It’s day 11 of our trip to Hawaii and it has been less than pleasant, scratch that, crappy. The last Hawaii run I did was back in March/April and we had our share of bad days, but once we got down low enough in latitude, the weather improved, the seas become calm and blue and it was actually nice out. This trip has been nothing but hell.
We started off out of Juan de Fuca with some pretty heavy seas, which are always to be expected, then we battled headwinds all the way down the western seashore because of a low pressure system farther out. As we got down below the pressure system, it followed us and we ended up just having headwinds for a few more days. Then, the system appeared to be dissipating and things were looking good, but then it picked up again and started following us farther. At one point, it got so windy and nasty that we just had to point our nose into the wind, throttle down to idle and sit in place for a day, probably moved backwards quite a bit as well. It was gusting 40-50 with 30’ seas and the ride was absolutely nauseating.
The 2nd Mate and I were discussing how much were hating the Hawaii run and were amazed that these regular guys can put up with this trip year round. But then, just when we thought we were being wimps about it, we happen to see an email that the Captain sent to the main office. It went something like this. “The weather has been bad and this has been THE TRIP FROM HELL”. So, after reading that and knowing that this is somewhat of an anomaly I feel better about my wimpy-ness. This captain strictly does the Hawaii run and has been for many years, so if he says this is bad stuff, then I feel better about myself.
A while ago, I stepped outside the back hatch to get some air and as I look out off the starboard side, all I could see was swell after swell coming at us. As they approach the boat, you look up at the crest of the wave about 10’ higher than you and it makes you feel pretty insignificant as they crash over the back end of the deck.
The good news is that, the stalking low-pressure system appears to have given up on us and we are finally leaving it behind as we finish up our last 800 mile leg into Honolulu. The winds are slowly coming around behind us and the ride is starting to smooth a little into a gentle surfing action. The pounding over the past week has been hard to sleep with. You have to wedge something under your mattress to cradle you in, otherwise your body gets tossed back and forth, waking you up every other minute.
The icing on the cake for the week, was that our A/C unit blew a refrigerant hose today, so we have no A/C until we can get into port and get it fixed. Luckily, the air temps are too warm yet and it’s not unbearable. The upper deck staterooms get a bit warm because they are near the stack, but mine is below and insulated slightly.
Today is our cook’s 58th birthday, so the engineer made him a really cool chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and cream cheese frosting. He even drew a picture of his custom van on the top that turned out quite awesome. I built him a pretty cool little key fob out of some small stuff that I had and added a nice stainless shackle and a turk’s head to finish it off, then wrapped it up in a paper towel and tied it off with some fancy string. He was totally stoked that I took the time to make him something for his day.
Cornish game hens for dinner. Hopefully my appetite comes out to play.
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