This morning, after eleven nights at sea, we arrived at Hilo, Hawaii. Although our ultimate destination is Honolulu, we chose to make landfall here partly because Hilo is about 200 miles closer, but mainly because its easier to clear Spitfire in at Hilo through Hawaii's Direct Airport Release program.

We had a great trip--the weather this time was the best of any of our offshore runs. The worst weather of the whole run was last night, when we had to tread water in rough seas to wait for daylight to enter the harbor. But we now are med-moored to the seawall at Radio Bay and Spitfire has cleared through with Hawaii Animal Quarantine. Tomorrow we'll clear with the Department of Agriculture and take on a load of diesel.

Mark Abril sent us a nice suprise with pictures he took of our arrival. On the left picture we are entering Radio Bay, with the cruise ship Pride of America in the background, and on the right we are pulling back towards the sea wall with the anchor down.

And below these is our log of the trip. You also display these on the map view.

10/25/2012: Golden Gate We've just passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and are headed out to sea. Conditions so far look excellent.

10/25/2012: Last view of land Our last view of land for the next couple of weeks. And our who know when Dirona will be back in North America?

10/25/2012: Farralon Islands A little bit more land. This really will be our last for the next couple of weeks.

10/25/2012: Porpoises A large pod of porpoises chased our bow on and off for about an hour.

10/25/2012: SCF Prime Just before 3pm today, the Crude oil tanker SCF Prime crossed our path about a mile ahead of us going north at 13.6 kts. When 6 miles away to our north, he appeared to go dead in the water. His speed fell to a 2-kt drift and twice a big cloud of black came out out of his exhaust. It looks like something big may have failed suddenly. Forty minutes later, he still was adrift at 0.3 kts.

10/25/2012: Sunset Our first sunset of the trip. The seas have picked up a bit, but conditions still are decent. MaxSea's GRIB data has been spot-on so far--it predicted 6' seas from the north on 8-second period with winds at 18 knots and that's pretty much what we're seeing.

10/26/2012: Sunrise The sun is up and conditions settled a bit overnight. We've got maybe 3-foot swells from the north, and 20 knots of wind behind us. Very nice.

10/26/2012: Sunset Sunset #2. The waves have picked up a bit to 5 feet, with wind 20 from the north. Not quite as smooth a ride as earlier today, but still comfortable. Outside temp is 67F, but it feels warmer.

10/27/2012: Passenger We found this little bird tucked against the starboard outside steps leading up to the pilot house. He might have flown into the day head window and hurt himself. We tried lifting him to see if he'd fly--he spread his wings, but didn't try to fly. We have him setup on the cockpit cabinet where the engine room vents to keep him warm, and gave him a little water in a small dish. He's a clumsy walker on slippery fiberglass, but that might be normal. Hopefully he'll recover soon and fly off.

10/27/2012: Sunset Sunset #3. Conditons continue to be excellent with 5 knots of wind and a 1-2-foot northwestly swell.

10/28/2012: Calm seas The winds have been less than five knots all night, with a barely perceptable ocean swell. The sea is now blue, rather than the greeny-grey we're used to in the Pacific Northwest. This certainly is the calmest and most enjoyable offshore run we we''ve made. Last night we had to make two course corrections: one to avoid a 4-foot orange buoy and another for the containership Matson Maunalei. With an ocean this big, its amazing we would both be in the same place at the same time but we had to turn off for 3 to 5 min as we were on a collision course.

10/28/2012: Buoy This morning we passed another buoy, this one about 18" in diameter.

10/28/2012: Underway We've been underway for 81 hours and are almost 600 miles offshore. The ocean swell is now about 5', but the waves are so far apart that the motion is quite gentle and comfortable. In a couple of days we'll be passing through the southern end of a 998mb low pressure system that is tracking northeast towards the southern BC coast. We're likely to see 12' seas, but on a 10-sec period, so that shouldn't be too bad.

10/28/2012: Sunset Sunset #4. Winds still are below 5 knots. The swell has picked up to around 8', but the waves are at least 10 seconds apart, so there's not much boat motion.

10/29/2012: Lunchtime We've switched to Hawaii time, so it's time for lunch. We brought along a selection of packaged noodle dishes for lunch. We prefer rice and noodle dishes underway--they're filling and easy to digest.

10/30/2012: Afternoon conditions The waves are starting to come from WSW now--a little less on the nose and a little more on the beam. The roll guage shows that progress: 12 hours ago we were rolling around 5 degrees, now it's up to 10. The waves still are pretty big: 9-10' on 5-second period. But the winds are starting to fall off--from consistently 20-25 knots to 15-20 knots, so hopefully the waves will follow suit. And we're starting to pick speed a bit too.

10/30/2012: Squall Just passed through a squall. The sudden downpour was over almost as soon as it started.

10/30/2012: Evening conditions The winds have dropped to 10-15 knots. The waves still are 9-10 feet, but now are 8-10-seconds apart, so we're able to pick up speed and maintain our target fuel economy. Fair bit of boat motion though--have to be careful moving around. We're making good use of the extra grab bars we installed in the stairwell, galley, shower and day head. The temperature has been rising steadily as we proceed south--it's 76F after sunset.

