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THE LAST LEG OF OUR JOURNEY

FROM SUVAROV TO HAWAII

DAY 54

The first night went without incident. We had had enough excitement from the day, we didn't need anymore during the night also. However, when the Captain & Will changed shifts at 6 in the morning, she accused him of leaving her hatch open so water could come in. How stupid an accusation!

The temperatures were very hot & humid in this part of the South Pacific. I decided that I did not care anymore what the Captain thought about going nude so I took it all off. She didn't even pay attention. That is just as well because I would have ignored her at this point anyway. She could like it or not! We had seen her also sleeping with no top on & it was not a big deal at all to us.

The Captain's fan in her V berth stopped working but she would not ask Will to fix it. He was fed up with fixing all the things on her boat so did not volunteer to fix it.

The Captain claims she is not feeling well this day.

We had communication from our friend in Chilliwack tonight. It was great to hear his voice.

DAY 55

We had another uneventful night again last night. Today the Captain is very quiet & not talking much. The fan in the head is not working today either. The humidity is so high that a fan is really necessary.

We were beginning to wonder about the possibility of the boat & the Captain being possessed! Pretty bizarre train of thought? Maybe, but with all the things going on, what else could be happening? There were just way too many things going on that could not be explained.

Will & I consider ourselves to be pretty sane & to be talking about this kind of stuff is really stretching us to the max. There may be other explanations to all this stuff but we haven't come across much else that explains some of it. As you read on, you will see what we are talking about.

Will's background involved religious studies all of his life as well as many years involvement in the churches. One day he asked me if I had heard any kind of sounds/voices or noises, particularly at night. His question took me by surprise. My eyes got big as I stared at him because I had, indeed thought that I could hear "something" at night but abandoned that thought as being too far fetched. It is only my imagination running wild.

What I heard sounded to me like some sort of background noise that sounded like the din of a room full of people talking. You couldn't make out words or individual voices but you could hear "something". I thought it was pretty weird when I heard it but then Will was telling me that he had heard this also. This is what prompted him to start talking to me about possible possession of the Captain & the boat. Why were so many things happening to her directly but not us?

This is way too bizarre!! I have no knowledge about these things. He was telling me that if they are really possessed then he could get rid of or at least try to control the demons. He apparently could not do an exorcism on the Captain because that would involve her giving permission & there was no way that that was going to be happening. The next best thing then would be to "bind the demons."

One of the things that seemed to fascinate the Captain was the history of Suvarov. The Island of Suvarov has a long history of ships gone aground on the reef & buried treasure & many people buried on the little Island. The Captain was most interested with all of this & tried on many occasions to grill the Caretaker, Papa John, of where the burial sites were & did he see or hear the spirits, etc. From my observation of watching her asking these questions, he seemed less than comfortable about talking about these things, but she would not leave him alone.

At the beginning of our passage the Captain told us that she heard the water maker talking; told us that someone didn't want her/us doing this journey; said that her "Spiritual Master" had shown her husband what would happen to him if he tried to interfere with her journey. The Captain seemed to be "accident prone"; electronics failed; coincidence that when we would look at the knot meter that we would see "666" many times; equipment failures and the list goes on.

She had also told us a Bermuda Triangle type story that happened to her off Kandavu Island, one of the Fijian Islands during the first leg of her trip. It involved a fog rolling in suddenly on a bright sunny day, radar indicating the Island in front of the boat, electronics behaving erratically or not functioning at all, etc. It is bizarre to say the least. You can read her story for yourself.

Could it all just be coincidence or could it be something more bizarre? Could it be possible that the boat & Captain were demon possessed? Pretty far out theory!

We were having these discussions while the Captain was laying down in the cabin within earshot. She probably heard what we were talking about.

Funny thing, after this discussion, the Captain became very subdued & quiet.

DAY 56

Another uneventful watch last night. We were close hauled & going a steady pace of about 6 knots all night & day slowly making our way east.

Will & I were again discussing the weird things going on in this boat within earshot of the Captain. She was still very quiet today.

During this time she had a couple more accidents & displayed more unusual behavior. She burned her arm on a pot on the stove, started doing some form of "Yoga" in the cockpit & slipped going down the companionway stairs.

We started the engine to charge batteries & make water. Our starboard water tank is almost empty & we have barely begun this leg that could last three weeks.

After running the engine for about two hours the engine oil & temperature alarms came back on again. It is most annoying listening to the high pitched sound again while running the engine.

DAY 57

The boat was heeling lots during the last night's passage. We got splashed a few times. Oh great, the seat cushions are wet again. We are having to sit on the wet cushions & getting sores on our back sides!

Fabric cockpit cushions definitely are not any good for this type of passage.

We had another malfunction again today. The wind indicator is not working. It seems to be 30 - 40 degrees off. It is just another of the many systems on this boat that have broken down.

Will checked the oil in the engine again only to discover that the oil was leaking, again! Yesterday we were able to run the engine about 2 hours before the alarms came on & today it was only about 50 minutes.

This means that the engine will probably soon not be capable of even running just enough to charge batteries & make water. And we had many days to go before we reached Hawaii.

I decided to wash out the shells that we had collected while in Suvarov today.

After doing that I decided to take a sponge bath & decided to go without clothes today again. Still the Captain has not said anything about me being nude.

