The Alenuihaha Channel that lies between the Big Island of Hawaii and Maui, is considered one of the most treacherous channels in the world due to the strong winds and high seas that funnel between the two islands’ narrow pass (~26 nm). In the Hawaiian language, alenuihaha means "great billows smashing”, and that it is!! On the day we originally tried to launch Europa, Jan 6th, we were experiencing gale force winds, with gusts over 50mph. We stood by monitoring the weather hourly and were finally able to find a break in the weather on Jan 8th, and successfully launched Europa. However, we were still experiencing gale force winds and seas over 15ft. We decided to not have Europa cross the channel directly from Puako but instead to send Europa 30nm south, off Kailua Kona, in hopes of getting out of the strongest funneling affects. Nonetheless, Europa still faced gusts over 50mph and seas over 15ft. The video below from Windy shows the wind gusts for the channel and Kailua Kona.
Another reason we sent Europa south to cross the channel is that this avoided crossing the densest part of the shipping lanes coming in and out of the state’s ports. Map below shows the vessels and Europa as the yellow star.
While she had to dodge several ships, there was one encounter that was quite close. When this happens, we get “Proximity Warning” alarms sent to our cell phones (25 of them in the middle of the night!), notifying us of an oncoming ship. Below is the ship Azamara Journey, that was barrelling down on Europa at 15 knots.
Fortunately, Europa has anti-collision software that detects a ship several miles away and when it determines their paths will cross, she takes evasive action to alter her course until the ship has passed by, then gets back on course. At the time of crossing paths, they were 1nm apart (see map below).
Green breadcrumbs are Europa. Grey are Azamara Journey.
Europa’s first sunset
Europa taking on waves in the channel
Europa on a stormy day