The Ocean Roar

A small boy heard the ocean roar,

There are secrets on my distant shore,

But beware my child, the ships bell’s wail,

Wait not too long to start to sail.

So quickly come and go the years,

And a young adult stands abeach with fears,

Come on, Come on, the ocean cussed,

Time passes on. Oh sail you must.

Now its business in mid-aged prime,

And maybe tomorrow there will be time,

Now is too soon, its raining today,

Gone, all gone, years eaten away.

An old man looks, still feeling the lure,

Yet he’ll suffer the pain, than go for the cure,

The hair is white, the steps with care,

The tide has turned, he is aware.

So all too soon the secrets are buried,

Along with him, and all regrets he carried,

And it’s not for the loss of secrets he cried,

But rather because, he’d never tried.

                          ∞∞∞

 

 

,,,well there’ll be none of that for this crew!   HAWAII here we come!!     :  )

 

 

The date is set for November, 2014  / with a back-up plan for February, 2015.  Our second visit to San Diego is drawing to an end.

 

 

 

 

Before we leave California however, there were a few excursions to be done,,,  like Napa Valley!  We visited two Vineyards, STERLING & BERINGER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Julie and I took some additional training classes at ABT (American Bow Thruster) for their TRAC Stabilizers.  This was one of the best courses we have ever taken, and well worth the effort.  Bravo ABT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to actually departing for Hawaii, we had a few deferred maintenance tasks to be carried out.  We were fortunate enough to have INFINITY crew member FRANK BALM (N46 NAVIGATOR) onboard a few days early to help out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEATHER:  We will obviously require a favorable weather window though, and for that we’ll look to Bob Jones at OMNI.    www.oceanmarinenav.com   Bob will be able to give us the Go / No-Go advise we’ll rely on.   All boaters have their our own personal weather sites which work for them, my two favorites are :

1.  Passage Weather

2.  Earth / Wind / Ocean Map

Between these two sites, I have a reasonable idea of what’s happening.  The professional back-up comes from Bob.  And when we all get it wrong, INFINITY will take care of us.  (it’s a deal we have,,, we take care of her, She takes care of us  :  )

 

 

HARLEY:  So it’s all going good so far,, well no actually.  We’ve hit a snag.  Harley can not come with us.  The realization was actually distressing.  I realize that this must sound a little strange, but Harley is one of the family and we weren’t really prepared for the news.  Anyway, she’ll have to stay with friends or family until she’s clear to join us in Hawaii which is around Christmas time.

 

 

INFINITY ∞  Get-Together / Bon-Voyage party  [October 30th, 2014]     (Nordhavn Owners, Dreamers, Friends & Family)

 

 

On October 30th, our departure date was delayed to Tuesday, November 4th. due to weather  :  (     So the next best Plan was to check out the famous Mai Tai’s at Bali Hai restaurant.  I can officially confirm they are as good as their reputation   ;  )

 

 

After receiving a favorable forecast, we set out as planned, bound for Oahu, Hawaii.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie took INFINITY out of her slip and into the Pacific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It didn’t take long for the fishing to begin, and we got lucky!  Frank lands the first one, which was our best catch of the trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also caught 5 Dorado’s (Mahi-Mahi) over the next few days.  They were all 25-35 lbs, so we were eating a lot of fish!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here come the obligatory INFINITY sunset pictures,,, we can’t help ourselves    ;  )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had 7 OK weather days, 4 poor weather days, and one absolutely spectacular day.  The next 2 videos & 10 photos will show you what I’m talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie and I manged some ‘alone-time’ on the bow.  After the great day we had the day before, the weather started turning to custard. We knew we were going to pay for that glorious day.  No problem, it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost there explained

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:  2014/Nov/17:     We made it!  Safe & sound in Oahu, HAWAII.  We arrived at 0900, and checked into Ko Olina Marina.  Vessel & crew all well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VOYAGE TOTALS:

Total Milage – 2330 nautical miles

Total Fuel Burn -1865 gallons (1721 Main Engine / 144 Generator)

Duration – 303 Hours    (12 days, 15 hours)

Average Speed – 7.7 knots