Video Madness!

Finally, our video is up! Here is our video, in three parts. Hope you enjoy it. We'd love to hear your comments.

VIDEO

Hi everyone. I have edited together some of our video footage from the trip and will have it posted here shortly. I just need to learn to whole youtube embedding thing first. Keep an eye out.

Rich

Return trip photo annual

The wheels are turnin' in our brains, but only enough to choose worthy photos. We will update with chatter about the trip home soon. Not much to say.

Observations will most likely consist of wild discoveries like, for instance, ohhhhh perhaps why one shouldn't read "Life of Pi" while on board a lifeboat sized sailboat with one other person. Luckily Rich wasn't Indian, i am not French, and both of us read "Call of the Wild" on the way home, so Tigers and/or Hyenas no longer frighten us in the slightest anyway, while Buck on the other hand...

We did have a Zebra (little bird) land unceremoniously on our boat; so that no one else asks us (i've had more questions about that bird than anything else), it was "Call of the WILD-ED". That means you place the animal, gingerly, on the side of the boat and thereby give it a choice. Either jump in the ocean or to stay on board with us. The idiot jumped.


This was our last view of Hawaii, Hanalei Bay on N Kauai coast. How in the hell are we supposed to leave when this is our last anchorage? You don't, and delay delay delay.



The first week out was rough. 15-25 knot winds out of the ENE, NE, or NNE, and we had to go due North for the first 8 days. I did not enjoy those days.




While sailing upwind the lurching, while more violent, is also more predictable. See mom, brushing my teeth with NO HANDS. Inevitably you crash.

Bow birth was a no go zone. All the upwind sailing meant that our minor leaks in the front became major irritants. Everything was soaked the whole trip home.






Some cool shots.


The north Pacific Albatrosse is one of the most incredible birds in flight. They absolutely scream along the waves, just inches from the water, swooping in and out of the swell and wind waves. Very impressive.


We named him "bird". Poor thing crash landed and was stuck with us for 3 days. However we finally decided it was cruel to subject it to the cramped quarters of Mr Perfect and set it free.


The GPS, on average, would stop working every 3 days or so. We found that if you stare at it and push buttons for an extended period it may start to work. Or it may not. Luckily we did have a back up.




Captain, looking serious. 24 days at sea doesn't make you crazy, does it?
Prune hands develop over time.
This was my view every time it was time to switch watches. How do you wake a man up that is sleeping that heavily? Don't worry, my conscience is clear.




In 38 degrees latitude (this dorky free Sailing mag from San Fran) some woman posted a photo of herself, naked, strumming a Ukulele in their boat. So if you think i'm weird, think again!
Lucky Rich. He had to see me in my underwear pretty much every day that was sunny. I finally did a wash. Most of our stuff was wet all the time as well, so once we were sailing downwind again we were able to dry out our stuff for the time being.




First view of land, juxtaposed with first realization Rich and I had that the motor won't run, we have no wind, we are almost home and now we have to sit here and wait for wind. We aren't happy, and neither slept for 30hrs at this point.



Picture of our sunrise while in the shipping lane. Also a lovely "reflective" photo of our route of drifting around the lane.


This was our view for the entrance to the Juan De Fuca. No motoring required for the entire trip home. Entrance to Juan De Fuca, wind dies, motor won't start, stuck in shipping lane for 12 hrs, then the current kept dragging us backwards out to sea again.




After we fixed the engine we were, understandably, very happy. The sunset was an added bonus.

Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone! Rich here. Just a quick note right now to say that we arrived at our slip in the Point Roberts Marina at 9:30 Sunday morning to the applause of friends and family and a couple of bottles of champagne to help with the land legs. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in. Down to the last mile there was still some uncertainty that we would actually get in as a thunder storm passed directly overhead when we were 3 miles out. Watching the lightning bolt down within a few miles of our ungrounded boat all that was running through my head was "at least we're covered by our insurance policy here!" Even inside the marina we almost got broad sided by a big power boat! (their fault, as it always is in the eyes of sailors). Anyway, we obviously have lots of stories to tell about the speedy return crossing (like the whale and the bird and the engine) and photos to post and will be sharing those with you in the near future. Right now Jeff and I are heading over to Vancouver Island to crash the Albin Vega rendezvous!

Home!

the guys made it back to Point Roberts, their starting point, this morning at 930am! stay tuned for posts by the sailors themselves... yay!

Close, Yet Far

two texts from rich:

to mom trawick:
"“outboard not running lite wind and adverse current. Waiting 4 tide change 2 sail into Neah Bay 2 repair. ETA?”

to me, lyndsay:

"NO IDEA ETA. STUCK IN SAME PLACE 4 HRS. MAY NEED TOW IN TO NEAH BAY ONCE WE GET THERE. RIGHT NOW ADRIFT IN SHIPPING LANE. STRESSFUL!"

close yet far!!!

