Sailing with Dummies (Hawaii to Alaska Edition)
Day 3 (Sunday, June 15)
by Mike
This morning we weighed anchor about 5:00a and took off by sail toward Kaula
isle. In light wind we moved along at 5-6 knots and covered the 18 miles in
about 3.5 hours. As we neared the island the wind got fresh with us.
It was too windy and wavy to consider anchoring, much less scuba diving.
However, viewing the island was magnificent. Birds were everywhere, flying
above and around the 500 ft cliffs, roosting on the cliffs and ledges, and
flying around the boat. We made 1.75 slow laps around the island before
moving on.

Our next stop was only 45 minutes away. Out in the middle of the water is a
place called "five fathom pinnacle." It's where there's almost an island. In
fact, it probably was one but sunk over the years. Now its peak is five
fathoms (30 feet) below the surface.

We got to spot on the map where the pinnacle is shown and the depth read
over 200 feet. That's fairly shallow, considering the depths in the
surrounding waters are thousands of feet. But it's much too deep to anchor
and dive. So we drove the boat around the area looking for a shallower spot.
While we were doing this Bob got on top and spotted a shallow looking area
nearby. We went there and sure enough the depth climbed gradually to 35
feet.

We quickly dropped 150 feet of anchor chain hoping the anchor would snag
something. It did!

The swell was big. Bob and I put on our scuba gear and planned our dive. The
current looked weak, but for safety we decided to swim to the front of the
boat and follow the anchor chain down to the bottom.

Boy were we surprised. The current was moving almost as fast as we could
swim. That meant an all out sprint to get from the 10 feet behind the boat
to 15 feet in front of the boat to grab the chain. The boat being 52 feet
long made for a 77 foot swim. It … seemed … like … it … took … forever … to
… get … to … the … back … of … the … boat. Whew! Only 67 feet left to go.
When we finally got to the chain, it was almost dangerous to hold onto since
it was surging up and down with the motion of the boat. I held on
intermittently and pulled myself along. Bob kept swimming. We eventually
made it to the anchor 90 feet down and about 150 feet in front of the boat.
By then my air was down to2100 pounds (from 3000). And I was still breathing
hard.

The visibility was great. And there were lots of fish. Colorful ones. We
swam around for a few minutes. The pinnacle was off to the right when
looking into the current. We swam upwards toward the pinnacle a bit and I
decided to call it quits, my air at 1400 by then. Bob followed me up and we
ended the short dive. For a short, difficult, dive, it was a good one. A
memorable one.

After our dive Josh and Melinda kayaked around the boat. It's fun to kayak
in big waves. It got funner for them when a monk seal started swimming along
with them. According to everyone else on the boat (yes, I was ignorant of
the fact the monk seal is really rare – maybe 2000 total left). So this was
a big deal.

This was our last stop before Midway Island. Depending on the wind speed,
and direction, we should get there in 5-9 days. Winds are pretty light
around here now since a trough (I don't know what that is, but the computer
voice on the weather radio said so) was messing up the normal trade winds.
We took off sailing and over the next several hours we began to have more
space on the boat as wet clothes, scuba stuff, etc. was dried and stowed. By
evening it was very pleasant weather, a decent breeze, a nice sunset, and
plenty of places to sit.

Daily Cuisine:
The highlight of today's eating was Josh's chocolate/banana cake. Also
worthy of note, Bob whipped up some turkey sandwiches around midday.

Fishing Report:
No bites. But we did fish today. Since there's no fishing allowed in the
national park that surrounds Midway, and we will be entering that tomorrow,
the fishing report will likely be mundane for the next couple of weeks.

Arts and Entertainment:
Today I decided to grab the baritone and take a crack at the trumpet solos
in Penny Lane. I admit that I struggled at first. But by the time Bob got it
playing on the stereo I had it pegged. I played along with it and I think I
nailed i. Bob said something about it but I couldn't quite hear him. I think
it was a compliment.

Day three and communication lines are still wide open on the Minnow. In
addition to Bob commenting on my baritone playing, Josh asked me where to
find the baker's chocolate.