Another Transpac and Another Waikiki trip 2023

Hello again Waikiki 2023

View From the Pearl Harbour memorial 

View of Oahu from the plane

Bill wanted to do another Transpac this year. The 2021 Transpac was still covid constrained and it didn't feel the same as the first one with Peregrine. 

Juno at the start of the race

So off to Oahu we go again, in 2023. This time I don't have to take covid tests or fill up covid forms and I'm also utterly confused when i got out of the terminal as it's not full of people =)

It's a little stressful trying to ensure I arrive on time for his arrival. Over the course of 12 days, his arrival time fluctuated between 9pm to 330am. My plane touch down at 5pm which can be dicey to make it to the club if they get in any earlier.. 

On top of that, Yellow brick has 4 different times as they have views for 4 hours delay, 200m live and both of those views shows vgm recent, vgm normal. We finally figured out which one to follow but it still fluctuated like crazy in the last 2 hours as they lost the wind after a squall in the Molokai channel

A rainbow greeted me when i open the patio door of our room when i checked in, welcoming me back

Bill is in division 8 this time with Juno and it's been fun following his journey to Hawaii on Yellowbrick. Jeff the navigator did his wizard magic again this time and they won their division. 

Juno crew arriving at Hawaii Yacht Club, finishing the race at 3am.

They  beat Sweet Okole which has professional sailors and a seasoned crew and I realized that kind of made it a pretty cool win.. =) 

We met Joy who was coordinating all the incoming boats and stayed up late for 3 to 4 days to welcome 50+ boats coming in day and night for Transpac. That's truly dedication

Transpac this year brought back the welcome party with a host family/boat responsible for throwing a welcome party for everyone.

The locals threw a really good welcome party for Juno and open the bar at 3am for Juno.. They gathered after Juno was within 50nm range and brought out all the supplies to get food and drinks ready for them. They also had to wait more than an hour with us before Juno finally arrived at the club and finish inspection. 

Mai tais at 3am.. yum

Thanks to MJ, Alethea and Mike for organizing this!
They are the crew and friends of boat "Born free" 

Needless to say, Happy&Grateful&Drunk sailors. Charlie also came over to meet up with Bill after partying with Bad Pak crew and it's fun to see the 2 brothers sharing stories of their Transpac.

 (Note: Charlie sailed on Nereid for Transpac. They won their division and got 2nd overall)

Juno Crew with Bill, And Charlie (his brother and Bill)

After the crew had time to drink and eat, we all dispersed so that they can get shower and sleep (yes, in that order). Bill totally panicked when he woke up and don't see the horizon and went to draw the blinds back and calmed down when he saw the horizon hahahaha.. 

That woke us up and we got up and went to find coffee and food (Bill think he was still drunk when we went to get breakfast too) We got to Sunny's and had their breakfast scramble, after we drop off his laundry at a local place to get washed and folded. 

Sunny's egg scramble

After breakfast Bill went back to the boat with the crew to start the clean up process. I went to Ilikai umbrella area to read my book till I collect the laundry for him. I avoided the club that day as all the bigger boats are arriving that day and I know it won't be a peaceful place for me to read and relax. 

Ilikai Umbrella area with a view of the marina

Got a local tip that 7-11 has good musubi and they are right!

Great Musubis from 7-11

That night we met up for a crew dinner at Indochine on Monday night. Somehow we forgot to take a picture of the entire dinner party that night but it was a fun and low key night with all of them sharing stories of the race. Dan had to skip the party as he got drunk at the welcome tent haha 

Tapas style dinner at Indochine

The 2nd day Bill and the rest of the crew is working on dismantling the gear on the boat. So we walked to 7-11 to get more musubi for breakfast with coffee from Sunny.   I went shopping for Transpac swag, had lunch at Hawaii Yacht Club with them when they are finished. I totally enjoy reading my book with a Mai Tai at the club, away from the crazy Hawaiian village that we are staying. And it was a quiet day with only 2 boats arriving as most had came in the day before. 