A Little Bird

A text from Rich: "LS I forgot to tell u i found small bird on cockpit floor early this AM. still alive but hurt or tired.its hiding out in small cave between gas can and icebox cover."

and another one later: "Bird is still here. I've checked him over nothing broken but think he has head injury all we can do is give him a place to try to recover"

A small bird finding Mr.Perfect in the middle of the ocean--- pretty amazing isn't it???

The Long And Winding (Ocean) Road

The guys seem to be well on their way home! Estimated arrival time is hopefully around the August 20th mark.

The Journey Home

after a few false starts in Oahu, the guys will be journeying home to Vancouver in the next day or so. upon leaving for home, 2 hours out from Honolulu a big wave crashed over the engine, flooding it and conking it out. so back to Honolulu to dry it out and fix it for the 30 days home. then, with engine dry, the weather reports dictated some ugly winds, so the guys decided to head to Kauai and wait it out for a few days. Kauai is known for being the least developed of the Hawaiian islands, and the most beautiful and lush--also one of the rainiest places in the world! SPOT won't be working until 200 miles out of Hawaii so i'll be updating positions here!

HAWA'II PICTURES

hi! Lyndsay here. to view more pics of our days in Maui and Oahu, visit

HAWAII PICS by Lyndsay

"By Moonlight, We Ride!"

Tonight we depart Hawaii. After making the most of the Island experience it's time to leave. All the fish and coral are starting to look the same and there is only so much "extreme snorkeling" that one can do. Our trip over here was a typical, uneventful trade wind passage (when we had wind). Let's hope that the trip home is as easy... We have opted to hire a weather router for the return trip as the weather patterns have been all over the place this summer (and we don't need any more big wind and seas right now). It does look like the fist week to 10 days of the trip is going to be a SLOG. Conditions are expected to be 20-25kts, at times gusty, from the ENE (we're going north, so it means upwind sailing, which is rougher, colder, but more exciting). BUT the big issue is the 6-9 foot seas with a period of 5-10 seconds. The waves aren't that big, but at 5 seconds apart, they're really close together, which also means they're STEEP (and uncomfortable). Good thing we have lots of Clif bars, because I don't think that we'll be doing much cooking. The other bit of bad news from the weather router is that he revamped our estimate time for the trip to take to the 30 day range. Hopefully the conditions allow us to go a little more quickly. Gotta go to the store to buy a few more items. Next post will be from VANCOUVER!!!!!
Rich

Maui is pretty good, pretteeeeeee good'

Yup, now that we are stuck in Waikiki harbor and have explored some of Oahu, Maui looks better and better as the days go on. I think Oahu, while quite beautiful in its own right, is just too busy for the anti-social sailor, or me for that matter.
The Angelina Jolie shades are EVERYWHERE. I can see why they're popular though. If you're pretty, ugly, or ARE Angelina Jolie, no one can tell because they cannot see your features behind the see-through sat dishes on your face.

Anyway, sorry, back to positivism.

Ok, not yet. There are also quite a few weirdo transient sailors on our dock that are also making me long for normal people and normal conversation. Even half-normal would be fine with me...some of these dudes are FREAKS!!!

I miss Maui:
"Rich, uhhhh i think this Oatmeal is the best breakfast. Gee i don't know Jeff, there is nothing quite like a protein bar to start my day, etc." Conversation topics were becoming redundant. Good thing Maui was right around the corner.
Like Cook, the locals welcomed us with open arms.
(actually my first conversation was some local punk kid making fun of me for being a Mormon and carrying a bible...i was wearing a white button down and carrying a book. Funny kid.)
He may look like a mild mannered ukulele player. However, the second he takes his shirt off and lights some knives on fire........WATCH OUT! He burnt the shit out of himself too. What a dedicated performer.
This soggy dog was in need of a clean-up. I wasn't going to do it. Who can you count on to make you shave?
Famdamily. Look at that trim. It was time to get busy snorkeling. Sometimes there was a lava field in the way.
And more lava...
And then Lindsay was there. Good thing. Now that we found the water, we needed help finding some turtle action.
They were not hard to find, but always looked annoyed. Some Hawaiian hospitality.
I went on a hike in the crater.
Looks like a nice day to jump right in for a 5 hr tour, right?This east van "bottle lady" that followed us up the volcano was smart enough to just be STOKED on the view. She could sense the weather was turning.
It was nice for a while.I visited Bo Bo Fet's final resting place.And then the trail went down into the crater floor where, you guessed it, i was able to hike through some more lava. It was the coolest thing i have ever done, figurative and literal. It began to rain before i hit the lava field, and being at 9000 feet it was freezing and i had no rain coat. And the hike out was SKETCHY!!!
Rich found his own adventure on the Hana coast.A little cliff jumping was in order, but first he had to talk to the two chickens in front of him that it was safe. That's Rich, 3rd from the left, offering some advice. "Hurry the f%$# up" i believe it was.Hana coast.Look what we found hiding in someone's driveway. I wonder if they need any snorkel experts in "Baywatch Hawaii"?