Passage from Honolulu to Port Angeles on Laysan

Last month, I joined our friends John, Kathleen and Sarah on MY Laysan on their passage from Honolulu, HA to Port Angeles, WA. John and I helped deliver their boat to Hawaii from the Marshall Islands in 2012 and now was time for Laysan to explore the Pacific Northwest.

Laysan's crew leaving Honolulu, with Diamond Head in the background.

The trip was "near ideal". Or depending on your perspective, that might be better phrased as "as good as it gets". The motion was rolly and mostly uncomfortable, but always safe and interesting. The highlight was our participation in a research study called the Mega Expedition 2015. It was organized by Boyen Sladt's Ocean Cleanup organization. You may have seen his TED talk sharing how he plans to passively clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Well, step one is determining the density of plastic to be found in the Pacific Gyre. We were happy to be one of 30 boats that would drag a trawl to sample the amount of plastics in the areas that we traveled.

Kathleen, Sarah and I hoist the MEGA back into the water for another hour of sampling.

Here's the tracker that shows each of the boats that was participating in the research expedition. Can you guess which of these tracks belongs to MY Laysan? We sampled 3 times per day, for an hour each, for the entire period that we were inside the research area - the yellow square on the map below.

Most of the fleet were sailboats returning to the mainland after the Transpac race.

Here's our route, showing our daily noon position.

You can read more on Laysan's blog: www.roundtopdr.wordpress.com.

The 2370 nautical mile journey took us 20 days at an average speed of 5.2 knots. We used about 1032 gallons of diesel.

Our first delivery of Laysan in 2012 was recorded on this blog. You can find the posts by searching for the posts labelled "Laysan". 

Renova has been spotted in Southeast Asia

In spring 2014, we sold Renova. And we've just heard that she's been spotted in the Philippines! We're so thrilled that she is stretching her legs and exploring new parts of the globe. Fair winds to Renova and her crew!

Renova Sails Again!!

After a long winter in the boat yard, Renova is back in the marina, refreshed, renewed, and looking better than ever. She's been the recipient of a lot of John-love lately, and has been buffed, polished, and painted. So, for the first time, since we arrived home in September, we set the sails and spent a day on the water. Our prawn traps were not successful (only 16 prawns!), but we had a great day of sailing, and I managed to spend a few hours studying! Bliss.

Alaska Pictures!!

I've finally uploaded some of our favorite pics from our time in Alaska this summer. You can check out all the fun here:

• Alaska - Sitka and area
• Alaska - Glacier Bay
• Alaska - Juneau and area
• Alaska - Prince of Wales Island

One of these days, I might attempt to tackle our pictures of the BC coast and Haida Gwaii! 

Around the Horn

Well...it sure it hard to work full-time, and do anything else. We both come home zapped at the end of the day. It appears we're a little soft. I guess we need some time to build up our endurance.

While you're waiting for me to get enough energy to write a blog post, you might want to check this out. Our friend John, who we met in Majuro and visited in Alaska, has decided to sail a small, engineless boat around the Horn. You can read about it here: http://ajohnbankstrip.com/ 

Fair winds JOHN!!

Molly II - going around the Horn

What's In Your Ditch Bag??

Like most offshore sailors, we kept a ditch bag full of very important, life-saving necessities near the companionway exit when we were on a long passage. The common thinking is that if the snot really hits the fan, you can grab your ditch bag on your way to the life raft. Uh-huh.

Well, regardless of whether you'll have the time or the where-with-all to grab the bag, it's a good idea. And don't just think this only applies to those of us who live a watery existence. Back when we lived a land based life, we also kept an emergency plastic tub with a few essentials handy, just in case.

Since I’m unpacking the boat, I've brought home our ditch bag. So...here's what we put in our ditch bag. I'm curious to know what you put in yours. What are we missing??

We use a duffle bag with backpack straps to enable an easy exit and keep our hands free. Yep, we still drool over those fancy yellow bags that float and have perfectly sized partitions for all your 'stuff', but this was a better fit for our budget (ie: free). Everything is double-triple bagged in ziplocs.

