Ti Marick - A Hawaiian Stopover

Who: Marie, Patrick, Erwan
Where: Hawaï
Multihull: Outremer 4X
Blog : www.followingsea.net/blog/ Ti%20Marick 

After Hilo, we headed for Maui, before sailing to the windward side of the north coast, on a port tack. The crossing of the channel was a little more challenging and the breeze, reinforced by the Venturi effect, got the better of our gennaker. After a night’s stop near Makena, (a not very safe anchorage because of the lava seabed), we set off again towards Lahaina. What a shock it was to see all these tourists in the streets. Had we turned into savages? At the airport, we rented a car to discover the island. The landscapes are grandiose and very tropical. We then left for Oahu. The crossing was lively until the western tip of Molokai, and then it became... very lively! The wind was gusting from 30 to 40 knots, fortunately downwind initially, and then it gradually shifted to the beam, in a rough sea. We ate up the miles at speeds ranging from 12 to 17 knots. We then discovered Honolulu and its famous Waikiki beach, the Diamond Head, the mythical surfer beaches, and the Bishop Museum. We then headed northwest to Kaui. We found the Hawaiian Islands very different from each other, whether it is their geology or the atmosphere that prevails there. On the other hand, they are not very pleasant to sail around, as there are no mooring facilities, few marinas, and even fewer safe anchorages. We only met one sailboat on our trip. They were Canadians (Maple, also contributors to these pages) who were on their way home to British Columbia. Kaui was our last stop before California. Yes, our stay in the Hawaiian Islands was over and we resumed our journey, preferably towards San Francisco, depending on the weather, otherwise it will be further south, perhaps Los Angeles. A little more than 2,200 miles to go on the direct route, but in practice probably much more, as we were going to have to go north to get around a very changeable high-pressure area, before reaching the North American coast.