Trans-Pacific on the Loose Pointer


In a long-delayed journey, the 54-foot Loose Pointer with its two-man crew returned from New Zealand to California over an eventful six-week journey. Captain Dan Best and First Mate Brian Kallen forwarded several updates via the “Sailmail mail server” to friends and family back home. These are their reports.

Brian’s Journal: November 1st. Hawaii to California, Passing customs, pacific trash vortex.

January 28, 2013

We arrived in the middle of the night, and motored up the west side of the island watching the lights of civilization in the east. The rows of yellow streetlamps, staggered red lights of a runway blinking on and off in perfect unison, a lighthouse marking some rocky point declaring the danger with its regular [...]

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Brian’s Journal: October 24th, 2012. The trip from American Samoa to Hawaii

January 28, 2013

We spent a few days provisioning, taking the local taxies to the foreign stores to take on supplies for our trip. The local busses are exciting affairs; pickup trucks of various sizes stripped of everything in back of the windshield and rebuilt with lumber into rectangular boxlike compartments lined with backed benches in the manner [...]

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Dan’s Journal: October 2nd, 2012. Arrival in Hawaii

January 28, 2013

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 Current Location:  Honokohau Marina space 32 19 dg. 40.186′ N, 156 dg. 01.332′ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  13,474.29 Aloha! Loose Pointer is once again firmly tied to the shore after a somewhat frustrating 26 ½ day journey from Pago Pago, American Samoa.  We arrived yesterday about 2am and dropped [...]

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Dan’s Journal: September 26th, 2012. Engine trouble and a fire in the cabin

January 28, 2013

Wednsday, September 26, 2012 Current Location:  Underway 09 dg. 49.196′ N, 154 dg. 33.310′ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  12,869.73 “Holy Mother of God!” I groaned as I crawled back into my bunk.  ”What could possibly be next?” The day started out badly with my only getting a couple of hours sleep [...]

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Dan’s Journal: September 18th, 2012. Calm weather and a broken propeller.

January 28, 2013

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Current Location:  Underway 03 dg. 51.867′ S, 158 dg. 40.199′ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  11,971.23 It’s been a slow trip so far.  Rather than the steady trade winds the area is famous for, we’ve experienced just about everything but, dominated by light, rapidly changing and contrary winds. [...]

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Dan’s Journal: September 5th, 2012. Underway again

January 28, 2013

Wednesday, September 05, 2012 Current Location:  Underway 15 dg. 11.514′ S, 169 dg. 57.583′ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  10,885.66 Loose Pointer is underway again. We got away yesterday at 5:20pm though it took two tries.  After untying from the mooring, the engine wouldn’t rev up so we quickly grabbed the mooring again while [...]

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Dan’s Journal: August 28th, 2012: Cleaning the boat

January 25, 2013

Well, I just used up one scuba tank cleaning the bottom and it’s going to take a least one more and possibly part of a third.  The wind chop didn’t affect me as much as I was afraid it would. I can’t say I’m impressed with the performance of the bottom paint we put on [...]

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Dan’s Journal: August 26th, 2012. End of the first leg, plans for the second

January 25, 2013

Current Location:  Pago Pago, American Samoa 14 dg. 16.363’ S, 170 dg. 41.645’ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  10,813.60   It’s been a long time since I’ve written in this journal, so I’d better bring everybody up to date.   When I left off, we were heading for Pago Pago from southern Tonga in [...]

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Brian’s Journal: May 5th, 2012. Out of the storm and on to paradise

January 25, 2013

We finally got things wrapped up in Pangimotu, and as I rowed the dinghy away from the beach for the last time one of the island dogs was sitting on the beach baying across the harbor towards Nuku’alofa like his heart had been broken and we watched him until he spotted us and then sat [...]

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Dan’s Journal: April 30th, 2012. A breather in Tonga then on to Samoa

January 25, 2013

Monday, April 30, 2012 Current Location:  Anchored at Pangaimotu, Tonga 21 dg. 07.595′ S, 175 dg. 09.715′ W Total distance traveled so far by sea:  10,292.49 We’ve been having great difficulty getting a connection with our SSB radio to the shore stations that we can pass email too.  This has two ramifications:  It makes it [...]

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