A journey of 6924 miles starts with a single stroke...

Stage One:
Presidio Yacht Club, San Francisco (37 50'N 122 28'W)
to Waikiki, Hawaii (21 17'N 157 50'W)
2081 nautical miles, 2395 statute miles, 3854 kilometres, bearing 252 degrees

Stage Two:
Waikiki, Hawaii (21 17'N 157 50'W)
to Tuvalu (8 30'S 179 12'E)
2180 nautical miles, 2509 statute miles, 4038 kilometres, bearing 217 degrees

Stage Three:
Tuvalu (8 30'S 179 12'E)
to Cairns, Australia (16 54'S 145 48'E)
2020 nautical miles, 2324 statute miles, 3740 kilometres, bearing 252 degrees


Details of Route for Stage One

The bearing from San Francisco to Hawaii is 251.7 degrees. However, my boat is very prone to the effects of wind and currents, so my course will not take a straight line between the two point.

Initially I aim to follow a course just north of the marked shipping lane through the Potato Patch, to avoid the worst of the potentially choppy conditions on the exit from the Golden Gate Bridge, while also avoiding incoming and outgoing shipping. This channel also gets the fastest-flowing waters of the ebb tide, which I hope to take advantage of in order to get away from land as quickly as possible.

My next waypoint will be just north of the Farralon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. After this the conditions could get much rougher, with winds of 40 knots and 15 foot seas being not uncommon.

I will continue to keep my bows pointed west, but the effect of the winds (predominantly northerlies at this time of year) will take me south. The resulting course is likely to be southwesterly - around 200 to 220 degrees.

The route from San Francisco to Hawaii covers 2081 nautical miles, 17 degrees of latitude (from 38 degrees to 21 degrees North), and 36 degrees of longitude (from 122 degrees to 158 degrees West).

I hope to find consistent trade winds once I get to 27 degrees North 130 degrees West. These winds blow from the East, as the effect of the Pacific High comes into play.

And from there, I hope I will be surfing all the way to Hawaii! But as I found on the Atlantic, weather rarely does what it is supposed to do, and if in doubt it does the exact opposite of what I want....

Details of the routes for Stages Two and Three will be published nearer the time.