Will had a bath and he also decided to go nude today. I guess this was too much for the Captain. She lost it & told him to "cover up..." He told her that he would not.

She said it made her uncomfortable. We said that we didn't care if it made her uncomfortable or not. She had made us very uncomfortable time & again & this time we did not care how she felt. It was hot & humid & we were attempting to cool off the best way we new as well as to try to dry up the sores on our backsides.

She then got really angry & told him to "obey her!" Will & I looked at one another with disbelief at what she had just said. We could not believe that she told him to "obey her", like we were children or slaves or whatever.

Neither one of us "obeyed" her. Will stayed nude the rest of that day. In subsequent days though, if she came up into the cockpit he would cover up.

Well then, this led to a raised voice heated discussion about the Captain's skill or lack thereof & her making us feel uncomfortable, unsafe, etc. So, there is Will & I with little or no clothing on in the blistering sun with a yelling match going on with a seemingly less than stable Captain.

Will then told the Captain that he was going to "bind the demons, in the name of Jesus." She then told me that she saw "serpents & bad demons" coming from out of me. She told me that she had only seen such a thing once before & that was another woman a long time ago. Only, the woman's serpent wasn't as big as the one she saw from me. I told her that I did not believe her & that if she saw anything coming out of me that it was a reflection of what was coming out of her.

The Captain became very agitated when Will performed the binding as he remembered it from his church days. But, strangely enough, she seemed to be quite subdued & settled down noticeably after "the binding." We also did not detect any more night "noises." However, we still had some other bizarre things happening.

We would watch the wind indicator all the time checking on wind speed. After this time of "demon" conversation we noticed time & again the numbers "666" being displayed. How weird is that?

She then accused us of telling stories about her & gossiping about her. She threatened to sue us for talking about her.

She told us she only had trouble with about two or three of her previous crew. We told her she is always criticizing us & that we were fed up with her always trying to prove she knew things she did not.

She would never take responsibility for her actions or decisions. We were so totally frustrated with this woman.

DAY 58

Night watch was steady 6 knots of wind. The Captain got splashed & soaked. Seems like when it is her watch she gets drenched. We somehow seem to avoid that. Go figure!!

The Captain spent the better part of the day in her V berth & spent a good hour trying to get her drawer open to no avail.

We went through a couple of squalls that dropped a bit of rain today. Not enough or long enough to get rinsed off.

So much for the Captain's idea that we could collect rain water during this leg of the trip instead of having the water maker repaired.

DAY 59

We were beating all night & got splashed a couple of times. Will saw a huge flash of light that lasted about five seconds during his watch. He thought maybe a meteor & the Captain's reaction was that an atomic bomb maybe went off. 

We kept up a speed of about 6.5 knots all day under hot & humid conditions.

The Captain didn't do her watch today. She was very quiet & stayed in her V berth a good part of the day.

She was once again struggling to open her drawer for at least an hour. This time she gave up & got into the medical bag & took out something to try to pry it open. She finally got it open. She would not ask for help.

There was a line that was attached to the toe rail on the deck that kept banging against a spreader. The Captain would not ask Will to go up & fix it so she attempted it by herself & only made it worse.

Will told her how to go about fixing the problem but she still didn't understand how to do it & would still not ask him to fix it.

After watching her efforts, he put on his PFD & went & fixed it so that it did not bang against the spreader any longer. The Captain followed him up on deck & just watched. 

DAY 60

We were beating all night with winds 22 - 27 knots. We were going north & north west for a while & then the winds shifted & we headed in the direction we needed which was north & north east. We wanted to get to Hawaii sooner rather than later.

And, another malfunction today.

Our fresh water pump has packed it in again & there are no new spare parts. Will dug out an old pump to replace it. The old pump needed a new micro switch so Will replaced that & then tried to solder the wire to the switch. The old pump had lots of corrosion on the wire that connects to the switch was hard to solder. He did what he could & put it back together. Don't know how long this one will last this time.

The Captain decided to do Yoga again today in the cockpit. That was amusing to watch.

Very little conversation has taken place between us & the Captain. She is very quiet & does not seem to want to talk to us, which is ok by us.

And try as we might, we could not see any line in the water showing us the dividing line!

Crossing the Equator

Toasting the Crossing of the Equator

DAY 61

Strong winds & beating - going 5.5 to 6 knots steady. This is great sailing!

The Captain made some bread today.

Supplies are getting low & with the fridge using up a great deal of battery power we decided to clean out the fridge & freezer & turn it off. We didn't have anything frozen or fresh in the fridge anymore so there was not much use in having it going & using up the power we would need for making water. We could run it for short periods of time just to keep it cool & use it like a cooler rather than a refrigerator.

We cleaned the cockpit with bleach to get rid of the slimy dirt buildup that grows in such high humidity conditions.

The cockpit has been taking on a lot of water so has been soaking the cockpit cushions constantly. We have no choice but to sit on them wet or not if we want some cushioning from the hard seats.

We have all ended up getting diaper rash from sitting on the wet cushions & not being able to keep anything dry on.

I decided to take it all off again & try to dry out my backside by exposing it to the sun. I not only accomplished healing the sores somewhat but also got a sunburned backside. I don't know which was worse!!

