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In the morning we go out for our last breakfast ashore for possibly the next two or three week. It’s a nice place, the Kona Ranch House – Lowry has a conservative pancake and eggs, K2 has the usual: Belgian Waffle, and I have go to the Cream Chipped Beef on Toast. So rarely served in restaurants that you have to have it when available.  It is otherwise known as “SOS”. You can make your own meaning this letter combination. After breakfast I take the rental car back to the airport and there is no questioning about the mud on the side of the vehicle that reaches up to the door handles. A talkative taxi ride back to the harbor and we are ready to leave. It is just before 11am as we motor out the harbor that was blasted out of lava flow. There is a little breeze, an onshore flow, so we sail down the leeward side of the island with the wind coming from the west. Around 7pm we reach the southern tip of the island and like someone opening a door the wind picks up to 20 knots and is now from the northeast. We are flying the #3 (smaller) jib and full main. The swells are pretty big, at around 6 to 8 feet with step sides.

We are close hauled, heading for a point in the sea about 145W on the equator. This heading will get us east enough to easily make Tahiti. Every third swell smacks just forward of the beam and comes spraying back over the dodger and into the cockpit. With exception to the companionway the whole boat is shut down tight. Its not hot below, but it not cool either. We have three fans moving the humid warm air around, and it seems to help. But even the slightest amount of movement is enough to make you break out in sweat.