To Fiji! Starr Departs Waikiki

13 Apr To Fiji! Starr Departs Waikiki

When Sharry learned that she had Alzheimer’s 6 years ago, she told me that when she got to the point where she didn’t know what was happening…I should go find a girlfriend and keep cruising Starr.

I am still in love with Sharry, so the girlfriend part will have to wait.

In the meantime, we are underway headed to Fiji.

We’ve just pushed off from Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu and should be in Fiji in about 14 days.

The Starr Crew, from left: Margaret Pommert, Patrick Connor, Rob Hurlow, and Don Stabbert

Our crew of four includes Patrick Conner, a 27 year old experienced engineer and my co-captain.

Rob Hurlow is an experienced sailor from Bainbridge island. We met Rob and his wife Kathleen when they were sailing their boat Capaz in Japan two years ago. Rob and Kathleen have sailed all over the Pacific. Besides his ample experience at sea, he is an Emergency room/Family practice doctor as well.

Margaret Pommert Is a Seattle native who’s very active in the PNW sailing world. Margaret has 100-ton license and will be a great addition to our crew. Margaret put together this short video during recent sea trials:

We have a new set of Humphree electric stabilizers, which are still (after over a year) in the commissioning stage.  We’ve had the opportunity to take a few short weekend hops of about 20 nautical miles to Molokai or Lanai. This gave us a chance to experience some sea conditions where the stabilizers could work a bit.

Andy and Debbie Howard sending us off

Bob Fraik and Billy Herman helping untie Starr

The sea conditions that we’ll encounter for the next three to four days will be a good test. We expect 2-3 meter seas with a 8 second period on the beam. The rest of the 3000 miles should be fairly benign.

Our next stop is Nadi, Fiji! We will be underway constantly during that time, with at least one person always on watch. We have to constantly be on alert, not only for vessel traffic, floating debris such as nets and other fishing gear, but also for any signs of on-board issues, from alarms or strange sounds/smells/motions etc.

We’ll try to post regularly!