Today we sailed and sailed and sailed. There weren’t any big events to note, but a few small ones: * Our midnight-to-midnight run was 167 nm, our second-fastest of this trip. * At 2:30AM our AIS receiver detected a ship, details unknown, about 10 miles off. We were unable to see it due to distance […]

Ysterday was another day for marine mammals as we continue to sail towards home. On Monday we saw our “sunrise” dolphins, and later that day the whales swam by to see what was going on. Yesterday, a few hours before sunset we were visited by a pod of ten or so dolphins. These playful creatures […]

Yesterday we were motoring, but today we are sailing! Time: 5:00PM PDT Position: Latitude 32 deg, 21 min north, Longitude 153 deg, 47 min west. Course 35 degrees magnetic, speed 7 kts. Having run the diesel engine non-stop for about twenty hours, at 5:00AM PDT we finally got the wind we were hoping for and […]

We have sailed into the heart of the Pacific High. Well, perhaps not *the* High, but it will do for now. The High is actually pretty diffuse at the moment, smeared out over a wide east-west swath. There is no practical way for us to sail around the moderate winds of the western edge, so […]

We are sailing slowly into weakening winds and flattening seas. Our boat speed has fallen to about 5-1/2 knots, direction mostly north. We will have another day or two of this, and then we should be able to turn northwest as we begin heading for home. We will be starting the turn further south than […]

Since our last entry, we have continued to sail north, and we are now about 350 miles from Kaneohe Bay. We are also about 1830 miles from San Francisco, but unfortunately we can’t sail in a straight line to our destination, so we will have to sail many more miles than that. Our position as […]

We are making good progress as we sail north on our way back home. As of 4:45PM PDT, we are at latitude 24 deg 08 min N, longitude 157 deg 10 min W, about 167 nautical miles north of Kaneohe. We are sailing north, at a  speed of 7-8 kts (this varies, of course). The […]

VALIS departed Kaneohe Bay today (Thursday, Aug 7) just before Noon, Hawaii time. Neptune’s Daughter, Dart, and Bequia were on hand to help us cast off, and wave Bon Voyage. Our crew is Paul Carson, Oliver Petzold,  Aaron Guiterrez, and me (Paul Elliott). We are currently sailing in 15 knots of wind, with swells about […]

VALIS is preparing for the return passage to San Francisco, tomorrow (Weds, Aug 6) as our likely departure.  We have been cleaning, filling tanks, charging batteries, provisioning, and doing minor repairs, and the work-list is getting pretty small.  Our fourth crewmmember arrives today, and I will be shopping for perishables, so we should be ready to go. […]