She would not even let us help her by taking something out of her hands as she came up or went down the companionway stairs.

She could not get the oven lit & tried & tried & tried & finally asked me if I had trouble with it. I told her it was broken but she could still get it lit by doing something different. She had been told about this at the very beginning but obviously forgot. Will had to demonstrate once again how to get it lit.

The boat has been heeling constantly which means that we are sailing about 30 degrees off with one side of the boat being lower than the other.

While the Captain was attempting to knead the bread dough, she would not sit on the lower side of the boat to make things easier but stayed on the higher side & braced her legs against the lower side to keep her position. She would do most things the hard way.

She was quite stubborn or just didn't pay attention.  We would offer her some help but she refused it for the most part.

We have a salt water tap in the galley & have been using salt water to wash our dishes & using only small amounts of fresh water to rinse.

We have plenty of dish soap but for some reason the Captain has decided that she does not want to use soap to wash her dishes. And these are dishes that we all share. 

It has gotten to the point that she washes her own dishes only. Will & I would do our own & any other dishes that needed doing.

I told her that I would appreciate it if she would use soap given that we all shared the same dishes. She used dish soap a couple of time & then went back to not using soap again. I gave up at that point. It was useless to say anything more on the matter.

DAY 62

Beating, beating & more beating. All night we had about 6 knot winds that kept us going at a good clip.

I had taken my Palm Pilot along to entertain myself on the long night watches. I also had a digital voice recorder that I used to record the journey as well as writing everything down.

I kept these items in a zip lock bag to protect against water & humidity. There was also a little book light in the bag so we could read during our watch at night.

This last watch Will was using the light to read. When he finished his watch he forgot to bring the bag back inside & had left it inside a rope bag in the cockpit.

The Captain was on watch after Will & shortly after he went to bed he heard her curse & heard something fall in the cockpit. He didn't think anything of it & went to sleep.

When I got up & went to do my watch I noticed the bag was still in the rope pocket in the cockpit. For some reason I had not left my Palm Pilot in the bag this last night.

When I finished using my Palm I went to put it back in the bag & noticed that the voice recorder was gone. I asked Will what he had done with it & he replied nothing & that it was in the bag when he finished his watch.

That is when he remembered the Captain's behavior when he finished his last watch. We decided not to say anything to the Captain right away to see if see volunteered any information. After several hours & nothing coming from the Captain, Will asked her if she knew anything about the recorder being gone & she denied any knowledge of it at all.

He asked her what she was cursing at & what had dropped when she first went on her watch. She didn't remember saying or doing anything. A while later she asked a few questions about the recorder being missing & then got very chatty.

Seems like pretty strange behavior on her part. Is she guilty? Did she throw it over so that we would loose all of the information that we had been recording during the entire voyage?

I guess we will never know for sure but we certainly do have out suspicions.

During the afternoon he discovered that the fridge was on again. He asked me if I had turned it on & I hadn't so he asked the Captain & of course she had. He explained again about the importance of not running our batteries down because we could not depend on the motor to keep running just to charge batteries.

The time we could use the engine to charge batteries & use the water maker was getting less each time we ran the engine before it started to race & had to be shut off.

If we couldn't make water we would be in a very serious predicament being hundreds of miles away from any land. We had to be extremely diligent in our fresh water consumption.

So, he once again turned it off, or so he thought. The switch needed to be turned hard to get it turned all the way off. I guess he didn't give it the extra turn & it ended up staying on all night & drained the batteries way down. We can only hope that the engine will run long enough so that we could make more water.

OH Great - we just want to get home & we need the strong winds to keep us moving.

The Captain seems to be quite unsettled today as well as being very hungry & making several trips to the head.

I had remembered her telling me that when she was nervous that she would have to use the toilet frequently. What was going on here?

She was digging in one of the storage compartments & spilled sunflower & pumpkin seeds onto the back of the settee. Instead of putting the few seeds into the garbage she proceeded to put them back into the bags they came out of complete with dirt, dust, hair, lint & whatever else was on the settee. Yuk!

DAY 63

Seems like we are going not very far & not very fast the last night. The winds have really died down.

About 7 in the morning the winds started to pick up to about 35 knot gusts while the Captain was at the helm. She had a very hard time to get the sails set properly so Will was to the rescue once again.

After her watch was over the Captain started to "clean" & putter around. Now this started to get bizarre. I watched her put on her fingerless sailing gloves (first time during the entire passage) & she then proceeded to sand a scratch on a closet in her V berth. She had these sailing gloves on & off for the entire day.

Next, she decided that she was going to use bleach & wash spots off the galley & cabin ceiling. She had poured bleach into a bowl that we were using for food. Then she took the same bowl into the head ..... to clean?

She made several trips to the head again today. More nervous stomach? It appeared that she was washing down the head with this same bowl.

I wondered what she would do with the bowl once she was finished with it. I would find out in a day or so.

The Captain seemed to be in another time or space or something today. She put rice on the stove to cook & then forgot about it. Needless to say, the rice got burned.

We observed another strange thing today. It seemed like many times when we were watching the speed indicator we would see the numbers "666."  We have always watched it & have not noticed these numbers appearing before.

Our engine alarms have been coming on intermittently. Once again they came on  today making that high pitched noise. Enough already!

