After a couple of really nice days in Pokai Bay, it was time to move on. After morning phone calls and emails, we lifted the anchor and headed up the west coast bound for Haleiwa on Oahu’s north shore.
Heading out of Pokai Bay & ready to go sailing
We were expecting the wind and waves to build and be on our nose once we rounded Kaena Point and turned east along the north shore. And sure enough, the forecast was spot on. Madrone and crew enjoyed a fun, wet, and wavy close reach under single reefed main and full jib. We decided to add a reef to the jib when our port rail started spending time in the water.
A squall approaching- great for rinsing the boat with freshwater!
After an hour or so, Angie headed down below to check on “things”. Not surprisingly after all the heeling, a few settee cushions were on the cabin sole, Angie’s felted wool whales had left their perch, a few dishes were rattling in the cupboard, and what is that??? Static coming from the stereo speakers? The stereo isn’t even turned on…
The navigation panel off & the felted wool whales restored to their perch
After further investigation Angie found a bit of salt water on the navigation station. Bad news. Not only does the stereo live there, but our autopilot controller, VHF radio, AIS transceiver, watermaker controller- pretty much all of the important electronics onboard reside behind the panel. We both knew right away that our midship chock, which we had tried to seal in Honolua Bay, was to blame for the saltwater leak. Ugh.
Investigating behind the navigation panel
We immediately turned downwind and headed back to Pokai Bay so we could survey the damage, clean up, and address the leaking chock. Once we were back at anchor we removed the nav panel and had a look. It appears that we may have dodged a bullet- only our stereo took a direct hit. So far, the rest of the electronics are working like normal, and there are only a few saltwater drips in one corner of the compartment.
Luckily for us, the hardware store in Waianae is open until 7pm – we dinghied in for some supplies and are geared upto tackle the chock tomorrow. Hope we have better luck this time…
