working in Lahaina

There could be better places to do boat work....but none so beautiful.

Blaze is sitting quietly at anchor in Lahaina, on the eastern shore of Maui. Huricane Flossie has passed and everything is fine.

The refridgerator parts arrived in Kahului at Fed Ex. We contacted Jason from "Cody Express" on Maui to bring the parts to Lahaina. Best $35 spent so far. He delivered right to the harbormaster office. Devon picked up the parts and Dustin stayed aboard to keep working on the boom vang. The parts are finally all back together and the system just needs to be bled.

The generator received it's PM and it appears to be working fine. Run time has been reduced due to new batteries on board.

The freezer has been defrosted and the long term frozen stuff is back where it belongs.

Next up.....varnish to the cabin sole. It really needs it.

Sailmakers in New Zealand, Australia and China have been contacted to provide quotes for the new mainsail. The current sail is at the end of its life .....we hope it holds for the next 3 months.

If not...there is a sewing kit and duct tape aboard. The sail is HUGE. 62 feet high, 20 feet long, full battens on external Harken cars. Price quotes are coming in near the price of a slightly used car. Yeah...."but you cant sail your Ford Taurus around the world."

Fotos are tough to get right now. We are working on it.

Planning on leaving Hawaii soon. Heres the current weather(above) ...time to get going!!!

satelite foto

yep sailing isn't all fun and games.
see the detail

Flossie approaches...but should miss

The predicted storm track shows Flossie missing Blaze by a wide margin....so far.

We check the weather regularily and have contingency plans if storm track shifts.

for the latest weather see

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/cphc/

Devon and Dustin are working on projects and preparing for the storm. You know..."batten down the hatches matey". Winds up to 50 MPH are expected .

Boat is currently attached to a mooring ball at Lahaina Yacht Club. http://www.lahainayachtclub.org/

This IS NOT a protected harbor, butr rather an open anchorage in the lee of Maui. So far strom winds are from the east and the boat and crew are protected. Stay tuned.

proceed to Maui

The boat changed course on Friday and headed for Lahaina.

The anchorage is in the lee of the island and they are attached to a Lahaina YC bouy.

Huirricane Flossie is headed their way and the boat is in a safe place

Battteries are in....care package received

Interstate Battery of Hawaii....

Did the right thing and showed up on time. Changed out the old for eight new 6VDC golf cart style units. Quick and efficient they were. The wiring harness fit fine and installation went well. New batteries shopuld greatly reduce the generator run time. Near the end, it was running 3.5 hrs day. Now should be at 1.5 - 2 hrs day.

UPS brought a GPS chipset, ipod, a magazine and 3 20 micron filters for water system.

Jib halyard was respliced spliced as it had shown signs of wear. Devon used a new fid set that was provided from Port Townsend Rigging http://www.porttownsendrigging.com/

Tanks are full and the boat is bound for theWest side of Molokai.

boat work day

ta yes

Today is a boat work day.

The new battery set is scheduled to be delivered later today. That means lotsa moving heavy (90 pound) batteries and getting them all re-wired.

The fabrication man, Jon Wayte, did a great job on the boom parts.

http://www.waytetoolandmachine.com/index.html

He delivered em at 6:15 am!

Two days ago, a great guy....Herb Fuller of Reliable Yacht Care stopped by and helped with our refridgeration solenoid problem. The RIGHT parts are being overnighted from Florida to Hawaii thanks to him.

Got to leave this damn expensive ($120/day) marina and head to Lahaina!!

sail on.

Crew changes

All good things must come to an end.

Mark and Nikki have made the decision not to continue on. Devon and Dustin plan to sail double handed and continue the journey. It seems they might "pick up" crew in Honolulu or Lahina.

Mark will be sorely missed. He has been with the program sincethe boats purchase. He lived aboard since early March 2007. His electrical skills and knowledge contributed greatly. He endured harsh living conditions and long days to get this far. Thanks Mark. Fair winds.

Nikki has been aboard since May 16. She helped provison and prepare the boat for crossing. Her self taught radar skills were helpful. As was her metal polishing ability. Thanks Nikki.

They both fly out Wednesday night late and arrive in Las Vegas Thursday morning.

Thursday afternoon the boat is scheduled to leave Ko Olina and head to the free annchorage ??in Honolulu. It will be a very short stay then on to Maui.