rolly and the shore break was still too big to land the dink ashore, so we decided to anchor outside of Haleʻiwa Harbor. Overall a nice motor-sail. On a negative note, our fridge and freezers don’t cool when the boat is moving (…lol). So, gotta fix that one asap. ☠️

Explored the valley in the rain and came across a few hidden gems 💎 This unprotected bay is super glassy at the moment, but there’s some minor swell from the NE, so it’s rolly. We most likely won’t stay the evening since we’re at a constant 15 degree heel from port to stb and the protected Kāneʻohe Bay is only an hour away. We’ll return there for the evening before we head north to Waimea or Haleʻiwa early tomorrow AM.

Motored to Kahana Bay today with <10 kts of wind. Saw a shark outside of the commercial channel, not sure what kind, and lightning over the mountains in the distance. The conditions for the past week have been glassy in the morning, variable winds as the land heats up, light drizzle in the mid-afternoon, and glassy in the evenings. That is my hope for tonight, as right now it’s super rolly 🥴 We’ve only ever seen one other vessel anchored in Kahana Bay over the past decade, so it seems relatively uncommon. There is a narrow, unmarked channel flanked only by breakers. The steep incline of the channel begins at ~90’ and the inner anchorage is ~30’. About to head up the stream that feeds into the bay with the dingy to explore Ahupuaʻa ʻO Kahana State Park :)

Two resident mantas swam past us on our way out of Kamalō. The water is a bit murky here so we didn’t jump in, just saw them from the surface. We left with about 15-20kts on our 120, which quickly dropped off to <10kts around Kaunakakai. Tried jibing our way home, but we were going way too slow, so decided to motor sail once again. Once we reached W Molokai it was completely dead which conveniently coincided with our engine beginning to bog….again. Doesn’t seem like she wants to exceed 2000rpm, but that gets us to about 5kts so it’s not the worst. Our ✨brand new✨alternator also stopped charging, so I tried to sort that out underway to no avail. Slowly crossed the Kaiwi with 0 knots and cabbage patch seas around penguin banks. Main luffed constantly, so we tried dropping it, but the boat became exponentially unstable, so we raised it again and accepted the fate of our next few hours…which involved shattering a full wine bottle in the galley and finding a literal lake in the pantry beneath the freezer (???!!!). These inter-island shake downs before the jump across the pond in a few months are doing their job. Very fun week with very fun friends 🤍 grateful!

Motor sailed from Olowalu to Kamalō. Olowalu was so, so beautiful. Went diving after breakfast around 8 am. The water was chilly but refreshing. Followed W Maui coastline and jumped off towards Molokai from Lahaina. The ʻAuʻau, Pailolo, and Kalohi channels are like lakes today…I feel like we’re in a dream! We were debating on anchoring Kamalō for diving and mantas, Kaunakakai for lava flows at Paddler’s and Molokai hot bread, or Lono for bonfires and shelling. All six onboard agreed on Kamalō 🤿 Anchored in about 30’ with some west wind keeping the cabin cool. Naps, food, and diving are in order ✍🏽

Motor sailed across the ‘Au’au channel to a new anchorage in front of Olowalu beach on West Maui. Channel crossing was slow, generally less than 10 kts of wind with a short period of ~20 kts. Mama and baby whales put on a show on the way over🤍 Teaching everyone how to handle Ciao Bella in a whale minefield is fun :) Anchored in approx. 30’ of water at Olowalu. Patches of muddy sand are surrounded by beautiful coral. Cruised over to Mitch’s cat ‘Odyssey’ for drinks 🍻The mountains on W Maui are unbelievable.

