SV Appa: August 2014

We got into Seattle at 0300 Friday morning July 25th at Shileshole marina. Jen dropped Benny off at the fuel dock and we continued on Seattle Yacht Club. After a totally uneventful trip through the locks and all the bridges getting raised, Appa was in her new slip at 0430. Benny and I sat right next to each other the entire trip down the river and enjoyed the closeness that only 2 months apart can bring. I missed everyone so much. Two months was too long. I thought my time in Hawaii was going to be the end of me. There is only so much cleaning and prepped work that one can do.

So I won't give a blow by blow of the passage. I covered most of it in the blog.

I put together a quick YouTube video of our Mexico to Honolulu leg.

You can see the turtle that we saved and the net that it was trapped in on the foredeck. Pictures and video never do the waves justice.

So what worked and what didn't. Let's see...

I loved the Vesper vision AIS. Great customer support and very power draw. Hooks wireless to the ipad and the house computer. I'll be completely happy when they come out with the anchor alarm in the software. They say it is coming.

Rocna anchor. Great. Never dragged but I doubt we ever were really on the anchor. In a 30 knot blow, bud of mine dove down and said the boats were pulling on the chain only. We did have one night of 40 knots and the chain was bar tight. No dragging.

Look at the size of the Rocna at Fisheries in Seattle.

Mantus anchor bridle and hook. Once Max and I figured out how it wanted to be hooked, meaning in 12 foot of water the bridle would rub on the sand and get almost unhooked, it was great. Never came off. Great shock absorbing. But it has to be off the ground.

Danard dinghy wheels. Bulletproof. Best out there I think.

The inReach system was unreal. Very nice to have even if it meant that the ocean didn't seem as big. Daily, even hourly, connections with the outside world was cool. For the most part.

UE Boom. Portable Bluetooth speaker.

I don't know what else. I mean I researched the hell out of this stuff and bought what I thought was great.

Our Mercury dinghy was great as was the Yamaha 15hp 2 stroke outboard. No problems.

I'll think about this some more and post something. I always liked other cruisers blogs about what works and didn't. I used them for myself. It all worked.

Pictures. Here are some of other crossing to Seattle from Honolulu.

Here is Papa Fox on watch checking our daily progress.

If you look close I am trying to use calipers on the chartplotter. It was funny at the time. Or sleep deprivation is a real, hidden danger.

Sunset at the Hawaiian Yacht Club

The landmark Hilton at the Ala Wei yacht basin.

Our complete route from Mexico to USA. 6343 miles total.

My man Jugurtha. AKA the Godfather. Got breakfast in bed twice. TWICE!!! You could also call him the Fishslayer!!

When the crew got out of line, I donned my official hat.

The Godfather and Papa Fox

Jeremy cooking.

Bread. I made loaf after loaf.

His third tuna. We felt like Bubba in Forrest Gump talking about different ways of cooking shrimp.

Foggy sunset. Cool also.

Sunset.

Near miss with freighters out in the pacific. This guy actually crossed in back of us. The graphic is just that. His actually position is that green dot with the name on it. Missed us by .5 miles.