In case anyone was having trouble with the attachement, here is what it contains:

Crewless

Its one of those rare Saturdays when I find myself, by myself. Habit has me heading across the island to my boat in Lahaina harbor. It’s winter and the progressive march of low pressure cells across the north of Hawaii has left the area between Molokai, Lanai and Maui with a rare West wind of about 12 kts..

I could hang around and listen to the “Rare Dialogue” in the harbor, cruise Front St. and have a beer at the Lahaina Yacht Club or rig the Lono (Express 27 – #45) and singlehand my way toward the Island of Lanai.

After 30 years I’ve already heard the “Dialogue” plus I had my own “six-pac” , so Heave-Ho. Lono and I GO!

Up goes the full batten main and the 120% headsail. With the help of the Autohelm 1000 we’re cutting a nice course for Lanai.

It’s winter in Hawaii. That means that the temperature is uncommonly cool. If you look off toward the “Big Island” you can see the snow capped peak of Mauna Kea.

I start to feel nostalgic when I put the Allman Brother’s “Eat a Peach” in the CD. The perfect beam reach, the music and islands take me back 30 years. 1973 I just finished the Transpac on a Lapworth 50 and was back as the engineer and navigator on Peter Fonda’s 81’ “Tatoosh”. We were reaching across the same body of water except that there were ten beautiful girls lounging around with no “tops” on. I may not have noticed if there was any snow on Mauna Kea that day!

Whale Ho!

It is only about 8 miles from Lahaina, Maui to the Island of Lanai, but in the winter the area is thick with Humpback whales. Whoosh!! I’m shaken out of my day dreaming by the breach of a fully adult Humpback . It’s about 350 yards “dead ahead”. I disengage the pilot and steer a course to avoid the whale. It’s a guessing game to try to figure where they will surface next. It seems that Express 27”s have some kind of affinity to whales. As often as not, when you try to avoid them they end up following us around. Maybe it’s the Allmand Brothers!

Five more times before I reach the coast of Lanai I have to avoid different pods of whales. They’re giving birth, nursing young calves, mating and all sorts of fooling around.

When I reach the coast of Lanai I begin to short tack up the coast toward “Shipwreck”. In normal “Trade Winds” this place would be “Fear and Loathing”, Winds to 40 kts and huge seas, but today it’s perfect. I tack up the coast as far as my “I haven’t done the yard work yet” conscience and a six-pac will allow then bear off on a broad reach for Lahaina.

I wish my crew was here to share the moment. Suzie is in the Bay getting the Punkie ready for Pac Cup, Mike is Pylon racing his RC planes, Candy is fixing somebody’s sail.

It’s just Me …….and our friend “Carl”!

He just dropped in to say Aloha.

I say “Thanks Carl, For the memories!”