0-5 kts of wind and completely flat seas in the Kaiwi. Am I dreaming??? Motor sailing over to Manele, Lānaʻi with our friends Lucy, Aidan, Beau, and Allison. We’re buddy boating over with our friend Mitch and his crew. Dave and I might have the flu but it’s fine ☠️ Porter’s napping in the pilothouse and whales are welcoming us into Maui county 🐋✨

Put some hours on the Yanmar today motor sailing from the Ala Wai to Manele. Anchored as the sun set! Ready to eat and sleep 💤

Sail from Hale O Lono to Nanahoa was very nice. Conditions in the Kalohi were light, <15 kts on our port beam. Some puffs up to 22 kts. Flat seas. Taught Morgan how to sail! Mostly sailed until we rounded Lānaʻi, where we began motor sailing. All was good and well until right about a mile outside of the anchorage, our diesel began giving us problems. I think it’s a continuation of our fuel issue saga…engine won’t exceed 1000rpm. Tried a few fixes that have worked in the past to no avail. Will try to work on the engine today to sort this out. Inched our way to the anchorage and anchored in approx. 40 ft of crystal clear water with an endless sandy bottom, so there’s great holding. Took the dingy to shore to explore the pinnacles and dive 🤿🐚🐠 not so many shells this time, but the fish are unbelievably abundant!

Made a bonfire, cooked some dogs on a skewer, paddled to the beach with my bestie, and found some treasure 🐚✨

Greetings from the middle of the Kaiwi 👋🏽 trucking along at around 5 knots in pretty consistent ~15 knots of north wind. About a 8-10 ft north swell at 120 deg. So, so comfy in the pilothouse. Happy captain and crew (and puppy!) over here :)

Dream sail across the Kaiwi on Ciao Bella. She f’ng GOES!!! Insanely different experience on a real blue water cruiser compared to our little old Catalina. Didn’t barf 🤩 Whales in Maui County are too numerous to count, as are the stars at Hale O Lono. Such a special place that I’m so thankful we get to experience with good company 🤍 Looking forward to spending a few nights here.

Kona winds forecasted for our trip back to town. Calmed down a lot from the past days as it was 8-15 knots of south with gusts to 21 around Makapuu as it was pinching in the mountains. Big long period north swell as we came out of the bay mixed with south that’s wrapping. Not too uncomfortable but too little wind to sail and the wind being right on our nose the whole way made for a long day of motor sailing.

Probably the best channel crossing experience we’ve done. Had a full main and 100% jib in about 16 knots from 120 degrees. Pushing the boat a little bit and rounded up a couple times from surfing on waves. Wind didn’t really pick up until Laau point. Waves were about 2’ behind us which made it a comfy ride. Ended up catching a yellow fin tuna close to diamond head. Made Christy’s birthday worth it

Started off super light wind around 10 knots out of the east. Closer to noon the wind picked up to 20+ on the nose forcing us to short tack to Kaunakakai. Really made me question why I was still pushing on getting beat up like that. Decide to stay the night in town and sail back to Oahu the next day.

Started off great, 10-15knts of wind at 45 degrees. Closer to Molokai wind shifted more east making us short tack the rest of the way there. Swell came up a bit and we were beating for the last couple hours which really slowed us down. Really have put this boat though it’s paces and realize it doesn’t match the sailing we want to do. We push onnnnn

Yesterday we started heading home from Manele harbor, Lanai, to Kewalo Harbor, Oahu. When we were passing Laau point near sunset, the waves in the Kaiwi channel ramped up to 10-12’ very mixed, steep swell. With the wind being in a different direction of the swell, it made it very difficult to have a safe heading so we decided to turn back for Lono harbor. South swell was also large and we worried Lono harbor channel would be closing out but we made it in safely. This morning, we left Lono at 6am and upon passing Laau point we noticed the swell to be not as bad as it was the night before. Had a decent, rolly down wind sail with double reefed main and a dorito chip for a jib. Still going 6-7 knots despite our average speed. If you ask me, 2.9 knots is a fast speed while you’re sleeping at anchor. Anyways, the crew finally made it home back to the harbor. Had some dolphins welcome us home. We cleaned the boat and turned it back into living mode. Sleeping for 4 days straight

We were going to head to lono harbor to set us up for a nice crossing to Oahu tomorrow. Instead, the weather seemed nice enough to head to lanai so we headed there. When getting to the anchorage, swell was too big to anchor and wind would be on our nose if we tried to go back, so we banked on getting a spot at Manele bay. To our luck we were able to secure a temp slip for the night and into the morning to possibly let us enjoy the island a little. Tomorrow we either head for Maui or back to Molokai to head back to Oahu.