Will discovered today that the starter is wired to the house battery instead of the start battery. It appears that the start battery is not connected to anything. The whole battery setup is a mess on this boat. No wonder the battery readings have not made sense after all the charging.

Today the Captain decided to try to call the Coastal Weather Station on the radio. It is a transmitting station only & cannot receive. She argued with him about it.

We had communication from our friend from Chilliwack, BC tonight. It is so awesome to hear that there is someone sane out there. Our situation here seems surreal & we were really happy to talk to another person while we were way out in the middle of nowhere.

DAY 64

We had another night of slow, steady sailing. It was calm enough that I could read my book without fear of getting wet. I made fresh buns today.

The Captain spent a lot of time in her V berth "writing." So far she only recorded position entries in the log. She did not record any of the events that took place, nor what repairs or maintenance was done during our entire passage. She did not record any of the problems with equipment, etc. The only record of this passage is what I have recorded.

Well, this day the Captain has decided that she is going to do some writing.

I was standing in the galley cleaning up & was facing the V berth. I watched Will as he came down & went towards where the Captain was in order to get to the head.

As he approached I watched the Captain quickly stop writing & hide her papers inside a magazine & sit there until Will came out of the head.

I thought that was a bit strange. What was she hiding? After Will came out of the head & went back out to the cockpit, she resumed her writing.

A little while later Will came down again & went to put something back into the head. Once again I watched the Captain quickly take up the papers & this time held them close to her chest. When Will left, she again continued with more writing.

I decided to make a batch of bread dough for fresh rolls today. During my watch I needed to go below to form my risen dough into rolls. The Captain took over my watch for a short time. Five minutes after I went below she got swamped by a big wave! How or why does that happen? Coincidence or what?

Will informed the Captain about the batteries being wired wrong & at first she was surprised & then she remembered doing "something" with those batteries about a month before leaving New Zealand. This would be just one more thing that was not done properly.

The Captain was wearing her fingerless sailing gloves again.

I also noticed that she has sores on her abdomen, sides, back & bottom. The sores on my bottom are worse again today.

DAY 65

The heavy beating all day yesterday & all of last night has left us very tired. I was trying to get some sleep before my watch at midnight. The Captain was on watch before me from 9 pm to midnight.

This night we had heavy seas & we had to pay attention on our watch. The Captain decided that she needed to start up the computer &  do some emails. She was on the computer in the cabin instead of out in the cockpit doing her watch for at least a half hour at a time. The computer uses up battery power really quickly.

The Captain seemed to be very busy this night. She should have stayed outside on her watch because of the conditions. She was up & down the companionway stairs, turning off & on her flashlight, getting something to drink, rummaging around for something to eat, digging in cupboards looking for something.

Our sleeping quarters were in the salon. With all of the Captain's movement around the cabin, going up & down the stairs, light on & off we had a very difficult time trying to get any sleep. Why couldn't she have organized herself before going on her watch?

She used the bowl for cleaning the head & then she was using it for food? What was up with that? I knew I would not be eating anything that came out of that bowl now.

I also observed her washing dishes without using soap again. And then wearing her fingerless sailing gloves again to do inside chores. She was flitting from one thing to the next all day not accomplishing much of anything. She seemed to be using up nervous energy or something.

The Captain decided that she needed to do some laundry using up our fresh water supply. I noticed that the things that she was washing were not any items that she would be needing for the remainder of our passage.

We were still 723 nautical miles & several days from the Hawaiian Islands. We hoped that our engine would keep running long enough to charge the batteries in order to keep our electronics & water maker going. We could do without the electronics to sail but our water supply was getting very low.

There were no spare parts on board to repair this problem. We had been through so many days & nights of heavy sailing that the piece broke due to wear & tear.

Good thing that Will is ingenious when it comes to repairing things without proper parts. His ingenuity with using some rigging parts to make the traveler operational got us out of another potential disastrous situation.

Without the use of the mainsail we would not have had an easy sail to get to Hawaii. And you may still recall that our engine is not working properly so we would not have any engine power. This could have been a disaster.

What a relief to have this major problem averted.

We had contact again tonight with our friend from Chilliwack, BC. He is going to research some hotels for us when we get to Honolulu.

DAY 66

We beat again all last night but not quite as strong as the last few days & nights.

I watched the Captain doing dishes again without soap. I mentioned that we would really like it if she used soap but she replied she only used it on greasy dishes.

She forgot to take down her laundry last night before going to sleep so we took it down before the dew got it all wet again. She must have forgotten about it the next because she never asked where we had put it.

She did find it later during the day & then decided that she need to rinse them again so proceeded to use up all of the water in the port side water tank.

We now have only one third to one half of a tank of fresh water in the starboard tank with four or five days, at least, before we reach landfall.

The fresh water pump is acting up again. It does not want to shut off. We have to turn the main switch on the panel off to get it to stop running & burn out as well as deplete our battery power.

The Captain is getting miserable. She decided that my fan needed to be turned off so proceeded to tell me where to turn it off. A childish reaction ensued when I told her I would turn if off where I normally turned it off. The Captain had a different idea of where to turn my fan off. She got upset when I told her to turn it off herself then.

