Madrone pulled out of Hanalei Bay at about 1pm local time yesterday. After days of prep work and obsessing over the weather conditions and forecast, the actual departure is anticlimactic. We just pull up the anchor, raise the sails, and head out of the bay to exactly zero fanfare.
After all of our scrutiny, the weather forecast actually under predicted the wind a bit. We had a screaming close reach into 15-20knots of breeze with 6+’ waves. After taking a few waves completely over the cockpit dodger and cover, we decided it was time to shorten sail. That helped settle things down, and we had a mostly uneventful first night aboard. Mike got a bit cold on the overnight watch, so he had to supplement his surf trunks with a T shirt for warmth.
We’ve now found an area with sunny skies, 12-15 knots of breeze, and only 4-5′ waves. All’s well aboard Madrone.
Day One: 142 nm (only 23 hours in day one)
Position: 24 34’N 159 12’W
