At the finish of the Pacific Cup at the Kaneohe Yacht Club, Hawaii, back in August I grabbed a cold drink from the Clubhouse and went for a walk around the docks. By the time I had gone up and down the floating G dock and also to the end of the wooden E dock I had clocked up a little over a 1/2 mile (I measured it on Google Earth!) and was ready for another cold drink!
But with the start of the Thursday night club racing imminent I decided to wait at the end of E dock and got talking story with Keith Leitzke, who was at the very end of the dock with his modified Cal 20, 'Magic'. Shirtless, with a full white beard and weathered baseball cap he had a rum in one hand and a VHF in the other.
We were all watching what to me was a pretty unique and very cool start from inside the marina! It's a rolling start with one end of the start line being the end of E dock and the other the red channel marker indicating the shallow reef. The fully crewed race boats gently slid on by between the two docks full of boats all setting their kites whilst still in the marina! No shouting, just a few gently clanging halyards in the background from the boats tied up, and they were off sailing out into the stunning Kaneohe Bay, "have fun" called the race committee.
Chatting with Keith I found out that Kaneohe is his home port, he's normally berthed closer in, but with so many visiting yachts from the Pacific Cup local boats make special accommodations. His Cal 20 'Magic' certainly catches your eye, especially being last on the dock after having walked past 60 other boats! You just know that 'Magic' has some stories to tell from the many miles under her keel.
Long-distance sailing on a micro-cruiser
Keith explains he often goes on long single-handed voyages without even setting foot ashore. For example his trip at sea for four months, sailing to within 150NM of Alaska and turning round to come back without even stepping ashore. Or his 4.5 month round-trip voyage down to his favorite cruising grounds just south of the equator, again without going ashore. Without an engine aboard he says it's best to avoid large landmasses!
As you can imagine I felt like I just had so many questions to ask Keith about his time 'out there' and how he makes all the systems aboard work. How to manage food, water & power for such long-distance sailing on a micro-cruiser? How to keep a good watch for other traffic and not to mention managing your own health & well being? All good questions for any size boat being sailed single handed, but a Cal 20 from the 1970's?! A quick google search will bring up photos of Cal 20s club racing, blasting around in flat water and the occasional blog about weekend cruising and its limitations/discomforts, but offshore for 4+ months.....still so many questions!
I only saw two ships during the entire trip!
He has perfected sheet-to-tiller self-steering which works reliably on all points of sail and carries a tiller pilot as back-up. 'Magic' departs carrying a year's supply of food but he doesn't have a watermaker aboard, catching enough rainwater instead. He carries AIS but says he only saw two ships on the last trip, can't help but wonder if they also spotted him! He broke the boom on one trip and decided it was better without it. He has a SPOT tracker and sat phone for comms, a large wind generator and some small solar panels that needed an upgrade. Here's where Sun Powered Yachts stepped in and we have donated Keith a 100W SunPower E-flex panel that will be installed ready for his next passage.
Sailing south in 2020
Keith is now well versed in how to sail & live in relative comfort aboard 'Magic' after completing some long passages already:
Trip 1, 2019 - sailed within 150NM of Alaska (four months)
Trip 2, 2020 - sailed within 100NM of Galapagos Islands
Trip 3, 2021 - sailed to 4' South of the Equator (4.5 months)
Trip 4, 2024 - TBD, "sailing south and if the weather is good going for the Cape"
Keith said his plans for 2024 included sailing south and if the weather looked good going for the Cape. I had to ask, which Cape? Cape Horn of course! So Cape Horn in a Cal 20, is it possible? Well Keith is the one to know.
When we last spoke his solar panel is up and running and providing plenty of power but his plans for a departure South have been pushed back. When I asked when do you set off? His answer, "last week, last month, 2 months ago, next week. Current delay has to do with my dentist!" I guess you can plan for most eventualities when sailing offshore alone, but doing some DIY dentistry with a rusty pair of needle nose pliers might not be very exciting!
"Last week, last month, 2 months ago, next week. Current delay has to do with my dentist!"
Pretty inspiring stuff on all levels, we wish Keith fair winds on his next round-trip passage and will be sure to post an update here when we can.
Thursday night racing at Kaneohe Yacht Club
Update: November 22nd, 2024
We just heard from Keith that the 100W solar panel has been performing well and 'Magic' is looking pretty loaded up ready for the next trip. His plans are to sail from Oahu around the Big Island and then south as soon as the weather co-operates and be back in March!
"The SunPower panel works better than expected. My boat is too small for a permanent installation, so I move it around to the best location." Keith
Keith's SunPower 100W flex solar panel loaded aboard 'Magic'
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