Later on she noticed that I was sitting on a polyester blanket in the cockpit instead of the wet cushions. She quickly grabbed it out of the cockpit on the pretense that she didn't want it to get wet. It wasn't in danger of getting wet & I needed something to sit on that would wick the water away from my sore bottom. Needless to say, I took it back into the cockpit when I went on my watch.

We had contact from two friends this evening from two friends from Chilliwack, BC. It was so great to hear their voices.

DAY 67

A very eventful night I had on this watch!! We had heavy seas & were beating again. The rope that runs from the steering wheel to the wind vane broke.

The spare stay that someone had attached by a rope to the port toe rail broke through & started flapping around in the wind.

Will had to get up from bed to replace the rope that connects the steering wheel to the wind vane so that we could use the wind vane for steering again. Once this repair was done he taped the end of the broken wire to another shroud to keep it out of the way. When everything was working properly once again Will went back to bed.

The seas had also calmed down quite a bit so I was able to pass the rest of my watch playing on my Palm Pilot.

It was about 1:30 or 2:00 am & the skies overhead were clear with bright stars overhead when all of a sudden the whole back of the boat & cockpit lit up.

At first I thought it was our silly Captain shining her flashlight through her hatch in the bow of the boat; then I thought she had put the deck light on but I quickly dismissed these theories because it would be too dangerous for her to open her hatch in the bow & I could see there was no one up in the cabin. My next thought was that I had neglected my watch duties & that there was a ship beside us shining a spot light on the boat.

I quickly got up & turned on the radar & was looking out the window of the dodger to port side & noticed two large brilliant lights just above the deck. Then I stuck my head around the side of the dodger to get a better look & could see another smaller light just below the two larger lights. They appeared to hover a few feet above the port side deck & then the lights just disappeared!

I looked & looked & could see nothing anywhere. I checked the radar & there was nothing on the screen.

Heart pounding, I just kept looking & wondered "what the heck was that?"

I was going to wake up Will & tell him, but thought, he really needs his rest & besides, what was there to show him? The lights were gone now.

We were talking about this phenomenon later the next day & he remembered that he had got up to go to the bathroom & when he got back into bed he remembered seeing lights in the cockpit & wondered what I was doing shining a flashlight all around. Then he realized that there were no lights on board that could have illuminated the back of the boat like it was lit up.

To this day we have no logical explanation. The conditions were not conducive to ball lightening or anything that could be attributed to the strange lights.

Will said that on his watch, just before mine that our GPS started acting erratically. It would flash off & on "position lost" & then "position acquired."

He cleaned the cord plug end & put it back together but it still kept blinking off & on. He went to the satellite page & saw the display was showing about eleven satellites that were blinking off & on.

We had not had any problems with the GPS malfunctioning earlier. He checked the GPS again about fourteen hours later & it still displayed some blinking satellites but not as many as the night before. The is way weird!

Based on our experience with her over the past two months we had learned that she really should never have taken on such a journey.  We felt that her lack of sailing skills coupled with her limited knowledge about sailing, showed her disregard for our safety & well being.

We questioned her lack of record keeping from her previous passages. We discussed her role as Captain & her taking responsibility for her boat & responsibility to us as crew.

We also questioned her lack of maintenance & upkeep to the boat during the last passages.

She responded that she felt that she had no shortcomings about being a competent Captain or sailing her boat.

She told us that she could remember all the things that happened on the boat as well as all the repairs & maintenance that was done. She told us that she didn't need to write things down, that her memory was good.

She got quite upset with the way the discussion was going & told us that we had better stop gossiping about her & our trip or she would "charge us."

We found that during the whole trip the Captain would never take responsibility for any of her actions or decisions. She would never admit to making a mistake or making a bad decision.

At the same time we brought up her cleaning methods & specifically questioned her cleaning the bathroom with a bowl from the galley & then soaking the dirty lentils that she spilled onto the back of the settee & had put back in the bag.

She at first denied that she had cleaned the bathroom with the same bowl but a little while later seemed to remember that she had, but that she "only washed the walls" while using the bowl. Needless to say, eating dirty lentils that have been soaking in a container that was used for washing out the bathroom didn't exactly appeal to me!

Frustration! Did I mention how frustrating it was dealing with this Captain?? You may remember from reading earlier about the state of our engine & condition of our batteries?

Just to refresh your mind - we do not have an engine on this boat capable of propelling us through the water. It will only run for about 20 minutes now before it starts to race again & belch out smoke & we have to quickly turn it off or use the kill switch.

We need to run the motor to charge our batteries to keep our instruments running & we also need it to use the water maker to make fresh water. So, bearing all this in mind, we now have the Captain spending hours on the computer using a great amount of battery power. She says she is trying to email her son to find out where we are supposed to go once we get to Honolulu.

For some reason the electronics are not working properly again. The Pactor does not seem to send or receive emails. The Captain seems to be quite agitated & almost frantic at not being able to contact her son.

I would like to also note at this point that she did not contact her husband to make arrangements for her. Apparently he still wanted nothing to do with her & her adventure & would leave it up to his son to do the arranging.

DAY 68

This is the sixteenth day on this last leg of our journey. My watch last night was beating again & cloudy. The winds picked up to about 30 knots in the morning & we beat all day.

Our wind indicator started to act erratically again showing 60 knots then 42 knots. The Captain was once again on the computer trying & trying to send emails & receive weather faxes.