Nice 10-12 knot breeze out of WSW. Tacked up the Kolohi channel west (very rare to have these conditions as trade winds run from east to west). Unfortunately our batteries have not been getting topped up so we still have to run our engine to charge them and make water. Drank coffee, ate Molokai hot bread, generally just relaxed on the sail back. North swell and wind direction prevented us from going north Molokai back to Oahu so we had to backtrack to Kaunakakai to get setup for a Wednesday crossing of the Kaiwi channel. We’re going to be going back to lono harbor tomorrow so our sail on Wednesday isn’t so long. Been great being able to log all this! p.s. Didn’t have take any pictures during the crossing but ended up renting a car to explore the island when getting to Kaunakakai. Had a little wind spout form as we were getting to the harbor

Another motor sail with light west wind behind us. Ocean was glass. Was able to dinghy around the boat and have some fun. Tucked into Pukoo just in time for the wind to pick up. Very shallow but good holding inside the eastern part of the anchorage. Very cool area if you can get in.

Super nice motor sail. Started off with glassy water and then some weird west wind popped up. Put the jib out and was motor sailing at 7 knots for the rest of the way to Kamalo. Really cool anchorage that is off the beaten path. Shallow coming in at about 7’ and then once inside, goes back down to 25’. Saw two massive mantas on the way in.

Mostly motoring. Smaller seas than yesterday about 1-2’. Died down even more when in the wave shadow of lanai. Caught an Ono (Wahoo) and planning to make ceviche. Wind picked up right as we were going into Kaunakakai harbor and now anchored in 8’ with wind blowing to 20 knots. Mantus anchor holding perfectly in the mud bottom (I think it’s mud). Going to go into town and get rid of the trash we have and maybe get a bite to eat since we’re all still so tired.

Big low pressure system 500 miles north of Hawaii causing the trades to switch to south/east winds. They were light enough looking on predict wind but when we got in the Kaiwi Chanel we saw a mix of 8’ north swell and fresh south swell starting. We almost routed to Kaneohe bay but kept motor sailing in 5-12 knots of East wind. Very bumpy ride but finally made it to lono harbor for much needed protection and rest.

Catching up on old trips/memories…Confirmed Bria Mia was not a race boat ✅ This was a trip of firsts for us! First Lahaina return with our best friends Liv and Abby (we unofficially came in last place). First time diving Nanahoa (we forgot our dive fins and I realized I actually don’t know how to swim without them lol). First time cruising the historic Lahaina town (very grateful we were able to experience this before the devastating fires in 2023). First time seeing the Molokai sea cliffs (insane). First time realizing we’re on the right path in this life 🤍