10/31/2012: Dawn Conditions have continued to improve. The waves still are 9-10 feet and 8-10-seconds apart, but the wind has dropped to less than 10 knots. Boat motion has reduced considerably, so moving around much easer. The forecast indicates continued improvement for the next couple of days and waves dropping to 5-6 feet. We might have a brief period with bigger waves a couple of days out of Hilo, but the period should be at least 10 seconds.

10/31/2012: Buoy Just had to change course slightly to avoid this small orange buoy.

10/31/2012: Another passenger Our bird eventually flew away the night we found him. This fish doesn't look as lucky.

10/31/2012: Smooth seas We're over halfway across now, with only triple-digit miles remaining. The sun is shining, winds are less than 5 knots, and we've got a gentle 5-7-foot ocean swell from the northwest. Very nice.

10/31/2012: Sunset Sunset #6. The wind is picking up a bit from the southeast, but still is below 10 knots.

10/31/2012: Happy hour Virgin Mai Tais at sunset to celebrate crossing the halfway mark, and Jennifer's birthday.

11/1/2012: Sunrise Conditions reasonably calm--a gentle 3-foot swell and winds less than 5.

11/1/2012: Fresh fruit We have a cup of fresh fruit every morning before breakfast. Strawberries will last several weeks in our fridge, and we also carry a swack of Del Monte Fruit Naturals fruit cups.

11/1/2012: Tire Just passed this tire--looks like its been floating out there a while. We've been in lumpy seas most of the morning with 10-15-knot winds and waves on the bow. The wind is just starting to veer to WSW and putting the waves more on the beam, so the ride is smoothing out.

11/1/2012: Squall We passed through another brief sqaull. The wind clocked up from 15 to 20+ knots, rain poured and the whole thing was over in about 5 minutes.

11/1/2012: Albatross We've seen a few albatrosses over the past week. Amazing how far they range from land.

11/1/2012: Testing the wing We start the wing engine every few days to make sure it's running ok in case we need it.

11/1/2012: Sunset Sunset #7. Its very dark once the sun sets, but a couple of hours later a nearly-full moon rises behind us. The moon lights up the deck so much that we initially thought our night running shield had torn off the forward-facing floodlight.

11/1/2012: Spitfire don't care We've been running against tight 5-6-foot waves on the bow most of the day, with a fair bit of pitching motion as we power through them. Not a big deal, but do need to hold on carefully as we move about. Spitfire, doing his best Honey Badger imitation, just wedges himself somewhere and ignores it. In this picture, he's on the ledge below the starboard corner pilothouse window above the stateroom stairs.

11/2/2012: Another fish Found another fish just outside the port pilothouse door this morning, near where we found the first one. That's a long way to jump up.

11/2/2012: Sunrise Conditions starting to feel decidedly Hawaiian now: temperature in the high 70s night and day, a consistent warm breeze, and a gentle ocean swell. The models indicate the wind and waves might pick up a bit later today and tomorrow, but mostly should be pretty smooth sailing for the remainder of the trip. Only 675 more miles to go.

11/2/2012: Sunset Sunset #8. Conditions remained excellent throughout the day: calm and sunny with a warm tropical breeze.

11/3/2012: Wind The wind has come up in the night and now is blowing steady 20 from the southeast. Waves are about 8' on 5 seconds on the beam. We're mostly just powering through them, however, and aren't losing much speed. Fair bit of boat motion, but the stabilizers are doing their job, and its not uncomfortable. Model indicates winds will ease off by this afternoon.

11/3/2012: Coming out of night mode Just coming out of night mode in the pilothouse as the sun is rising. We don't have to do much: undim the AIS, VHF, autopilot, stabilizer, engine and hydraulics panels, and remove the night shields from the monitors. In this picture, the navigation software still is in dusk mode. In particular we run the radar (2nd from the right) with a blue background, instead of white in day mode.

11/3/2012: Sunrise The wind has lessened a bit, but conditions haven't improved much. We're 500 miles from Hilo though--3/4 of the way there. Looks like we'll arrive sometime on Tuesday the 6th.

11/3/2012: Maunalei Containership Maunalei en route to Hawaii about five miles off to starboard. We saw this ship docked at Oakland when we were at Jack London Square. The only other traffic we've seen the whole trip after our first day out has been container ships, about one every two days. Most have been travelling to/from Hawaii and the US Pacific coast, but one passed about five miles in front on a northerly course to Japan.

11/3/2012: Lunch Chitarra with sauteed pine nuts for lunch. Conditions have settled down--winds are now blowing less than ten from the southwest and the waves are 3-5' on 9-seconds on the beam. Boat motion gentle. Temperature is steady 78F, day and night.

11/3/2012: Sunset Sunset #9. We're getting a push from the current now, and are making excellent speed. A little over 400 miles to go. We might actually have to slow down to avoid arriving at night.

11/3/2012: Passenger A large seabird took up roost on the night running shield for our forward-facing floodlight, and probably was responsible for the bird crap all over our dinghy cover. Neither turning the light on nor sounding the horn distrubed it. Eventually we tried nudging it off with the boat hook, and it squawked and fought back. At that point we were worried it might be hurt, but eventually it grudgingly flew off. Riding is just easier the flying I guess.

