Kauli-Kona to Maui

Me and the kids jumped into the water to swim with the dolphins again!! right in the bay in Kauli-Kona, so cool!
We left Kauli-Kona and headed to the top of the big island , getting ready to cross to Maui. we stayed in Kawaihae Harbor, very excited cause it was so calm and protected, then the wind came up in the middle of the night, 40 knot gusts! we were fine, anchor held well, but still not the best sleep , up checking as we were on the lee of the breakwater.

We had to cross the Alenuihaha Channel which can be a rough one if the trades where blowing, and they were. we had 30 knots of wind ( sometimes gusting to 35) and 14 ft seas. ripped our main sail - this time in the cloth ,so must actually repair it. Steve took it down before we had too much damage. 10 hours later we were anchored. Our original spot was on Molokini Island but is was to rough so we had to keep going.

We arrived in Lahaina this morning and tied to a mooring ball with the Lahaina Yacht club, but where informed the mooring where not in good shape so Steve and Jay went and moved our boat and we are now anchored, thankfully its not windy as the bottom here is not that good of holding. Quite a current and all the sand is eroding away and leaving only lava bottom, not good for anchoring, we had a late lunch at Bubba Gumps - good food and I am still so full!! its is so hot on land!

The girls from Malachi wanted to shop, so my older kids ended up doing that , I found the big banyen tree and hung out there with Emma. Kyle was a little disappointed with the tree, cause the ones in Hilo where so much better to climb. ( and you weren't allowed to climb it anyway) we are back at the boat just chillin - free Internet!

the old fort in Lahaina

the kids on the banyen tree in front of the old court house.

shaved ice time! so hot out. and the 4 children are learning to share!!
Banyen tree -the tree was planted in 1873 and is almost 1/4 mile in circumference -
"Life is like a box of chocolates!" us on Forest Gumps bench! Maya is wearing his shoes!everyone a whole lot happier now that we are anchored! it was a rough crossing!
cleaning up all the lines, the sun is setting and we are relaxing! will sleep well tonight!

sunset at Maui!!

the crows nest is a fun place when at anchor!!

all of us parents have a meal together, the kids are at the other end of the table. nice to eat in a restaurant again!

this is the palace!

Kyle love the banyen trees! and the beach is full of turtles - look close and you will see them
and looking down here is the turtle , just below the sea wall that both Kyle and Emma are on!! lots of them
on the sea wall of Kauli-Kona, we got splashed when the surf came in !!!
this one is for Nathaniel. so when are you doing this triathlon?

swimming with dolphins! snorkeling too!

We had a fantastic time snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins - we jumped into the water from our dingys - tons of dolphins everywhere, mammas with their babies even. This is a underwater park here and is closed to anchoring and fishing , so we are anchored way out of the bay. makes for a nice nursery for the dolphins! Kyle swam and swam along with Maya and the Malachi girls along with the dolphins, they loved this!!!!! What a neat experience for all the kids, swimming with them in their natural environment!see the baby one with its mamma! she was so tiny!! never seen a dolphin so small before

We had so many dolphins swimming around, underneath and jumping out of the water. They are the spinner dolphins and they look like they have pink on their bellies. We even heard them talking!!! so cool! safe to say all that sailing we did was worth it to get here!!! Malachi and us where the only non-tour boat around and the only ones anchored. The locals say they don't get too many sailboats around, one guy even recognized our boat as a steel hull, using his binoculars from land- he used to own one.

Later in the afternoon we went ashore to stretch our legs, then visited on Malachi. around 8:30pm we had manta rays around the boat! Life is so good!!
We are leaving here today and heading to Kailua-Kona for the day ( may anchor but depends on the anchorage, its not a good one - play that by ear) and then head to the top of the big island before heading to Maui. The weather here has been great, not to rocky - this can be a very very uncomfortable anchorage. just for your info - Hilo is the rainiest city in all of the USA!! amazing , eh?!

lots of these fish swimming everywhere, the snorkeling was fantastic!!
Steve loves to wear a mask now that he has no beard! doesn't leak!!! tee heee
Miss Emma is getting so good at swimming! she is our 3rd fish! she loved the dolphins as well, just couldn't swim like her brother and sister.

Kealakekua Bay - Kona Big Island Hawaii

AKA as Cooks Bay - this is where Captain Cook died. anyway, we left yesterday and came around the point to a fantastic show of lava! it was worth the trip I tell ya. unfortuneatly my camera doesn't do well with the night photos while moving in a boat.
We were about 3/4 of a mile away from the lava! it was even erupting high into the air!! Way cool. Graeme you would have loved that!
We are now in cooks bay, went for a swim, and then checked out the monument for Captain Cook. great snorkeling here so we will come back tomorrow morning, We lucked out on the way back to the boats. Dolphins everywhere, so we -the kids and I and then Jenny and Jocelyn , jumped in and swam with them!! they were under us and jumping and spinning - so cool, Kyle even had one touch his foot! It was amazing. We are now sitting down to a great dinner and for a lark I thought I'd check for internet, and low and behold - free and fast!! enjoy, we will be snorkeling tomorrow and will get more pictures. Apparently there are turtles and manta rays here as well.


the 2 captains posing for there famous shot - they got us here safely

just one of the many beautiful sites here !

