We heard about “the most dangerous crossing in the islands” and were a little trepidatious, but the weather forecast looked good, 15-20 knots, 8 foot seas, and we knew we could always just turn around for a quartering wind return to the safety of Maui’s lee. But once out in the channel it was just perfect sailing! Fast, rolling over the waves, no bashing or pounding, just awesome! Triple reefed main, jib rolled up a bit, the wind a few points forward of the beam, 7 knots the whole way across. Then we hit the lee of the Big Island and we screeched to a halt with nothing to do but go for a swim. Diving under and looking up at the silhouette of the hull in the amazingly clear turquoise of the water was a sight to see. Just don’t think “shark” :) We finally put the sails up and tried to ghost towards the windline a few hundred meters away, but it kept leading us too far to the west sooo “Fine! We’ll turn the engine on. Bah!” We motored into the Kawaihae Harbor just after sun-down for a well-protected, calm dinner and a good sleep.