11/4/2012: Morning Not much of a sunrise this morning--sky all grey with rain clouds behind us. Conditions excellent though, and we're making good speed. Just over 300 miles left to go. Keep thinking can see lights or land out there, but nothing yet.

11/4/2012: Rain A welcome rainshower has washed away some of our salty crust--we were really coated.

11/4/2012: Another fish Found another fish on the boat this morning.

11/4/2012: Sunset Sunset #10. Just over 200 miles to go. Conditions calm and getting a nice push from the current.

11/5/2012: Rain We're 125 miles out of Hilo now--still can't see land though. It's 84F outside, and we've just passed through one of the brief rainshowers that are common on the windward coast of the Big Island. All the better to rinse away the salt. A few people have asked why we chose to make landfall at Hilo rather than our final destination of Honolulu. Partly Hilo is about 200 miles closer, but the main reason is that its easier to clear Spitfire in at Hilo through Hawaii's Direct Airport Release program.

11/5/2012: Elliott Bay The bulker Elliott Bay (interestingly the same name as the harbor off downtown Seattle where we last moored). The first ship we've seen for two days and we were on a collision course. We radioed them to make passing arrangements and they altered course to pass behind us. We're 68 miles out of Hilo now, but still can't see land--it's pretty clouded in up there.

11/5/2012: Sunset Sunset #11. Not much of a sunset for our last one of the trip. We're now 45 miles from Hilo and still can't see land for the clouds. We'll be arriving after dark, not ideal, but the harbor is well-marked and well-charted. And we can light up the world with floodlights all around. We'll be careful, and if conditions don't feel safe, we'll wait for morning.

11/6/2012: Big waves The seas continued to build overnight--we experienced frequent 20-degree rolls.

11/6/2012: Sunrise One more sunrise before we land.

11/6/2012: Big Island First view of the Big Island in daylight. And with a rainbow--that has to be good luck.

11/6/2012: Aloha Med-moored to the seawall in Radio Bay, Hilo, Hawaii.

Yesterday morning we topped off Dirona’s fuel tanks, put on the storm plates, and locked down the outside furniture. We just cast off from Jack London Square in Oakland and are underway for Hilo, Hawaii. You can track the voyage on the real-time plot at  http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.

We've been monitoring weather conditions for a couple of weeks (via the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center, the US Navy Forecast Models, and GRIB data downloaded into our chartplotter program, MaxSea). It looks like we'll have pretty decent conditions for the run. The video below shows a visualization of our route in MaxSea through modelled weather conditions using downloaded GRIB data. The GRIB data includes model wind speed, barometric pressure, and wave height, period and direction. The green areas are 5-8' seas, yellow is 9-11', and orange is 12-17' seas. The model shows 5-8' seas for most of the route, with a few points at 10'. And where we do see larger waves, the wave period is 10-11 seconds. Weather data isn't really accurate much beyond five days, so conditions could deteriorate, but so far it looks good.

The decision to spend a few weeks in San Francisco before crossing to Hawaii worked out very well. We'll skip some of the nastier weather that we've been watching hit the northwest coast of Washington state these past few weeks, and we had a great time exploring the Bay area. Below are some of what we've seen, and you also can display these on the map view.

09/12/12: Westpoint Harbor Marina Lunch on deck in our new temporary home. Westpoint Harbor Marina is an impressive new facility with excellent services.

9/14/2012: Quarry Beach, Angel Island State Park We're anchored off the Quarry Beach, south of the remains of Fort McDowell. The anchorage is suprisingly sheltered, given how exposed it looks on the chart. One of the reasons we stopped here is the view in the other direction: to downtown San Franciso and the Bay Bridge. It should look amazing at night.

9/15/2012: Sausalito Police Sausalito Police boat off Pt. Blunt with our view to San Francisco in the background.

9/15/2012: Racoon The US Army Corps of Engineers landing craft Racoon, with a Sausalito Police escort, landed at the dock just south of our anchorage. Several dozen people got off, probably for a tour.

9/15/2012: Outriggers Perhaps twenty outriggers rounded the point later that morning.

9/15/2012: Fort McDowell We set off on a tour of the bay, first around Angel Island. More of the remains of Fort McDowell are visible north of Quarry Point.

9/15/2012: Winslow Cove Old immigration station buildings at Winslow Cove. Several boats were anchored there--the cove has good wind shelter.

9/15/2012: Ayala Cove Ayala Cove is the busiest anchorage on the island. The park has docks and mooring bouys here. To maximize the number of boats on the buoys, boats tie a both bow and stern to different bouys.

9/15/2012: Sailing Sailboats filled the bay--outnumbering powerboats by at least 20:1. The predictable afternoon winds make sailing popular.

9/15/2012: Steep hills Those famous San Francisco hills.

9/15/2012: Camp Reynolds The US Army established Camp Reynolds, south of Point Knox, in 1864.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Bridge Back under the bridge.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Yacht Club Home of the America's Cup.

9/15/2012: Ghiradelli building

9/15/2012: Sea lions Sea lions at pier 39.

9/15/2012: The Bay Rocket This boat moves!

