Ko Olina 1st Lagoon by the Marriott
After careful weather watching, we decided to leave Hanalei Bay on August 8th. The trade winds were finally going to slack. It was important we waited for more mellow conditions as this is an upwind sail, meaning Soulstice would be close-hauled/close reaching to get East to Oahu. We weighed anchor around 10am as we gave an estimate of a 20-hour sail (100 nm at estimated 5 knots/per hour). We wanted to arrive early with the good visibility but not too early that it was dark and we were going into an unfamiliar marina. We ended up taking 24 hours due to the oncoming wind and waves/swell and some motoring as the wind died once we got into the lee of the island.
The entrance to Ko Olina is very spacious and dredged well. There is
minimal tide fluctuation throughout all the Hawaiian Islands with changes of 2 ft
maximum. This does not make up for the marginal anchoring elsewhere, ha! but
does definitely make other decisions easier. We docked in our slip D8, a
starboard (right-sided) tie, which we are not fond of but made it work. They
said there were no port (left-sided) ties for our size slip available. Our boat
walks to port when maneuvering and makes it easier to dock on that side. Our
fenders were quickly changed and our dock line was set up on Soulstice right before
we docked. There is a huge pylon that separates the dual slip. Another boat was
adjacent to us on the port side. We had no wind luckily and Stephen did an
excellent job docking Soulstice in her new home to be for the next several
months.
We now had slightly less than 2 weeks to get Soulstice ready for some
downtime in the marina. Each time we have left her in Mexico since cruising, it
was a full decommission. Once in the slip in Mazatlan and then once on the
hard/dry-docked in Puerto Penasco. There is quite a lot of prep to leave your
boat in either scenario. Since hurricane season was winding down, supposedly
ends in November, we felt we could do a partial decommission. This being said,
Hurricane Linda was soon approaching but was said to be a tropical depression by
the time of her arrival to the Hawaiian Islands. Nonetheless, she came quite
close and was a good reminder that hurricane season was not quite over. The sea
surface temperature or SST was still a bit cold to carry her furry for continued
strength and endurance to reach us.
The nice thing for us this time was that
instead of working our butts off for 8-12 hour days getting Soulstice ready to
leave safely and securely was that we could have more mellow days with built-in
relaxation time. We did several hours of work each day to prep her but then
could be done at 4pm instead of 8pm. We chose to leave her sails up and most of
our rigging. We removed some lines for sure. Stainless steel cleaning/rust
abatement/waxing was attended to as well as protecting any hardware with 303
protectant and UV protection. Stephen did some gel coat lovin’ in some areas and
decided to take on wood maintenance as well with some Cetol layers on
handrails/cabin trim/ & cockpit combings and Halcyon to bowsprit/interior
companionway trim and galley rails. These have been weathered and UV exposed
and needed attention. Unfortunately, one day after Stephen spent a few hours
doing the Cetol and just had a finished up, the ONE and ONLY rain squall for the
day came through! He was devastated and now gun shy. He had to re-sand and
re-apply but not after watching the radar diligently and with hesitation prior
to committing to the process of re-application.
The other usual chores include
pickling the water maker, exercising and closing all the thru-hulls, and
defrosting cleaning the fridge, changing engine oil and filters, new Raycor and
secondary filters for the engine, and topping off fuel tanks and water tanks.
Batteries were removed out of electronics and some interior loving with vinegar,
3M mild block, and orange oil on the interior wood. We decided to leave our
dodger /bimini up but applied another layer of 303 Fabric guard. The Hydrovane
was given lubrication and shining too. We cleaned the bottom and changed zincs
in the Hanalei Bay prior to leaving to come to Ko Olina so we should be good on
that for some time. Luckily, since we did our bottom paint this past March on
the hard, the bottom just had an easier layer of slime and no serious barnacle
build-up and sponges did the trick. Our dinghy too was cleaned in Hanalei and
nicely stored back on our deck prior to the passage over to Oahu. She has a
folding transom so she sits on deck in a large bag.
Our last chore prior to
leaving Soulstice was sun covers and sunshade for UV protection and to keep the
boat cooler. I will say that Hawaii is quite lovely for a decommission. The
weather gets hot but there is a breeze and especially at night, the temperature
is magnificent. Every night I would fall in love with Hawaii because of the
climate. In Mexico, we always left when the heat was sweltering with little
reprieve. You just had to be comfortable in a state of sweat ALL DAY. At least
in Hawaii, the nights were cooler and the humidity is less than expected. Some
days 33% and other days saw max at 58% but rarely higher than that.
During this
time, we caught up with old cruising friends, Steve and Chelsea, on SV Jeanne Anne. We met them coming down the coast leaving from Seattle with our 1st
cruising season. They were in the marina and also did Mexico to Hawaii
passage at similar times; they were one week ahead of us on the same passage. We
were able to chat with them nightly on the Pacific Seafarers Net at 0300 UTC on
14.300 USB. They went straight to the marina on Oahu and did no cruising of the
HI Islands as they planned to get jobs right away. They have some major projects
on their vessel to include engine re-power and their focus was a paycheck. Steve
is going to check on Soulstice for us and run her engine 2x month for us. We met
numerous other marina tenants who were all very kind. Some are retired and go
back and forth to the mainland, some are liveaboards and actively working and
some have HI homes and come to the marina on off days, to include families.
The
marina is just adjacent to the Ko Olina resort complex, so we have access to all
the lagoons and a nice paved walking path on the perimeter that circumnavigates
each hotel. It is a nice area with Kapolei being the closest town. We can walk
to Home Depot/Target/Costco by a dirt road of 2.5 miles each way and believe me, we did several times, ha! Uber is not really around in that area and is
super expensive. There is a bus but is long and the bus stop itself is 2 miles
away. There is an app called Hui which does allow you to rent a car for even an
hour and for up to several days. We walk because we are cheap and it is good
exercise!
Right as our time was approaching for our flight back, the remnants of
Hurricane Linda passed over. It was definitely some wind but no more than 30
knots and some squalls. The windward side got more of a downpour and the peaks of
Oahu seemed to break it up before it came to the lee side, very typical.
It is
always hard to walk away from Soulstice after a season of memories on her. She
has been a good sailing vessel and our home for us and we depend on her a great
deal. We always feel grateful we purchased a worthy blue water cruiser and try
to care for her well to reflect our appreciation. We are also grateful that
still in a time of worry, instability on so many levels, and mistrust, that we are
able to hold onto some valuable truths. These are that your time here on this
planet is limited and invaluable and we continue to make efforts to appreciate
our Mother Nature, respect her, and others who feel the same.
Next up…. Work to fill the piggy banks, dealing with smoky Carson Valley of Nevada, and
re-entry into the full throes of the hurricane of humanity!
“ All we have to
decide is what to do with the time that is given us” — J.R.R. Tolkien
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| Hurricane Linda downgraded to Tropical Depression by time of arrival to HI |
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