The electronics were just not working properly. All day & evening the electronic instruments & radio did not work properly. We could not contact our friends in Chilliwack.

We had turned the water pump off because the last one that Will put in wasn't working properly, again! It would keep running & would wear down the batteries even more if we were not careful.

So, he informed the Captain earlier that this was the only fresh water pump left on board that would work, even for a little while. The only way to stop the pump from running & running was to shut off the switch on the panel.

She could not remember what he told her about the pump not working properly from the day before & got to questioning him once again about the pumps. Again he explained that this pump was the best of all the broken pumps on board & needed to be used as little as possible.

Again today the Captain is "writing." She seems scattered.

She was going from one thing to another - from the writing, to trying to email, to spot "cleaning," to cleaning the steering wheel with an sos scrub pad, all the while being very quiet & non communicative.

In the evening we were struck by a thunder & lightning storm complete with heavy rain & wind.

We know that lightning on a sail boat is not a good thing & that instruments could get knocked out so we put our GPS (we brought our own along), our computer, the Captain's computer & handheld GPS into the oven for protection from a possible strike.

The Captain had been in her V berth & came rushing out & looked to find her computer. She noticed that it was not on the Navigation station & panicked.

She asked me where it was & told her that "I threw it overboard - what did she think?" She just looked at me. I couldn't believe that she would ask such a stupid question. Didn't she think we were intelligent enough to put the portable electronics into a safe place?

We had encountered an electrical storm on the first leg of our journey. The Captain put her computer & GPS into the oven but did not even wake Will or I to see if we wanted to protect our things also.

Talk about lack of consideration for us or our belongings, never mind the idea that maybe our equipment could be used if hers was damaged due to lightning!

DAY 69

Watch last night went smoothly with steady beating again.

During the day we were able to do a broad reach & get speeds of 8 - 9 knots. That is great speed! At this rate we will reach Hawaii before long.

There is a piece of the wind vane that is broken & needs to be replaced. The steering line & cable should be examined & probably replaced also. There appears to be a lot of wear.

It also looks like the VHF antennas are too close together which might be part of the communication problem.

The Captain is still trying frantically to use computer for emails & weather faxing. She can't seem to get the radio to work either, however, we were able to make contact with our friend in Chilliwack tonight.

We asked the Captain is she would like our friend to contact her son by email to find out where we were to be taking the boat once we got to Honolulu & she agreed that would be a good idea. Our friend would let us know as soon as he heard anything from the Captain's son.

We noticed more deficiencies with this boat today. The screws that hold the back of the settee onto the wall are popping out on one end.

The whole boat is in such dire straights! There are so many repairs that need to be done.

DAY 70

We were keeping up 7 - 8 knots doing a broad reach until just after my watch - about 3 in the morning.

We had a few days to go, approximately 120 nautical miles from Honolulu when the winds stopped!!! The sails were just flapping back & forth against the mast.

After my watch ended at 3 am it was Will's watch until 6 am when the Captain took over. My watch started again at 9 in the morning at which time Will usually would get up also.

When he got with me & we went on deck after the Captain had retired, he noticed that at some point she had locked the wind vane with the sails in a hove to position.

Great, we sure won't go anywhere with the sails in a heave to position.

The Coast Guard then requested that we do a check-in every two hours to report our current position. The Captain told the Coast Guard that we couldn't do that because we needed to sleep at night!! Incredible! Someone must be on watch at all times during passages. She also told them that she may request a pilot into a slip.

Everyone was very quiet on this day. We were all tired & just wanted to get into port. We all wanted this adventure to come to an end.

We were so close but so far & so tired by this time that we just wanted to end this adventure or "misadventure."

One good thing about sitting here like this is that is was hot & sunny. We were actually able to read a bit to pass the time.

Will discovered that the second reef tie was broken & that 3 of 4 of them were actually gone. He was looking at the lines & discovered that the jack lines weren't assembled properly & were worn almost completely through. Another thing that he fixed.

We hadn't heard back from the Coast Guard yet so the Captain contacted them again to get another message to her son regarding which marina we were to take the boat into. She had also requested them to contact her husband but there was no answer in response to her queries.

Our friend from Chilliwack contacted us in the evening & he had received an email from the Captain's son. He then gave us the details of where we were to take the boat once we got to Honolulu. He was also looking into finding us a place to stay once we made landfall.

DAY 71

We kept up our regular watches even though we had no wind & were drifting. Although we were only just over one hundred miles off of the Hawaiian Islands, we saw no other traffic in the water.

My watch this night continued like we had during the day - no wind - just drifting. Then, about half an hour into my watch the winds came up.

Yeah!! Wind! Now we can get going & put on some miles & reach landfall. The wind had picked up to 15 - 20 knots coming from the SSE. Not exactly the direction we needed because it was coming from directly behind us, but we could sail wing on wing.

I woke up Will to help set the sails. He got the sails up & had to tie the boom to starboard side to stop an accidental jibe because the wind was coming from directly behind us. We were going to sail with sails in a wing on wing formation.

Will asked the Captain to take the helm to hold the course until he could get the wind vane to work.

Yes, you guessed it - another malfunction & and at the most inopportune time! The wind vane would not engage.

While he was attempting to get it to work the Captain kept loosing the heading.