9/15/2012: US Navy One of two well-armed US Navy boats that sped past.

9/15/2012: Racing About thirty Porche's and a handful of other cars were running the course at the west end of Almeda Island.

9/15/2012: Hanjin Berlin The Hanjin Berlin unloading at the Port of Oakland.

9/15/2012: Crane operator

9/15/2012: Passing under both Bay Bridges The new Bay bridge is currently under construction beyond the existing bridge.

9/15/2012: Heeled over Sailboat off Treasure Island.

9/15/2012: Richardson Bay The city view from our anchorage at Richardson Bay is even better than last night.

9/15/2012: Gray Matter We had dinner with Christine Guo and Mark Mohler aboard Gray Matter, anchored a short distance away. Mark and Christine had just completed the same trip we did, from Sidney B.C., a couple of weeks earlier.

9/21/2012: Space Shuttle Endeavour The Space Shuttle Endeavour viewed from our flybridge at Westpoint Harbor Marina. The shuttle, mounted to the back of NASA's modified 747, made a low pass over San Francisco this morning en route to its new home at the California Science Center.

9/22/2012: Dumbarton Bridge Heading under the Dumbarton Bridge. We decided to take a short cruise south to anchor for the night. The morning is warm, sunny and calm.

9/22/2012: Bridge supports The criss-crossing supports for the Dumbarton Bridge look rather elegant.

9/22/2012: Aqueduct This aqueduct presumably is for carrying saltwater to the salt ponds.

9/22/2012: Old railway bridge The chart says this railway bridge is permanently open. We can see why--the bridge is rotting away. And at the shore end, the bridge just ends in old pilings.

9/22/2012: Coyote Creek Enjoying the sunny morning on the bow, anchored at the mouth of Coyote Creek. Nearby, down Alviso Slough, is the once-bustling town of Alivso.

9/22/2012: Sunset Sunset with the lights of Palo Alto just starting to glow.

9/23/2012: Breakfast on deck Another calm, warm and sunny morning. This was an excellent anchorage--quiet, private and relaxing. Yesterday's prevailing afternoon winds generated some waves, but they were hardly noticable on board. And another bonus of being at anchor rather than docked is the bow faces into the wind, sheltering the cockpit.

9/28/2012: Robert G. Brownlee The Marine Science Institute research vessel Robert G. Brownlee heading up Redwood Creek as we departed. The 90-foot ship is designed for carrying school students, and a group was on board.

9/28/2012: Team Oracle Racing The Team Oracle Racing's AC72 catamaran out for one of the boat's first test runs. The huge boat, with a sail higher than 130 feet is incredibly fast. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Al Saracevic, following in a high-speed inflatable, reported their chase boat was doing 30 knots at one point and the catamaran was pulling away. Of the four chase boats we saw, some apparently were some manned by spies for the competition, including New Zealand's Emirates Team.

9/28/2012: Coast Guard rescue diver Nearby, the Coast Guard was practicing water rescues. The chopper was right near the waterline for ages. This video shows the diver retrieving the rescue dummy and being hoisted back up.

9/28/2012: Moore 24 National Championship We just barely made it in front of the South Beach Yacht Club's Moore 24 National Championship field as they headed east across the Bay.

9/28/2012: Good wind That steady afternoon Bay wind propels this contender between us and the Bay bridge.

9/28/2012: America Foss Beautiful tractor tug America Foss running south.

9/28/2012: Overseas Anacortes The tanker Overseas Anacortes leaving the tanker port at Point Richmond. The channel there is quite narrow--we passed close by.

9/28/2012: Marshall Foss Marshall Foss with a line running to the stern of the Overseas Anacortes.

9/28/2012: Richmond-San Rafael Bridge The 5.5-mile Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was one of the longest in the world when completed in 1959.

9/28/2012: East Brother Island Light Station The historic light station was build in 1873 and now is a bed-and-breakfast. That would be a wild place to stay.

9/28/2012: Intintoli The high-speed Baylink ferry Intintoli en route to San Francisco from Vallejo. Baylink runs a seemingly contstant stream of ferries from Vallejo-- we see several every time we're out in the bay.

9/28/2012: Rodeo oil refinery A view into the complexity of the Sonoco Phillips refinery at Rodeo. The refinery can produce 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

9/28/2012: C&H Sugar Refinery C&H sugar refinery just east of the Carquinez Bridge. We'll be seeing a lot more C&H facilities in a few weeks when we reach Hawaii.

9/28/2012: Traffic Entering Mare Island Strait behind Baylink'sthe high-speed ferry Solana, that passed us just before entering the strait. And exiting is Baylink's Vallejo.

9/28/2012: View homes These houses that wrong the shore and cliff must have awesome sunset views.

9/28/2012: Wreck Bait Me aground below the cliffs. The wind had been blowing a steady 20 knots from the southeast the past couple of hours. Looks like they can get a lot stronger.

9/28/2012: Shipyard cranes Mare Island once was a Naval shipyard, but now is private.

9/28/2012: Baylink terminal Solana moored at the Baylink's ferry terminal.

9/28/2012: Vallejo Marina Vallejo has a large marine that appears well-maintained.

