We became friends with Dick and Gail off a motor
yacht Ice Dancer II. Yes friends with people off a power boat!
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| Ice Dancer II in Majuro |
Gail had to fly home to Alaska with some health
issues and Dick needed a hand to get Ice Dancer back to Hawaii. So Ants jumped
on board to motor 2000 nms upwind.
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| The immaculate LARGE engine room |
A bit about the boat. She is a Nordhavn 56' of
about 60 tonnes and a million dollar plus luxury long distance boat with 80000
miles under her keel. She has a John Deere 350 HP main engine with a 36 inch 4
blade prop and a 90 HP wing engine with folding prop which also has hydraulics
for bow and stern thrusters and winches. A couple of big generator sets fit
easily in the cavernous engine room. 8000 litres of fuel capacity gives a range
of 2500nms at 8 knots.
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| Dick looking after the John Deere |
Dick and Gail have been all over the Pacific and
Cape Horn and Australia (Port Davey in Tasmania was a favourite).
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| In better weather enjoying a fish dinner |
The trip from Majuro was upwind in 18 to 20 knots
for the first 2 days and I struggled a bit with the motion (most unusual for
me). I still managed my watches plus a couple of small repairs deep in a bilge
and up the radar mast. Then the wind went light and we had 9 days of easy
motoring to Hawaii.
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| The Blue Marlin we released unharmed |
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| A Brown Boobie |
We had a good catch of a 100 something pound Short
Bill Spear Fish (great eating) and a catch and release 40 something pound Blue
Marlin.
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| Sunrise in North Pacific |
A very easy trip saw us arrive pre dawn at the Ko
Olina marina and after a little hassle with immigration (my electronic visa
waiver didn't work on a private yacht ;they did waive eventually the $585
penalty) I enjoyed 3 days in Hawaii before flying home to the Marshalls.
An interesting side trip but I am a yachtie at
heart. I think it will take the European canals to convince me to be a power
boat man!