Will told her to "turn up, turn up" but she did not know or understand what was required. He realized that she did not know what "turn up" meant so told her to "turn left, turn left"  but she still didn't seem to know which left - his left or her left?!

Again he would tell her which direction to turn but she still could not get it. It was no wonder she couldn't get it because she kept watching the compass instead of the wind indicator. Had she been watching the wind indicator she would have seen where she had the boat positioned relative to the wind direction & could have steered the boat in such a way as to have the wind behind us.

Will noticed her looking at the compass instead of the wind indicator. No wonder she couldn't hold the course. He told her to stop looking at the compass & to look at the wind indicator.

Sailing with following seas & wing on wing it is imperative to watch the wind indicator. A compass is useless in this type of situation.

Besides which, this incident occurred in the middle of the night. The compass light did not work & had a huge air bubble in it making it almost impossible to read.

And, we were also getting hit with some rain at the same time.

Will was struggling to get the wind vane to work. It seemed like it was jammed tight. Meantime, I knew that the situation was going to be very dangerous if we did not get the boat positioned with the wind coming from directly behind us.

I told the Captain to watch the wind indicator & not the compass. She said she could not see the wind indicator with the glasses she had on!! I told her to go & get her other glasses.

She refused.

She told me to shut up & would not leave the helm. Again I told her to go & get her other glasses & again she refused.

I then took her by the top of her arm & tried to coax her away from the helm to go & get her other glasses.

Again she refused.

I then raised my voice & told her to go & get her f&*## glasses. She was firmly planted in the cockpit with legs spread wide & gripping the wheel & was not about to budge.

She was not listening to Will either when he told her which direction to steer.

It was pretty obvious that she had not sailed in these types of conditions before. She did not know what to do even when Will told her which way to steer.

She ended up getting the boat turned 130 degrees to starboard and put us sideways to the wind resulting in back winding the tied off mail sail. If you know anything about sailing you will know that this will make the boat come to a complete stop & result in a knockdown. Helm control is useless at this point.

By this time I could see that we needed to get control of the boat immediately or we were going to be in big trouble. A gust similar to the other ones that we had been experiencing would surely have knocked us over.

I then took hold of the tether from the front of her life jacket & pulled her away from the helm in order for Will to get control of the boat.

We were rapidly heading into a "knock down" situation which would have resulted in us going over! The only thing that saved the knockdown was a brief lull in the wind.

The Captain sat down in the cockpit & watched the goings on with a weird smile & look on her face, as if she was in another world.

Once she was away from the helm Will abandoned the wind vane & took over the helm & quickly got the boat pointed in the correct direction.

However, the winds ended up being so erratic that it was almost impossible to keep the boat moving. Just about the time he was able to get control of the boat to get the sails down, the wind died!

What we had just experienced was only a tropical squall. They are generally very short lived which this one proved to be. Our great winds to get us out of here & to our destination were gone!

 Oh no, not again! We were back to no wind & drifting!!

After the danger of this situation had passed & we had stopped shaking, we confronted the Captain with her actions & that her refusal to leave the helm could have capsized us.

She completely denied that she had done anything wrong & that we were not in any danger.

We were incredulous with her attitude! She simply did not realize the potential danger to us because of her actions.

We told her that we would carry on sailing & handling the boat until we got it to Hawaii. Will & I were so upset & adrenalin still pumping that neither one of us were able to sleep.

DAY 72

When my watch should have been finished at 3 am for Will to take over, I was still wired from the night's incident. I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway so I left Will resting until about 6 am.

The wind started to come up about 6 knots but didn't last long & we continued to drift. Our hopes of getting back to sailing out of here were quickly lost.

When Will got up he radioed the Coast Guard giving them our position & reported that we had had an almost knockdown situation during the night.

Meantime, the Captain had been up in her V berth. She heard Will do the check in & decided that she needed to contact the Coast Guard herself & reported that "she had been assaulted by her female crew member."

What a laugh! or cry?! I was trying to save our lives by getting her out of the way when she obviously did not recognize a dangerous situation. And now she was accusing me of assault?! Just another of her strange behaviors.

By this time I was laying in bed trying to get some sleep. I was incredulous to hear this to say the least. Unbelievable! This woman just kept refusing to take responsibility for anything she had done.

The Captain was quiet & stayed in her V berth most of the day. After the events of the night we were exhausted. The morning presented us with the usual hot & humid temperatures & no wind again.

Oh joy! All Will & I wanted to do was to get the heck off this boat & away from the Captain. Enough already! What would she do next?

About 3 in the afternoon I was lying down trying to get some rest when Will told me I better get up & come out into the cockpit. He stated that "we have company."

I got up & went outside to see a very large Coast Guard boat approaching us & hailing us on the radio.

Will was talking to them & they were telling him that they were going to launch their small boat & wanted to come aboard. The Captain heard this & grabbed the radio in the cabin & started talking over their conversation.

She wanted to know where they were. She hadn't looked outside to see what was going on. She did not realize they were on our doorstep.

Once they boarded our boat they did a general inspection of the boat to make sure that it was safe & not taking on water, etc. I was so very happy to see these men.