Here's what's in it:

• Fancy EPIRB (Emergency Beacon with GPS)
• SPOT (another beacon to call for help, or let your friends know where you are)
• binoculars
• first aid kit, gauze, bandaids, slings, splint, tensors, suture kits, and ana pen etc.
• seasickness meds and T3s
• gps with batteries
• signaling devices: strobe light, flash lights, laser light, glow sticks, whistles
• gerber multi-tool
• copies of passports and boat papers
• waterproof notebook and pencil, playing cards
• sunscreen and emergency blanket
• sail repair thread (should have included a needle)
• hazard kit (includes foil water pouches and some type of expired food 'product', toilet paper, garbage bags, and other stuff).

Some stuff that isn't in this picture, that we usually put in the bag for our big passages:

• cash and passports
• satellite phone
• handheld vhf radio
• hard drive with photo backups (yeah, I'm a photo-crazed fool)
• sunglasses
• a book
• chocolate (most of it was eaten on our final days at sea...running out of chocolate is definitely an emergency situation aboard Renova).

We also had a second bag that was tied on that had our supply of flares. We kept a jug of water tied on deck, with a knife nearby to cut it loose. On our North Pacific passage, we put our wetsuits into a dry bag and left that near the exit also.

What We're Up To...

Well, I know what I haven't been up to...this blog. Nor have I sorted out the millions of photos from the last few weeks of our travels. Hmmm...maybe this weekend??  We'll see. But no promises...I know better than that!

What we have been doing - well, John's working. Building a massive addition onto a friend's house, and then reno-ing the original part of the house. Big project and he's so happy to be working.

Me? Not nearly so productive (financially speaking, that is). What I have been doing is a lot of laundry. Everything on the boat (stinky, moldy, yucky) and everything that we pull out of storage (stinky, dusty, yucky). That's been fun, but the weather has been super-fan-tabulous, so at least I can put most stuff outside to dry. Sorta like boat living.

What else? Well, I'm still looking for a job. I'm also trying to catch up with some friends and family. Cleaning the boat and bringing home duffel bag after duffel bag full of boat stuff. Fixing my recovering-from-being-left-in-storage car (with help from fix-it videos on YouTube). But mostly, what I've spent most of my time on is this: www.CapeDory36.com. Still not finished. But to my faithful blog readers...maybe you'd take a look and give me some tips or feedback??

Home Sweet Home

It is good to be home.

The flags of all the places we visited on this voyage.

We're settling in. We're catching up with friends and family. We're learning about current events. We're doing heaps of laundy. We're texting.

It feels good. It feels right. In many ways, it's like we've never left! And yet, in other ways...we can't believe we're stepping away from this wonderful lifestyle...for now.

John starts work tomorrow. I'm still looking. 

Last Night

This could be our last night.

It's weird to be going home. Finally. We're both excited and really looking
forward to being closer to friends and family. We're also really looking
forward to seeing our bank account move in a direction that is not so
depressing. And...oh, how we yearn for a real mattress. And a substantial
shower. And endless fresh veggies.

We've been blessed to be able to travel the Pacific. Meet amazing people.
See phenomenal places. Learn about resilient and wonderful cultures. Dig
deep into ourselves. Read. Swim. Fish. Frolic. Truly blessed. A trip of a
lifetime.

Old Posts...New Pictures

We've made a short stop in beautiful Pruth Bay...with FREE INTERNET!! Wahoo!!

In between walking these amazing beaches, and catching up with our friend Frank, who's working up here, I've updated the following posts with a few pictures. I'm not totally caught up yet. But soon...
Haida Gwaii - North Coast
Haida Gwaii - Skedans
Haida Gwaii - Tanu
Haida Gwaii - Windy Bay
Haida Gwaii - New Crew and Hot Springs

We're getting closer to home. We expect to be back in Campbell River in less than a week. Wow. We're shooting for a Friday or Saturday arrival. We're looking forward to it!

Also - We're almost out of sat phone minutes. So we're not checking emails on a daily basis at the moment. Sorry if we've been slow in responding to recent emails.