My monkeys

Trivia - what was the name of Captain Cooks ship? this one is easy!!

our friends ( family now) Robert and Rose on Tillicum, they have left this morning to head straight to San Fran. very good people!

done in Hilo off to the Kona side

We are off today to sail to the otherside of the big Island - Kona side. we will be passing the lava flowing into the sea at night! looking forward to seeing this, its supposed to be real neat. its very hot here today! Malachi will be going with us, Tillicum is leaving tomorrow and heading straight for San Fransisco. hope to see them in Vancouver ( by car as the boat is headed to Mexico)

Hoping for better internet. trust me I will be posting whenever I can. it has been fun here. it will be interesting to sail without Graeme......

this is how we got to shore everytime!! kids are off for showers and hanging out

Joel and Kyle from Liberty - more kids! we just finished walking on the breakwater and swimming with some turtles, fun fun

Trivia Question # 56578

WHO IS THIS MAN?

volcano time in Hawaii!!

Orca III and Malachi in Hilo at the wharf! this is the industrial area here and we have to be escorted of everytime we want to leave the area....

this is the crater at Mauna Loa observatory. that is lava you see!! very cool

and here we are at the lava tunnel! this is really neat. it is about 200 years old

its amazing that plants will grow in anything! these are all over the lava

lava diggers! Everone wants some , this is the lava flow from 1974, very neat

Maya picking some pretty lava. We got some that is very sparkly

heres where the lava hit the road, thats us in our car! tee hee

Isn't Graeme so strong!!

Yeah!!

on top of "old smokey" lava

lava everywhere! Uncle and Nephew on the black

the sea side of the lava see that steam way of in the distance, that is lava pouring into the ocean, we will be going around that at night on Wednesday to see it by boat on our way to the other side of the island - Kona side

Bye Bye Graeme, ! thanks for joining us on part of our journey - enjoy civilization!

fun at sea on our way to Hawaii

Its hot out, so Emma is playing in the bucket, she is such a ham!! things we do at sea!

we shared with Malachi! gave them half of the yellow fin, we did this a few times on this trip. poor Graeme thinks this must be the norm, oh so not true!!!

I mean look at those steaks! this guy was huge!!!

Fish On again!!!!!!!! right as we dropped the shark in , this big around 70lbs yellow fin tuna!!

next day - Fish ON!!!! ooh my a shark, look at him - he went back!!

a Mahi Mahi!! this was fish #2 that day, these are really pretty fish, mate for life and turn grey when they die. very sad to see but taste delisious!

just look at how calm the ocean can be! one of our motoring days on route to Hawaii!

sunset at sea !

the treasure of gold at the end of the rainbow! malachi took this of us in Moorea! a once in a life time shot...............

Picture time ! Tahiti to Tikihau

thanks to all of you who have been following us!! we have finally been able to post some pictures - also thanks for your comments ! we love to read them, we have been having fun here in Hilo and have lots more pictures for you, enjoy! please be patient, cause the intenet here at the boat is not so good! has been a real pain. lucky day today to be able to post pictures finally! Graeme has left us, flew home last night - we miss him already! thanks Graeme for joining us and all your help. today is a clean the boat and low key day, we have been going and going since we got here. We have to be escorted out and in everytime we want to leave to land . we are in a commercial area - Hilo Port. the security people are great, more later.........

here are some photos from Tahiti to Tikihau, from there we left to Hilo, we had a great time in Tikihau, one of the greenest Tuamotu we have seen! and lots of pretty flowers

the kids! love that Kyle don't ya- what is with boys!!

Dingy rides to land in Tikihau! Malachi and Orca III - the only boats here!

Bakery in Tikihau - last time for the cheap baquettes! good, cause we are getting tired of those!

yep thats Orca III out there between the trees, pretty , eh!?

the Tremblay Duo - Graeme and Steve on land in Tikihau

one of the many , many gorgeous sunsets at sea!

Princess Emma, we all took turns ( girls that is,) wearing the crown and lai, even Malachi had a turn

Graeme and Maya in crows nest under way to Tikihau, Tuamotu

Maya's turn with the flowers!

Dionne the queen in Tahiti!! haha, I bought these flowers cause they are so pretty , we all enjoyed them and they smelled so beautiful. this was from the market in Papeete Tahiti, just before we left for the Tuamotus.