9/28/2012: Mare Island Drawbridge The Mare Island Drawbridge has a vertical clearance is 13' closed. We expected we'd have to wait a while to get through, since it was close to rush-hour, but the operator opened the bridge right away after we radioed a lift request.

9/28/2012: Tug under Highway 37 bridge The current at both bridges was surprisingly strong, especially at the highway 37 bridge, where the current tended to push the boat north. This tug is coming through on an angle, presumably to work against that north push. We watched from our anchorage just north of Dutchman Slough. The tug anchored nearby around 7pm, then left again sometime in the middle of the night. We're guessing they were waiting for the tide to change.

9/28/2012: Sunset Sunset over the marshes alongside Napa River. The anchorage is a little more open than we were expecting, but we have plenty of swing room compared to anything farther up-river. And once we were settled in, especially after the evening lights came up ashore, we quite liked the spot.

9/29/2012: At anchor on the Napa River Taken from the dinghy before we ran up-river to Napa. It was going to be a beautiful day.

9/29/2012: Edgerly Island At Edgerly Island, the river narrows and feels more intimate. The island is rimmed with houses, docks and boats.

9/29/2012: River anchorage This powerboat was anchored mid-channel, where the river was calm and sheltered.

9/29/2012: Tug again That powerboat's anchorage seemed ideal, except when we went further up-river and saw the tug and barge that anchored near us last night. That would have been a tight squeeze if the powerboat was anchored overnight.

9/29/2012: Estuaries Just short of the city, a couple of estuaries lead off. Each was packed with houses, docks and boats and looked like very nice places to live.

9/29/2012: Waterfowl The river shores are full of wildlife. We didn't see any fish jump, not anyone catch anything, but lots of fishers were on the banks as well.

9/29/2012: Geese A gaggle of geese at Napa.

9/29/2012: Dinghy landing Surprisingly, Napa has nowhere to land a dingy, let alone a larger boat. So we landed at the edge of the Riverfront complex and scrambled up the rocks.

9/29/2012: Napa River from Napa View to the river from the Riverfront complext in downtown Napa.

9/29/2012: Downtown Joe's We had an excellent lunch on the riverfront patio at Downtown Joe's Brewery.

9/29/2012: Milagros We got thirsty after walking about downtown, so stopped for another pint on the patio at Milagros.

9/29/2012: Art Napa has lots of interesting artwork. This one is outside the County of Napa building.

9/29/2012: Wine train The Napa Valley Wine Train at the station.

9/29/2012: Sunset Sunset over Mare Island. We returned downriver to tour the waterfront off Vallejo.

9/29/2012: Coast Guard The area is well protected--three Coast Guard vessels and a police boat were moored at the north end of the marina.

9/29/2012: Dusk Dusk from our anchorage.

9/30/2012: Moonset Moonset the following morning.

9/30/2012: Sunrise

10/2/2012: Dawn Dawn from the boat deck at Westpoint Harbor. We moved the boat temporarily as the marina is bringing a truck in to fuel a number of boats today.

10/5/2012: South Beach Harbor We anchored off AT&T Park, just south of downtown San Franciso to take in Fleet Week and the America's Cup races. We weren't sure how rough the anchorage might get due to boat wakes and the the afternoon winds, but it turned to be fine. And our view, stretching from downtown San Francisco and across the Bay bridge was amazing. And we could see the America's Cup fleet moored nearby: in this panoramic photo their 70-foot masts are visible at the west end of the Bay bridge just left of the carrier USS Makin Island.

10/6/2012: Candlestick Point Yesterday we went to the Blue Angels show and the America's Cup races. Wow, we had a great time. Today the Giants are playing at AT&T stadium, so our anchorage was very busy with ferries from the Oakland side. We moved south to get a nice spot with beautiful views away from the crowds and distractions that we enjoyed so much yesterday. Candlestick Park, home of the San Francison 49ers, is in the background.

10/13/2012: Dawn Dawn looking east towards San Francisco. We anchored for the night just east of Golden Gate, tucked southeast of Fort Point. The occasional large wake bounced the boat a bit, but generally conditions were fine--similar to Blake Island Marine park off Seattle. And the view was amazing--San Francisco one way and the Golden Gate Bridge the other. At night, everything was aglow. Were we to be staying in the Bay area longer, we'd definately anchor here often.

10/13/2012: Sunrise Sunrise over San Francisco.

10/13/2012: Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge in the morning sun.

10/13/2012: Swimmers 180 swimmers were preparing to swim from the St. Francis Yacht Club to Aquatic Park--the large circular basin about a mile east.

10/13/2012: Oakland We're going to spend our last couple of weeks in Oakland for a change of pace. So far, we love it here. While we very much enjoyed the pristine and tranquil moorage at Westpoint Harbor Marina, here we're right in the action. We've got an end-tie with a view to all the passing boat traffic reminiscent of the Ballard Ship Canal in Seattle. We're also just east of the Oakland container port--we love watching the big ships come and go. And we're seconds from the restaurants and shops of Jack London Square, and close to the amenities in Oakland and Alameda.

10/14/2012: Sunset Sunset from our moorage, looking to the Oakland shipping terminal with the Bay bridge and San Francisco just visible in the background.

