Sailing from Hawaii to Alaska on a Custom Built Steve Dashew Sailboat as Volunteer Crew

Get the popcorn ready and find that comfy spot on the couch for this full length feature film of my first ever open ocean passage from Hawaii to Alaska across the pacific!

On Friday, September 2nd, 2022 we departed Hanalei Bay, Hawaii on the north shore of Kauai and set out for Kodiak Island, Alaska on S/V Deerfoot II - a custom built Steve Dashew monohull sailboat made for world cruising.

This trip marks my first passage as a sailor being a volunteer crew member and it had no shortage of excitement as we caught 4 Mahi Mahi and 1 Albacore Tuna!

On day 2 of the passage we suffered a torn jib on our only structural furler, which forced us to get pretty creative with the remaining hanked on sails still in use on furlers using dyneema line. Although not caught on camera, a block holding the main halyard broke on day 3 of the trip, leading to some mid-sea repairs. Don't worry though - no bananas were on board and our bad luck subsided!

You won't want to miss out on our daring swim as we jump off the boat while becalmed in ~19,000 ft of water in the middle of the pacific ocean with land nearly 1,000 miles away in all directions...

Get ready to take notes as I reel in a nice Mahi Mahi on a handline and later describe one of the fishing setups which gave us such great success during the passage. Andrew and I came up with these configurations on the fly with the supplies we found onboard, shortly after we departed Hanalei Bay.

Overall the passage took us 18 days to complete - arriving in Kodiak, Alaska on Tuesday, September 20th, 2022. For much of the trip north, the wind did not want to cooperate - having wind directly in our face, or no wind at all which forced us to motor to make any progress toward our destination.

Don't forget to pump up those jams and get in those calisthenics to stay young and mobile! Exercising on a moving boat is quite difficult given the constant rocking (which makes for a whole workout in and of itself). I definitely lost a few lbs on the trip, and on average an estimated 5 - 10 lbs of weight loss is normal for an open ocean passage due to many factors.

Andrew and I covered the night watch from 8 pm to 4 am through the entirety of the passage, where we comfortably kept watch from the pilothouse aboard Deerfoot II. In the darkness of the night you can't see hardly anything and have to rely heavily on instruments for navigation and detecting other ships at sea. Captain Stephen and Debbie took over the watch at 4 am until around noon, where we all then kept watch as everyone was up and about.

All that time at sea allowed us to witness some of the true beauty of our planet that few get to see in their lifetime. Absolutely astounding! It also lead us to some hilarious shenanigans to keep the journey fun and entertaining!

Heaps of downloaded movies, shows, and books were completed by all of us aboard Deerfoot II during the voyage in our downtime - when we weren't changing sails or tidying up.

I hope you enjoy watching along as much as I enjoyed putting this video together and getting to re-live my first passage experience! All the footage was filmed on a GoPro Hero 8 and edited by yours truly, ‪@captain_jumbo‬

Special thanks to Captain Stephen for letting me take part in this adventure on his beautiful boat!

Another special thanks to Debbie for keeping all of us so well fed throughout the passage with her great home cooked meals!

Check out their YouTube Channel ‪@SailingDeerfoot‬ for more content from the passage and beyond!

Special thanks to Andrew for being the first one to jump on the opportunity to sail to Alaska and inadvertently convincing me join as well!

Thank you so much to the viewers! Please like, subscribe, and let me know your favorite part of the video in the comments!

Until the next adventure...

Aloha from Kauai

All music is licensed through Soundstripe.