Guam to Okinawa, Japan is a “short” 1200nm hop across the Philippine Sea—about six days at Starr speed. Unfortunately, the perfect trade wind conditions we’d enjoyed for most of the trip from Hawaii to Guam wouldn’t continue on this leg. Immediately after leaving the harbor in Guam, we were rolling around in beam seas to 15 feet with 30+ knots of wind on our starboard side. Not the most fun, but we were hoping that...
The final 1000 miles to Guam were easy, comfortable, and quick. We enjoyed cruising downwind and got a nice push from the current. As we approached Guam in very settled conditions, we rinsed the salt off the outside of Starr. After more than two weeks of ocean travel, everything was salty. Guam comes into view after 18 days and 3300+nm Our destination was Apra Harbor, a huge, breakwater-protected harbor that caters primarily to commercial and military ships....
Note: this was written last week but we forgot to post it. We're now en route from Guam to Okinawa and will update the blog over the coming days. One of the challenges we’ve had is figuring out what time it is. Apple devices, it seems, have pretty limited time zone choices. It’s a bit of a guessing game to figure out which city is in the same time zone as we are. If we can’t...
Day 16 15-15.4N, 150-35E 2967nm from Hawaii, 366 nm to Guam I got up at 0500 to relieve Sam. My watch starts at 0600. I did the Engine room check going thru the same motions we do every 3 hours. While the check list is useful, even more so is to listen, smell and visually inspect. Thankfully, our engine room checks have not revealed many surprises. After making a cup of coffee I say good night to Sam and make...
I (Don) was woken at 0100 by Celeste saying we have a problem. The boat was stopped and the engine was in neutral. We were rolling 40+ degrees in the 20-knot breeze with 10-foot-at-10-second swells. Water washed over the side decks and unsecured items flew across the cabin. A check of the engine room confirmed that we had no water ingress and no apparent mechanical problems, other than whatever seemed to be wrapped around the prop. I...
The first few days of a passage are often the hardest. It takes a little while for the body to adjust to constant motion, strange sleeping patterns, new noises. My mind takes a few days to adjust, too. Do we have everything we need? Is that belt throwing off more dust than it should? What about the generator, is it running too warm? Are the fuel filters starting to clog up? Over the course of a...
We are preparing to take Starr on what will most likely be our last significant passage. I’m turning 80 next month and Sharry is three years into being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Sharry and I have been holding hands for 60 years. [caption id="attachment_2902" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Sharry paddling her OC-1 off Diamond Head over the summer[/caption] While we are both grieving the loss of her memory, we also want to keep living our lives the best that we can. We...
What Day is it? What time is it? It’s a conundrum. Friday, 22 April or Thursday April 21, 2011? 1015 Z or 1914 JST or 0015 HST? Boy have we been confused!!! Not about our port of departure (Osaka) or our port of arrival (Honolulu), but about what time are we using on the ship’s clocks and what time is it when we report to our weather router or write entries at the start of...
21 April, 2000Z, We are at the International Dateline. Pos 22 12N/180E/W Nm run since Ashiya 2820Nm, 16 days running so far. Distance left to go to Honolulu, 1230Nm. 6 plus days left to finish. The generator only ran 17 total hours during the first 15 days. Due to the temperature and humidity, we have started the genset so we can have A/C and more comfort for sleeping. ...
Starr 10 April 10, 2011,0400Z 26 22N/144 46E We are 700nm SE of Ashiya. Yesterday at 0200JST, we pulled into Chichijima 27N/142E., 600nm from Ashiya and re topped off, loading an additional 2700 liters of fuel. We departed Chichijima at 1500JST, 13hrs later. Currently we are 150nm ESE of Chichijima. Our next way point is 25N/160E with 3162nm left to Hawaii. Don Notes from crew: This is Jean...