10/18/2012: Rowers Rowers at dawn, looking east from our boat deck.

10/18/2012: MSC Ivana Tugs turn the MSC Ivana at the container port. The maneuver must be carefully managed as the massive 366m ship barely fits lengthwise in the channel--that's shore right off the bow and stern.

10/23/2012: Groceries A cartload of groceries for the trip to Hawaii--we're on track to leave tomorrow. We just got the cart this week. It's light and easily folds flat for storage, and is super useful where no dock carts are available.

A decade ago, as we watched the America’s Cup races in New Zealand on TV, we longed to watch a race in person from the water. Last week, we got our chance. The current America’s Cup defender is the Golden Gate Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. The races scheduled for October 2-7th have been on our calendar since we realized our trip to the area would coincide.

We wanted to get Dirona within dinghy distance of the course, so we anchored for the night outside the South Harbor marina breakwater off AT&T park, about three miles from the course. We were weren't sure how rough our anchorage might get due to boat wakes and the afternoon winds, but it turned to be fine. And our view, stretching from downtown San Francisco and across the Bay bridge was amazing. And we could see the America's Cup fleet moored nearby: in the panoramic photo below, their 70-foot masts are visible at the west end of the Bay bridge just left of the carrier USS Makin Island.

Before heading out to the course, we stopped off in "the pits" to check out the boats. Crews already were on board most of them, either preparing the boat or themselves for the afternoon's event.

The carbon-fiber AC45 catamarans are like Formula I race cars--just amazing technology. At 44' long, with a 900 sq. foot wing on a 70' mast, they weigh only 3,000 pounds and can reach speeds of over 30 knots. Their support boats are pretty nice too.

Before the races, we got to see our second Blue Angels show of the year, part of the Fleet Week festivities. We were a little closer to the action this time and had an awesome view. The shoreline and bay were full of people out to see the show as well.

And then for the main event. The racing was exciting--boy those boats move fast--and it was just wild to be there watching on San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

There even was some excitement off the course as well. The boat on the right, maneuvering through the spectators, nearly ran us over in the dinghy before colliding with the sailboat on the left.

After the races, some of the teams towed their boats back to their moorage, but a few sailed back. The boats ran incredibly well in the rough water--just skimming across the surface. We barely could keep up in our 30-knot dinghy, often having to slow down through larger wakes. And with some impressive tight-quarters boat-handling, team Artemis even sailed right onto their buoy.

Shortly after we arrived, the Prada boat was lifted out of the water by crane. We could see a large dent in the side, but weren't sure if that was the reason for lifting it.

The AC45s will race in several venues around the world as part of the Americas Cup World Series. These boats are designed for quick assembly and disassembly to fit in a 40-foot shipping container. The final races, for the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America's Cup, will be raced in the massive AC72s. The AC72s are roughly twice the size of the AC45s: 72' long, with a 131' mast and a 2,800 sq.-foot wing area, and weighing 13,000 lbs. Their crew size is 11, compared to 5 on the AC45s. 

We'd seen defending champion team Oracle's AC72 out for its world open-water debut a couple of weeks ago. We clocked them on radar at 31.5 knots, and it will be capable of doing considerably more. We saw team Oracle's AC72 again this past weekend. The huge mast dwarfed the eleven crew below it as the boat sped across the bay.

Late last week, we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and cruised south to our new temporary home at impressive Westpoint Harbor Marina. The trip from Seattle started out with wonderfully calm conditions through the Strait of Juan de Fuca--amongst the best we've experienced there. We originally had planned to run a good 50 miles offshore to avoid boat traffic and crab pots. But a storm was brewing with gale-force winds and 14-foot seas predicted between 60 and 250 miles offshore, so we instead ran within 10 miles of shore where better conditions were predicted. The winds still were 30-knot with 12-foot seas, but that was an improvement over the alternative. After about 24 hours of big winds, conditions settled back down and we had a relaxing cruise into the San Francisco area.

To avoid entering the busy San Francisco Bay in the dark, we anchored for a night at Drakes Bay. We had both navigation reasons for delaying our entry, in addition to better photo opportunities. We'd have to first cross the San Francisco bar, best done at slack or on a flood current. During large ebbs, the current there can reach 6 knots. And when ocean storms are pushing waves westward in the opposite direction, steep 20' seas can develop there. Once across the bar, Golden Gate itself is only 0.7 miles across and busy with ship traffic.

We enjoyed the stop at Drakes Bay--steep hills surround the anchorage on three sides, with a view south towards San Francisco. And the entire peninsula forms the Point Reyes National Seashore. Had we not been so eager to reach our destination, we likely would have spent some time exploring ashore, particularly visiting the Point Reyes Lighthouse we'd passed on our way into the bay. But eager to arrive we were, so we left Drakes Bay early the next morning and arrived at the San Francisco bar about an hour before high-water slack.  We had an easy cruise under the bridge, past the city, and south through the Bay. We'll be spending the next few weeks here exploring the area, before continuing on to Hawaii. Our log for the trip is below. You also can display these, along with a detailed route, on the map view.

09/07/12, 8:00pm: Dusk We're at the east entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Conditions are excellent: 6 knots of wind, calms seas and clear skies. The cruise ship Amsterdam just passed heading to Alaska and still is visible in the distance, aglow with light.

