As night fell on day 35 at sea an orange glow appeared on the horizon. Just over 70 miles away, the lava flow on Hawaii ‘The Big Island’ was burning bright.  By daybreak land was in view, although we were 35 miles or so offshore mainly because the wind and current had taken us that way. The southern part of the island remained completely hidden behind thick ‘vog’, through the binoculars we could see steam rising from the ocean in various places.  The dormant volcano on the Northern part of the island was visible though and pretty impressive, even from a distance.

Lava flowing into the sea creating a cloud of steam and gases

Mauna Kea is a dormant shield volcano at the north of The Big Island, with 4,207 metres above sea level most of it is under water. Measured from its oceanic base it is over 10,000 metres tall which makes it the tallest mountain in the world. An impressive sight from 32 miles away!

By mid afternoon the wind had completely died on us, with less than 5 knots of wind and a mirror calm sea we were going nowhere and the sails were flogging badly.  Reluctantly we turned on the engine and furled the sails away, always an anticlimax. I sanded down and restained the teak cap rail which had been stripped of its protection by 5 weeks of salt and sun, and Jez put out the rod again. Very shortly he had caught another Mahi Mahi for supper, the fishing on this passage has been excellent and we have eaten fish every day for the last month.  By dark we were approaching the notorious channel in-between The Big Island and Maui and the lava flow glowed its beautiful orange yet again.

The wind sadly didn’t return, so under motor we arrived into Kahului Harbour on the east coast of Maui around 11am on day 37 having travelled 5,141 miles from Panama.  The sight of the dramatic mountains on Maui was a welcome sight after nothing but sea and sky for five weeks.

Leaving a very stormy Panama behind us

Las Perlas Islands made a quick stop over to clean the prop

Saying goodbye to land under an orange sky

This frigate bird, a few hundred miles offshore, attacks another seabird in an attempt to steal his catch

This booby flew straight into our shrouds!

A cling-on on the starboard bow

A feeding frenzy, spot the dolphin leaping!

A beautiful Red-Footed Booby takes a welcome break from fishing

A fishing boat passes us north of Galapagos Islands, our last sighting of another boat

Spectacular sunsets

Maui just in sight as the sun goes down

Maui’s dormant volcano, Haleakala (3,055m), looked beautiful in the early morning sun. We could see numerous waterfalls along this eastern coast.

The mountains of West Maui make a beautiful back-drop to the town and harbour at Kahului

Joy’s route Panama to Hawaii – 37 days and 5,141 nautical miles