S/V L'ORIENT

Liquid Wind (our fuel bladders)  L'ORIENTals everywhere are celebrating our departure (Monday Mar 22) from Ko Olina. Our weather router (the venerable and highly esteemed "Bruce") has given us the green light and so tomorrow about 10:00 AM we will cast off on our 21 day (or so) odyssey from Oahu to Tahiti. Sounds exotic...........even a bit relaxing, right? Visions of pink drinks with umbrellas? Dolphins engaged in a Broadway-quality synchronized jumping routine ? The sail is actually quite challenging, complete with too much wind, not enough wind, wind from every direction, squalls, lightning, and of course multiple large wave trains........the initial problem being the Hawaiian Islands themselves reflecting and magnifying the trade winds. The first 3 days are bound to be rough- hopefully we haven't "gone soft" in our 48 weeks in Hawaii. Oh, and our departure corresponds with the whale migration season (they're going north), so we will be watching for s...

Honolulu- (we actually live around the corner) It's been a while, L'ORIENTals, but we've got some big news. On or about the end of this month (fingers crossed and God willing) we are hitting the road...........the dreaded Honolulu to Tahiti 3 week sail from hell. For those of you keeping score at home, this will be our 3rd time crossing the equator in 14 months. Move over, Magellan. The blizzard of French paperwork required to bust this move? Done. Boat work, provisioning, and systems testing? Under control.   Nevertheless, we're looking at this sail with eyes wide open. Three different boats we know have left Honolulu for French Polynesia and all have been beaten up quite a bit. One boat was hit in the cockpit with a wave so large, it inflated someone's life vest and activated her man overboard beacon. Gulp. This crew has taken to sticking their head outside the cockpit during squalls to rinse the salt off of their heads. Not our style, but we're getting ready ...

Oahu from the top of the Makapu'u lighthouse hike Well, it's good to be back (in an electronic, pixillated way at least). The L'ORIENTs have been busy, busy, busy so we'll catch you up. At our last post, we had fled from Oahu to Kauai (heaven on earth). A scenic bay, a river for exploring, great food scene, and super nice residents. And why not be chipper in Hanalei Bay? The poorest family lives in a $5 million dollar beach front home. But Neptune never takes his eyes off you for too long. We were warned by the locals that there's a good reason that big wave surfing championships take place in Hanalei Bay. In Winter with a north swell you get 40 ft waves. Gulp. As August turned into late September, we began noticing locals surfing closer and closer to our boat as the break expanded. Time to leave- so we headed back to Ko Olina Marina in Oahu, our Pacific base. Hanalei Bay in Kauia- our favorite place (so far) Boat projects and important socializing with yachtee frie...

Sunset on our own personal river With Hurricane Douglas off upsetting whales and sea-birds (or whatever these things do when they can't find land or ships to destroy) we set about figuring out what should be next. This being the year 2020, fate again intervened. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, Hawaii had largely escaped due to its isolation and quick lock-down by Governor Ige (which I believe stands for I 'm G etting E lected). But with an economy dependent on tourism, they couldn't stay locked down forever. The government's solution was a phased opening..........first of restaurants, beaches, bars, and certain businesses; and if/when that worked, the end of the 14 day quarantine for arrivals from the mainland. Tourism would flourish and businesses would be saved. If you miss mowing your lawn one week, this is what happens in Kauai Prior to a title defense fight, a reporter told Mike Tyson that his opponent had a plan to beat him. Without missing a beat,...

Every rope and fender we own is deployed; now we wait and  hope The only people who understand that reference are readers from Western New York who live and (mostly) die with the fortunes of their beloved Buffalo Bills (see 1991 Super Bowl's last play). Anyway, I'll explain why it's apt. Hawaii is the most remote population center in the world. 1.5 million people live thousands of miles from the nearest land. In short, a small and remote target for a hurricane. Only two hurricanes have made a Hawaiian landfall in the past 50 years. But this being the year 2020, Hurricane Douglas came across the Pacific like a heat seeking missile, tracking directly towards Oahu. In fact, one weather model had the eye of the hurricane passing right over our marina! Gulp. At the time this came to our attention we were in Kaua'i, roughly 90 miles to the northwest of Oahu. Hanalei Bay is completely exposed and winter swells produce 40 ft. waves just outside the bay. We didn't t...

New financial strategy- run to the end of rainbows and mug leprechauns On L'ORIENT we celebrated the fact that 2020 is half over and reminisced about our plans as they stood on the eve of this year. "Plan" has actually found its way on the L'ORIENT banned word list, along with statements like "the boat's running perfectly", "the weather looks great", and "the stock market is up". This year has taught us that nothing stays planned and flexibility is important. Jaw dropping beauty on NW coast of Kaua'i So how do the NW Central Pacific's most important life-style blogging cruisers cope, you ask ? We've taken a page from nature actually........the humble ostrich. Kirstin and I now boycott almost all news. Information now comes to us from books. Our stress levels? Down 50%. Coronavirus cases exploding all throughout the US ? Not on L'ORIENT. Kirstin is learning French online and I'm reading Wodehouse. Try it.......it wo...