09/08/12, 5:00pm: Off Ocean Shores A salmon fishing opening is in effect--we're seeing a lot more traffic than on our previous run to the Columbia River. Conditions settled a bit, but now we're in S 15-knot winds with tight 4-6' seas on the bow. We've got gale-force winds predicted for Mon-Wed, so its definately going to get worse.

09/10/12, 1:00pm: Winds 25-30 knots The bad weather has arrived. Winds are N 25-30, generating tight 7-9' seas. The only good thing as that we are running with the waves, rather than against them, so we're still able to make decent time. Conditions are expected to worsen, with 10-12' seas tonight, and then start to ease off tomorrow morning.

09/10/12, 6:30pm: 15-degree rolls Winds are steady 30 with 10-12' seas. The range in the roll guage pictured is from -20 to +20 in 5-degree increments. Even with hydraulic stablizers running at maximum output, we're still rolling 15 degrees each side.

09/10/12, 8:30pm: Approaching Cape Mendocino Conditions much improved. The wind has dropped to 10-20 knots and the waves to 7-9'. The waves still are big, but aren't nearly as fierce as a couple of hours ago.

09/11/12, 5:10am: North of Fort Bragg Conditions were reasonable rounding Cape Menocino, but worsened not far south. Winds blew 30-knots most of the graveyard shift, with 10-12' seas to match. The wind has again settled back down into the 20s, with mostly 7-9' seas again.

09/11/12, 7:00am: Sunrise The sun just rose on what promises to be a good running day: winds are down to around 10 knots, the waves are 5-6', and the sky is clear and blue.

09/11/12, 12:05pm: Fog The clear skies gave way to a thick fog late this morning. Winds are blowing around 10 from the SW--not much of a problem except we're getting a good saltwater bath from the spray. Our ETA to Golden Gate is the middle of the night, so we're thinking of stopping in Drakes Bay tonight and proceeding through Golden Gate tomorrow morning. Hopefully the fog will lift and we'll actually be able to see the bridge.

09/11/12, 6:20pm: Land ho! The lighthouse at Pt Reyes, hung of the cliff, makes a dramatic display. Land actually has been ho for a while, but this particular land is more interesting to us because we plan to anchor at Drakes Bay for the night.

09/11/12, 7:15pm: Our first California anchorage The engines are off after four days straight, the anchor is down, and the wine is poured. Time for a relaxing meal and a full night's sleep. For our first California anchorage, it's a pretty nice one. Steep hills are on three sides and we have a clear view south towards San Francicso.

09/12/12, 6:44am: Heading to Golden Gate Got up just before sunrise and we're all excited to be heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge (even Spitfire).

09/12/12, 9:20am: Pilot Boat San Francisco We're in the lanes with the Golden Gate Bridge just visible in the distance. Conditions are overcost, but not socked in.

09/12/12, 10:00am: Approaching Golden Gate

09/12/12: Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge

09/12/12: Fort Point Masonry fort under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

09/12/12: San Francisco

09/12/12: Alcatraz Island

09/12/12: Port of San Francisco

09/12/12: Passing under the Bay Bridge

09/12/12: Westpoint Harbor Marina Lunch on deck in our new temporary home. Westpoint Harbor Marina is an impressive new facility with excellent services.

Today we set off from Seattle to do some longer-range cruising. Our goal is to cross over to Hawaii, and we'll figure out the next step from there. Insurance restrictions discourage travel in the area between June and November, during the northern hemisphere hurricane season. May was too soon to leave, and we didn't want leave Seattle and travel through the North Pacific in November during the winter storm season. So we'll first be travelling to the San Francisco area to stay there temporarily for 4-6 weeks until we cross over to Hawaii in October. This also puts us 200 miles closer--Hawaii is about 2,200 miles from San Francisco and about 2,400 from the Seattle area. The prevailing winds and currents are better on this more southerly route as well.

We've just finished a new feature on the web site that shows a real-time plot of Dirona's location. A small version of the live chart is on the blog site above, and a large one is at:  http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html. In the image at right (click to enlarge it), the blue line is the plot of our track. Each blue square on the line shows the time and speed at that location if you put the cursor on them. And the red square with the star shows our current location. The blue paddle icons represents a log entry along the way, the red one being the most recent. Click on a paddle to see details for that entry. Each map also has a refresh button that you can click to refresh just the map data (rather than the whole page).

As we sail south, we're leaving one of the most beautiful cruising areas in the world and perhaps the nicest marina we've ever stayed at. Bell Harbor Marina, in the core of downtown Seattle, is a special place. Below are some of what we've seen since our cruise on the Columbia and Snake River system. You also can display these on the map view.

05/17/12: Echo Bay, Sucia Island Sucia Island is one of our long-time favorite anchorages in the San Juan Islands. A few early-season boats are here, and the beautiful tractor tug Lindsay Foss preceded us in. We suspect it is waiting for a ship to escort into Anacortes.

05/18/12: Cap Sante Boat Haven, Anacortes At Anacortes for Trawler Fest. We'll be presenting Saturday morning.