In HIlo Hawaii!!!!!

yeah , we made it!! have internet for a brief time. ! happy to be on land, we are tied next to Malachi, already rented a car to share with them and will be off to see lava, volcanoes tonight. more exploring tomorrow - Graeme is leaving us soon.
we arrived yesterday around 9 am, got checked in and off we went to do all the laundry - 16 laods!! they have this very cool laundry mat- washing machines ,driers - wow! we loved it, no more hand washing!!!!!!!!!!! we went to the mongolian grill for late late lunch, early supper, then off Marg and I went to walmart and safeway! what a treat to go to somewhere we know! came back to a cruiser party on the warf - Steve serving our tuna to all, raw with wasabi and soya - what a hit as no one else caught any fish - so they loved it. turns out there are 3 other boats here with teenagers , so heaps more kids!! everyone doing well,

trying to post pictures but no luck, will try later

almost there

Well we are only 16 hours away from being tied to the dock in Hilo!! still no land in site - just over 100 miles to go , am amazed that we can't see it as the volcanoes are almost 14,000 ft high! yesterday was our best day for miles travelled in 24 hrs - we did 180!!!! new record! the last 4 days we have made awesome time!! but we are tired of leaning and waves splashing. I have bruises everywhere from falling off waves! this has been a long passage. our guess is because we have spent so much time at sea from leaving NZ - 22 days to Tubuai, stopped there for 4 days, then 3.5 days to Tahiti, ( between Moorea and Tahiti we were there 2 weeks) then 2 days to Tikihu Tuamotus - stayed 1 day 2 nights before we left for Hawaii - 18 days , so around 44 days at sea alone, so glad we are stopping in Hawaii for just over 3 weeks! we need the rest!!!!!!

tomorrow morning we will be in Hilo - will post pictures to the blog asap. laundry is first!

update from Orca III

Hello everybody!!!

we are making great headway! have been doing 7-8 knts for the last many days and we expect to be in Hilo by Tuesday! Yeah!!! we did 163 miles yesterday in the last 24 hrs and expect the same today! this is excellent. have seeen lots of flying fish! and last night on my and Mayas watch had one come into the cockpit - flippin and a flapp'n all over the place. I finally picked him up and threw him back. the other day we had a squid on our cabin top! we are healed over 15-20 degrees all day and night , it will be fun trying to walk on land again! Graeme and Emma have had fun drawing faces on her toes and then shapes and flowrs on her leg. Everything is salty and I can hardly wait to get the laundry done.we have a ton!! mostly sheets and pillow cases and many many towels.

well that's it for now, too hard to type on this angle.

ps couldn't send this yesterday - broken connection from ham to computer - Steve fixed it today - yesterday was our top miles travelled in 24 hours 168.7!!!!! that is a record for Orca III

we are still having a nice sail, today is even better the wind is from the east. less leaning and waves. all are doing excellent! hoping to see whales soon

getting closer and closer to hilo

just a quick update. we are sailing in lovely wind and the sun is out! yesterday we had rain , rain, rain, wind more wind, and confused seas!! that was the ITCZ area but now we are out of it!! looks like if we keep up this speed June 9 evening will be our land fall. we are all looking forward to arriving in Hawaii. one of the boats just a head of us broke their forestay and have jerry rigged it up - also managed to get a hold of the US coast guard just in case they need any assistance. so all is good.
we are madly eating all the frozen meat - last night everyone pigged out on steak! nothing else to say, all are well on board , malachi is just ahead of us by about 1-2 miles . I think we have done our last handwashing forever! its out drying on the line now, and we only did it because we took a ton of water in the galley and head yesterday - so all the towels have been done. I am never handwashing again, I swear I have arthritis in my hands from all the wringing!

take care,
Dionne

current position

07 37.7N 144 01.3W
6 knots
COG 338T

more updates from the sailing vessel orca 3

well we have been making fantastic time! did 153 miles yesterday ! the wind right now is beautiful! about 15-18 knots, very calm seas and we are sailing along at 7 knots- have the hatches open, washed the cockpit from all its salt and doing a cleaning job inside. hardly leaning, and a very pleasant sail! last night on my watch the boat during a squall got to 9.7 knots! but with the calm seas it was fine. did roll the genoa in though and still all night we did 7 knots, if we keep this up we will be in Hilo in 7 days, 17 hrs and 45 minutes!!

Still close to Malachi - enjoying making up songs to tunes we know , just had the shackle on the boom vang bust - loud noise! no biggy , steve has spares and it fixing it now, funny it would go now in this easy sail, glad that it did, makes it easier to fix.

trying desperately to eat all the meat in the freezer as we can not bring it into Hilo - Graeme the protein man is happy about this!

until next time
this will be Orca III charlie foxtrot golf 7565 clear