The Hawaiian Voyages Of The Ono Jimmy
 Steve Dixon
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2000 Hawaii Trade Winds Pub, Hilo, HI USA
  ISBN: 0966362403
Amazon's Value Price is: $19.95

Join the crew of the Ono Jimmy & share the joy & fear of real sea voyages to exciting Hawaiian destinations. With first-hand cruising tips, navigation charts & directions for special sightseeing tours.

1993-4 was a horrible year for Steve Dixon until a 1973 Morgan 27 sloop hove into view & enticed him into the clear & shining waters around the Hawaiian Islands. In this lively & eminently readable first effort, Steve Dixon skippers us on some of the grandest, wettest & funniest voyages around paradise.

...the Ono Jimmy came to me in early 1994...a time of great personal evolution and re-creation, a passage of loss, tragedy, death, and financial and emotional destruction. His maiden voyage from Hilo to Maui with Ray Bieber set Steve off on a grand healing tour of the Islands.

On to Kaunakakai, Moloka'i with Tony Hiegal, poet & sailor. Dive into Steve's discussions of types of anchors - 20-pound Danforths versus 33-pound Bruces & sails - gennaker versus spinnakers, together with choices of moorings & bays & an unexpected debates about watering holes & restaurants.

It's not all grey matter reading:...The motor was screaming and the boat careening up and down at full speed. I was exhilarated, manic, laughing wildly into the wind and spray. I can still see Tony, hanging on, wrapped arms and legs around the bow, clutching the forestay while trying to get the 110% working job down and bend the 80% storm job hanks on to the forestay. He was bucking high in the air...then he disappeared into white foam....He finally yelled...“How fast are we going?” I looked at the speed display on the Jeeps(GPS). “Seven nine!” I yelled back. Oh, if looks could kill, I was dead right there...then we saw IT!...a solid wall of roiling black and froth white at the bottom...It stretched from a place where the horizon, the sea, and the Hamakua coast joined, many miles off our starboard bow, to somewhere in frothing hell off to the northwest behind our port stern, across the dreaded Alenuihaha Channel...

& then romance arrives in the beautiful & playful form of 'Commodorable' Lila Moore & those bachelor cruises come to an end & when son Zak turns up, the temper of the voyages becomes lighter of heart as each bay & passage is explored & relished, along with some hilarious escapades.

With bright energetic writing, an addendum of navigation charts & a slew of vivid, boisterous snapshots, this salty dog gives us a winter's worth of sailing yarns & debates, geological & topographical details, historical insights & an invitation to come play around his necklace of tropical islands cast upon a fabulous sea.

Great reading - lot's of personal opinions & cruising information with a lively smattering of the lovely Hawaiian language.

This is a warm & personal account of the thrills, history & romance of sailing the Hawaiian passages with his spunky Commodorable Lila & all about the lessons he learnt during his passage from despairing novice to joyous seasoned cruiser.

Do check out my exhilarating Interview Skipper Steve Dixon!

Checkout the authors website at http://www.hawaiisailing.com
(12/10/00)

Rebecca