05/19/12: Padilla Bay Maersk Cameron at the Anacortes refinery near our anchorage in Padilla Bay

05/21/12: Pier 57 Ferris Wheel The Pier 57 Ferris Wheel, still under construction, viewed from our moorage at Bell Harbor.

05/25/12: Tramp Harbor Beachcombing during low tide at Point Heyer.

05/26/12: Morning sun Calm waters off the KVI tower.

05/27/12: Divers Scuba divers at the fish haven off Point Heyer.

05/27/12: Murden Cove Landslide off our anchorage at Murden Cove. Shoring that up looks like an expensive operation.

06/01/12: Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Infinity leaving its berth at pier 66 as we leave ours.

06/08/12: Hanjin Geneva The Hanjin Geneva en route from Seattle, viewed from our anchorage at Murden Cove.

06/15/12: Bell Street Classic Weekend The classic wooden yacht Olympus coming alongside for the Bell Street Classic Weekend shortly before we left the marina for Murden Cove.

06/16/12: Ballard Locks Returning out through the big lock after picking up a a load of fuel this morning at Covich-Williams. The small lock temporarily is closed. They sure pack a lot of boats in there--and this isn't even a busy day.

06/18/12: Old engines ... ... don't like starting.

06/18/12: Norwegian Pearl When the cruise ships leave pier 66, you can almost touch them from the Edgewater Hotel patio.

07/03/12: Hydroplane Mini hydroplane tearing through Quartermaster Harbor.

07/06/12: Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Infinity coming alongside at pier 66 early this morning.

07/06/12: Sunset Sunset from Yukon Harbor.

07/08/12: Morning Looking west from Yukon Harbor in the early morning light.

07/08/12: Boat inspection Department of Fish and Wildlife on a boat inspection.

07/13/12: Rich Passage I Kitsap Transit's fast ferry Rich Passage I en route from Seattle to Bremerton.

07/13/12: Sunset Sunset from the anchorage.

07/15/12: USCGC Stratton The piracy threat level is probably about -2 at Bell Harbor today with the 418-foot US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton moored alongside.

07/16/12: Into the fog The US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton heading into a foggy Puget Sound this morning.

07/16/12: Fire boat Testing the pumping systems off Pier 66.

07/20/12: Blakely Harbor David Baker sent us this picture he took of Dirona anchored at Blakely Harbor with the Seattle skyline in the background.

07/27/12: Silverdale We're anchored at the head of Dyes Inlet for Silverdale's annual Whaling Days. The public dock is packed for the event.

07/27/12: Fireworks Friday-night fireworks at Silverdale's Whaling Days. The show was impressive: we were only a few hundred yards away from the barge and felt like we were right underneath.

07/28/12: The Joey James Dean Band The Joey James Dean Band on stage Saturday night at Silverdale's Whaling Days.

07/31/12: Nearly-full moon A nearly-full moon rising over the Seattle skyline next to the mast of the HMCS Oriole.

08/01/12: Oriole and Halsey HMCS Oriole in front of the destroyer USS Halsey. They're here for Seafair weekend.

08/01/12: Bringing in the colors Bringing in the colors on the USS Halsey.

08/05/12: On the TravelLift Getting lifted for anti-fouling paint at Canal Boatyard.

08/12/12: Racoons Racoons gathering breakfast at low tide off Blakely Island. At least a dozen are out there.

08/12/12: Parasailer Parasailer just lifting above the city, viewed from the dinghy in Elliott Bay.

08/17/12: Sunrise Sunrise over Seattle this morning.

08/23/12: And you think your salon is small ... Last night we watched the occupant of this tent stow all manner of gear in his craft, moored along the tribal docks at Bell Harbor. It looks like he's heading of for a big trip.

08/27/12: Dawn Seattle at dawn as we approach Bell Harbor this morning from Blakely Harbor.

08/30/12: Moonrise Moonrise over Port Madison.

08/31/12: Dawn Dawn as we leave Port Madison heading towards Hood Canal.

08/31/12: Fishers Fishers packed Point No Point this morning. Even more are outside the picture frame.

08/31/12: Sea monster This driftwood sea monster has been on Pt. Hannon as long as we've been visiting Hood Canal.

08/31/12: Hood Canal Bridge Heading under the Hood Canal bridge. The clearance is 30', but we had about 5' to spare on a 7' tide.

08/31/12: Bangor Fog lifting over the Ballistic submarine sevice hanger at Bangor.

08/31/12: Wild ride Enjoying the warm weather and calm seas off Sunset Beach.

08/31/12: Nightfall The head of Hood Canal is a much cozier-feeling anchorage than the chart implies--we quite like it. We were here two years ago for July 4th and had a great time. A few small boats buzz about during the day, but nobody else is anchored--the place is calm and silent at night. And this time we had a visitor: Rachel, who co-owns one of the nearby houses, paddled out with a bottle of wine to introduce herself, and came on board for an enjoyable visit.

09/02/12: Sunrise Sunrise from Lilliwaup Bay.

09/02/12: Whitney Point We're tucked against the shore in a small cove off the Whitney Point spit. The anchorage is a little deep and tight for swing room close to shore, but its such a pretty spot that we had to make it work.