Honomalino to Lahaina HI

The definition of cruising on Marcy is still “working on the boat in exotic places” and we are definitely a cruising boat. We've been in Hawaii 6 weeks and we have spent only 8 days in places where we can swim from the boat. But oh, how good that swimming has been!



Peter has cleaned all of the battery terminals, painted some rusty things, and gone up the mast for maintenance items. Ginger has been scrubbing all the hidden corners of the boat with an old toothbrush.



Since our last refit in Buenos Aires 6 months ago we have traveled over 10,000 nautical miles, many of those miles in very windy conditions. So, it came as no surprise that during a daily inspection of the rig Peter found a problem. On our trip around the south end of the Big Island we cracked a turnbuckle toggle on our intermediate shroud.



It's a good thing that Peter found this before the other side broke! It is one of the important pieces that keeps the mast up. With the impaired rig we left the excellent anchorage on the SW side of the Big Island and motored up the voggy (volcano fog) Kona coast to Honokohau Harbor to get a new part.



What a relief to tie up to the guest spot in the calm waters of the harbor with the mast OK.



The water was so clear we had to double check the depth sounder to make sure there was enough water for our boat. The bottom looked much closer than the actual depth of 14 feet.



It's a clean harbor with turtles and eagle rays circling for handouts from the fishermen.



And we had front row seats for the sport fishermen daily weigh in.



At the end of our week we enjoyed a visit from Randy and Lynn. We knew Randy, KH6RC, because he's one of the net controllers for the Pacific Seafarer's Net. He helped us before we arrived in Hawaii by making a dentist appointment and by giving us a ton of local information making our stay here easier. After lunch and a trip to Costco(!) they brought us back to the boat just in time for a tuna weigh in. What a treat to meet Randy in person after talking with him so often.



With our new turnbuckle toggle installed and supplies on board we set out early Saturday morning for Maui. We had a windy channel crossing and arrived off Little Beach at Makena.



We dropped the hook in a patch of sand, Ginger dove in and snorkeled the area to find a spot where we wouldn't damage any coral. With hook down we were just in time to enjoy the sunset on the famous Maui red dirt.



And the sunset over Lanai.



We detoured to Molokini in the morning to check out this famous snorkeling spot. The state has installed 20 mooring buoys 6 feet below the surface. When arriving at the island a person needs to dive for the mooring pennant to hook the boat up. No problem, any excuse is a good reason to get in the water here. After our quick swim and a stitch up job on one of our main sail slides we slipped our mooring and sailed for Lahaina.



Reportedly it's difficult to anchor off Lahaina because of strong currents, poor holding and deep water. Luckily the Lahaina Yacht club offers courtesy moorings which are available to visiting yachts and we happily picked one up off the harbor entrance in water 60 feet deep.



The first day we couldn't get the outboard started so we rowed in to meet friends for dinner. It took quite a few hours of Peter's time to get the outboard working after 2 months of storage. It's a long trip from the moorings. We could barely see Marcy and the paraglider that likes to circle Marcy as we arrived at the dinghy dock.



The surfers were out in force.



And there was a wrecked sailboat on the reef reminding us to check our mooring line for chafe regularly.



Peter adjusted to life in touristville.



And Ginger was happy to finally get a lei.



The boat work continues - our motor repair done by the mechanic in NZ failed and needs to be re-done here. Not ideal at anchor with big waves but Peter is meeting the challenge.



And the work goes better when a cool off is as close as the side of the boat.