We flew into Oahu on March 17, 2006 St Patrick's Day and Jerry picked us up at the airport.

Jerry is the Captain of the boat that we are sailing from Oahu to Kauai.  Our friend Mark is on Oahu working on a boat he purchased and we stop by to visit.  At the harbor looking over Mark's new boat we find out he is returning with us on the boat.  Mark is another experienced sailor and of course his presence is most welcomed.

When we left Kauai the rains where relentless and seven people have died as a result.  Since we are sailing to Kauai we of course do not want to sail into the frequent storms that are occurring there.

We play it by ear on when to depart but we must leave by Monday morning.  In the mean time we listen to the weather reports and take in the sites.

We where docked at the Ko'Olina Harbor a nice upscale harbor with great facilities.

The name of the boat is the Eagle and she is a 33 foot Sail Boat in nice shape.

We are having the most fun just sitting on the boat at the harbor. We lay back have some beers and wine, have pizza delivered to us and just talk story till it's time to go to bed.

The following day more of the same and we decide to leave Sunday morning. The weather window is looking good with predictions of 5-15 knot winds, 3-5 seas and rain.  No cause for concern, not much wind just going to be a cold wet long trip.  The crossing should take between 11 and 18 hours. 

We get out provisions on Saturday for our Sunday departure, return the rental car and make a fairly early night of it.

We are up at 5am and start securing the boat, stowing things, closing the portholes, securing latches etc ... Mark gets ice incase we catch fish along the way to keep them fresh for the market.

When we shove off at 7am the clouds look like rain and it starts raining quickly into the trip.  Into rain gear as we try to stay dry for the trip. 

An hour into journey the clouds ahead look like some forbidden abyss to this rookie.

Mark goes down to rest as there is no need for more than two in the cockpit; Jerry and I stay up top.  Winds are starting to pick up and both of us put on our Safety Harness (Me being the rookie I also had on; life vest and a strobe beacon) and then it hits.

Now I know this is not the worst storm in the world but a steady 25-30 knot wind was scary enough for me.  Then a gust of wind would come and it just made matters worse.  So the boat is pitched to the starboard side hard most of the time and every now and then it would roll hard to the port.  Water was coming over the bow and slapping you in the face and the cockpit would fill with water every two minutes.  Operating the tiller took two hands and I ended up cursing at it trying to hold course.  So now I'm wet, cold and scared and wondering how did I get myself into this.  This goes on for a better part of five hours, where I learned that I enjoyed cursing at objects. 

Six and a half hours into the trip and five hours into the storm it starts to break.  Sails start going up I'm starting to settle down and things are looking good.  Most things look good but the cabin is a mess and still to rough to straighten out.  

Weather is good and as we start to see Kauai we know we are in for a nice sunset at sea.