I had already told one of the Coast Guard men that I was going to go on their boat if they decided not to tow us in. I had had my fill of this sailing adventure & just wanted off of this run down boat. I was so tired of all the malfunctions, running out of food & provisions, being hot & humid & not enough water to bathe. The man I talked to said that they would not leave us alone & drifting out there. I was so thankful & glad to hear him say that. Come hell or high water I was going to get off that boat!

Will & I told them briefly what had happened during our entire passage on this boat & with this Captain & our concerns with the Captain taking this boat back to Canada. We told them we did not think that  she was capable of skippering it back to Canada with anyone other than the most experienced sailors. We told them briefly about our concerns with the condition of the boat & its' systems.

However, he set the sails for the various directions that was requested. Then they wanted to question Will by himself in the cabin, so he asked the Captain to take the helm & told her which direction he was maintaining.

He no sooner left the helm & went below that the Captain lost the course.

When he came back after explaining his concerns, he got the boat back to the course that was requested. When the mother boat saw who was at the helm (Will) & realized he knew how to sail, they decided that there really wasn't enough wind to sail.

Will realized they were only testing to see if the Captain knew what she was doing or if she could handle the boat.

Once the decision was made for a tow, the men prepared to get us ready. The mother boat had to get close to our bow in order to give the men a rope to tie us. On one of their approaches they got too close to the bow & broke a safety line & bent the bow pulpit.

On another pass they were able to throw the huge rope over. They tied this to the base of the mast.

While the two men from the Coast Guard boat were at the bow preparing for our tow, the Captain approached them with a knife in her hand. Will & I were watching from the cockpit & saw their surprised looks & glances back & forth. They were clearly surprised & didn't know what was going on. Will knew right away what the intentions of the Captain were & told her that now would not be a good time to try to secure the broken stay. It appeared that the Captain thought it would be a good time to take a knife & tape onto the deck to tape the broken stay to prevent it flapping. For once she listened to Will & came back to the cockpit. He told her the stay could be secured later. Once the two Coast Guard men were assured that the Captain wasn't going to do something untoward, they carried on with readying the boat for the tow.

By 6:30 pm the Coast Guard members had attached a tow line to the base of the mast & proceeded to tow us into Maui. It was closer to go to Maui than Honolulu, so that was where we were going. Even at that, it would be about 66 miles off of Maui.

Two of the Coast Guard members stayed on board our boat during the tow. I felt sorry for the guys because they were sitting in the cockpit all night. During the tow the winds came up & were blowing about 20 - 25 knots & we had the ride of our life. The Coast Guard cutter went as slow as it possibly could given the conditions, but we were bounced off of our bed all night & the guys in the cockpit had to hang on pretty tight also.

The Coast Guard boat was a 100' Cutter named Kittiwake. It wouldn't be easy for a vessel that large to go as slow as we would need to go for the tow in.

It didn't matter any more at this point in time. We were actually going to reach landfall this night!! The two Coast Guard men stayed out in the cockpit all night & were bounced up & down with such force from the strong winds. We were levitated right up off our beds in the cabin. Sleep was almost impossible.

We arrived to the head of Maalaea Bay, Island of Maui about 5 am. The cutter that towed us in was too large to enter the harbour so we were handed off to a smaller Coast Guard boat & towed into the Coast Guard docks in Maalaea Harbour.

The sun was just coming up as we were approaching the Island of Maui. What an awesome sight!!  Land!!!! And the ending to this adventure/misadventure!

We were finally tied up to the Coast Guard dock by about 6 am & completely exhausted. We could not leave the boat however, until we were cleared by Customs & Immigration & went through the check in procedure. 

The officials arrived about 8:30 am at which time we were allowed to get off the boat but could not leave until they had finished all the paperwork.

The Captain was taken inside the Coast Guard office & Will & I were left standing around outside with Coast Guard surveillance waiting for clearance to leave.

It was about 3 hours later that we were finally cleared & allowed to go. During this entire time the boat was being searched with a fine tooth comb. Once the inspections & clearances were done, we were allowed to go on board & get our bags.

We could not believe the condition of the boat when we went back to get our things. The boat had been completely searched from stem to stern & was left the way they took it apart. It was a complete shambles! It would take a long time to get it back in order.

And we didn't care - we had already cleaned the Captain's messy boat & had our fill - this time she could put it back together - we were out of there!!

We placed them on the dock & then the Captain was instructed to go below & check things out before we were allowed to leave.

Once she gave the ok that things were ok, a taxi was called for us & we were out of there like a shot!

For a good part of the tow, the wind & waves pounded the boat. At times it felt like we were being hit by a train, the whole boat would shudder & shake. The structure of the boat may have been damaged.

It looked like the mast may have been bent from the tow; the pulpit was bent; the safety rail broke; the knot speed indicator was broken; the wind indicator was not working properly; the steering wheel was completely out of alignment. The boat really took a pounding. It would need a lot of work to get it ready to head back to Canada if the Captain was still going to embark on the Hawaii-Victoria passage.

She actually thanked Will for all that he had done. I thanked the Captain for giving me the opportunity to gain the experiences that I had gained through this journey.

We were completely exhausted & relieved that this ordeal was really over. It seemed like we were numbed from this ordeal.

All we wanted to do was get some breakfast, a place to stay, debrief & relax for a few days before heading home to Canada. 

The Coast Guard had called a taxi for us & as soon as it arrived we headed out without a backward glance.