Good garlic fries and mussels for lunch with a priceless view at Hawaii YC

We went to Don Quijote for some sushi takeout for dinner and they remind me of Don Don Donki in Singapore. Exact same layout and it turns out i was right =) they are the same! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quijote_(store)

The 4th day we woke up early and queued at Aloha Kitchen 10 mins before they open. We were able to be seated when they open at 730am and we got out by 830 =) This is the souffle pancake place that we went 2 years ago but I wanted to try their savory breakfast. The Loco Moco is very well executed with the perfect amount of rice to gravy to egg portion. Yum.. And Bill's egg benedict is good too, with excellent kahlua pork 

Aloha kitchen for breakfast

We met a crew member from Good Trouble, a lady who sailed in the Transpac. She was telling us that they are sponsored for sailing to enable folks to experience Transpac even if they are not old and white =) It's quite interesting and I'm happy she got this chance. But truly, I don't know why you would want to sail for 2 weeks without showers .. hmm

After that we went to the yacht club to bring Juno to the yard with Dan and crew. It's an eye opener for me to see all the boats being put on a trailer to get shipped back

Dan driving Juno to the yard

View of Diamond head from the ocean

Waikiki shoreline

Awesome collection of boats on trailer (sweet okole being one of them)

And i got to see Maserati in the day time. It's one of the trimaran that finish the race in 5 days! 

Maserati trimaran

That night we went for the party at Waikiki yc again but it's not very well organized and food was way worse than 2 years ago. But tons of Mai Tais! 

Waikiki Yacht Club party with the crew

"Thank you! Stranger" for helping me win a bet on Man-Bag at Waikiki YC! 

The 5th day is my last full day and with the boat gone, we can finally do something fun.

Our small tour bus for Pearl Harbour with Cousin David =)

 We took a tour to Pearl harbor to see Arizona memorial and Battleship Missouri. 

USS Arizona memorial

USS Missouri 

I never knew about the details of the attack on all the battleships at Pearl Harbour. It is also interesting to see how the start of USA WW2  involvement with the bombing of pearl harbor is bookend with the end of WW2 when jap sign the surrender treaty on Missouri

All the historical pictures of WW2 surrender treaty signing

And the 2 ships USS Arizona and USS Missouri now lie bow to bow in the ocean. One sank to the bottom and one decommissioned and a tourist spot. 

One of the anchor of USS Arizona at the visitor center. The other one is at Arizona

The USS Arizona had a full crew and a full load of ammunition as they are getting ready to leave the next day for a mission when the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbour. And the 4th missile ignited the ammo and caused the entire ship to blow up and sink, taking >900 sailors with it. And as it burned to the point that they are unlikely to identify the bodies, they choose to keep it as it is and built a memorial over it. To this day, the oil is still leaking from the ship as it's fully fueled for its trip

The memorial is also interesting as it has 7 windows on each side and 7 opening on the top to signal the 21 gun salute and the architect choose that to keep the memorial light. And it's higher on both sides to signify life before the war and at the end of the war being better than the center which is burdened by the war. And there are 2 panels next to the names of sailors to signify the tree of life. 

The memorial from the visitor center

The wall of sailors's names

Inside the memorial

We had lunch at Battleship Missouri as they have a food truck there with decent food. 

Garlic shrimp and chilli dog

After visiting the Battleship Missouri, we went to Punch bowl which is the cemetery. The lady Columbia status is there to signify an olive branch and soothing left hand to the deceased. And we got to see Ellison Onizuka grave who is one of the astronaut that was killed in challenger

https://www.pearlharbortours.com/punchbowl-national-cemetery/

We finally got our poke fix after the tour. What trip to Hawaii can be complete without good poke! 

Local poke (Hawaiian style Tuna and Spicy salmon)

On my way out of Oahu, I found the IASS lounge and waited for 30 mins for my boarding time. 

Nice IASS lounge