Catching up on old logs. This was from our first trip across the Kaiwi with crew Grace, Alek, and Justin. We had mentioned to a friend on the dock that we hadn’t been across the Kaiwi yet. He gave us a puzzled look and questioned what we were waiting for. A spark on dry tinder! Day 1: We planned a quick trip because the conditions were less than ideal. We caught a Mahi around penguin banks with a bare wood cedar plug. Arrived at Hale O Lono well into the darkness. The swell created a thick seafog causing us to briefly mistake the day markers for channel markers. Local fisherman turned their lights off on the break wall, and our GPS wasn’t updating, so we were going in blind. Wind was nuking so communication between the bow and stern was a solid 2/10. Grace and Alek on the bow scanned the channel entrance with flashlights. I served as the middle man to communicate bow to helm. Tucked deep into the harbor and passed out. Day 2: The resident bees at Hale O Lono were happy to drink up the spilt beer in the cockpit from the preceding day. Grace and I sent the boys out to pull up the anchor and hele while we watched from the safety of the cabin. Conditions across the Kalohi were blustery. Conditions at Nanahoa were not great. Propped the fishing line. Lost the lucky luer. Alek and Grace jumped in and freed the prop. Made Mahi tacos. Conditions deteriorated throughout the night. Consistent offshore 20-30 kts all night. I don’t think there’s a worse sound than the whining of a bridle under load. It felt like the deck was going to rip off like bark being peeled from a tree. Discovered that we could trust our gear that night. Thank you Mantus 🙏 Zero sleep was to be had! Day 3: Sending it back home. Massive following seas. Bria Mia hit a top speed of 11 kts surfing down a bomb with a fully reefed main and a dorito chip jib. Caught Ahi after Ahi. Sitting down to write this years later is a trip. Like, did we not check the conditions??? What was going on lol. Are frontal lobes in the room with us??? We have come so far. We made mistake after dangerous mistake. We definitely caught more fish than we do now. I think we might have had beginners luck. Or maybe like seven guardian angels 😅

Catching up on old logs… Cruised over to west side with our friends Tori and Madison! Had work in the lab 👩‍🔬🧫 the following two days, so left Dave onboard and headed back into town with the girls after we anchored. Dave hadn’t been feeling so great…turns out he had covid 😭 I caught a ride back to the west side after work, had an early dinner, and sailed back the next day while Dave slept😷💤

Catching up on old logs…first time cruising to Kāneʻohe Bay on Bria Mia with Liv, Aidan, and Juliana. Day 1: Planned on making a non-stop trek around the island from La Mariana to the Bay. Took longer than anticipated to get to Hawaiʻi Kai because there was no wind, so we anchored overnight off of China Walls. It’s not a great anchorage because it’s totally unprotected and subject to swell/refraction. Unless you have a super shallow draft and can tuck into Maunalua Bay, 10/10 would not recommend. Explored a little on the dingy around sunset. Picked up our buddy Aidan after dark from the boat ramp. Day 2: Left HK bright and early. Pink skies 💯 Motor sailed because of light winds. Sailed between Mōkapu peninsula and the islets and a couple guys in wife beaters zoomed out on a speed boat from the marine base and said we almost got shot. Apparently a white flag (raised on the opposite side of the peninsula from where we were sailing from…?) means target practice??? Oops??? 😅 Got to the entrance of the commercial channel on the western end of K Bay around 3 pm. Anchored on the Sandbar by 4 pm. Brought our main anchor into ankle deep shallows and threw out the stern anchor into deeper waters, ~40’. May or may not have ran aground around 3 am… Day 3: Picked up our friend Juliana ‘Juju’ from Heʻeia boat harbor and spent the day paddle boarding and cruising on the sandbar. Dropped everyone off at the harbor around sunset. Day 4: The rumble of the waves crashing on the opposite end of the sandbar woke Dave and I up in the middle of the night. Turns out these were in response to the Tongan earthquake/tsunami wrapping around the island. Began the day around 7 am. Made a big breakfast for Dave and I. Cruising is so nice with just the two of us, but it’s also so fun with friends. Sharing the experience is everything. I don’t think I like one more than the other, just definitely nice to have a nice balance of the two. Tandem surfed some ankle biters on the sandbar before heading back home around noon. This is when the tide was the highest in the Sampan Channel (eastern end of the bay). It’s super shallow here, so boats with drafts larger than 7’ are not recommended to traverse. Made it out of the bay and were surrounded by hundreds of spinner dolphins riding the massive long period rollers coming from the north. They felt like moving mountains. Made it back home to La Mariana around 2 am. 💤

Catching up on old 🪵 Cruised over to the west side with our friends Liv, Zoe, Kalen, and Aidan for my 23rd birthday :) Woke up early on the 6th and sailed over to Mākua Beach. Went out for birthday drinks at the beach house by 604🍻sailed back to town the following day.