Milk Run to Maui? Not for This Sailor

Steve Fisher is going home to Maui today, which in itself is no big deal.

But Fisher isn’t taking a plane or even a boat--he is taking a sailboard.

Nearly a week after the Transpacific yacht race has ended, after the circus atmosphere surrounding the race has subsided, Fisher is setting a course for Lahaina, 2,400 nautical miles across what to him figures to be a very lonely blue ocean.

Unlike captains of the Transpac vessels, Fisher will have no crew. Unlike those much sturdier sailing

crafts, Fisher will have only his customized 18-foot sailboard, Da Slippa II, so named because friends have told him it looks a lot like Aladdin’s slipper.

“They don’t say slipper in Hawaii, they say slippa, and they don’t say the, they say da,” Fisher explains.

On Wednesday, Fisher had just finished explaining his trip to a member of the Coast Guard in Long Beach.

“He didn’t go, like, ‘You’re doing what?’ ” Fisher said. “He was pretty cool, actually. He wanted contact numbers here, contact numbers in Hawaii. He wanted to know where I’m staying here, what my craft is made out of, what my gear is. . . . They wanted to know what color it was painted, and we determined it was International Orange. They wanted to make a note of that to let everybody [other Coast Guard branches] know.”

Others have reacted differently. Fisher’s mother, unable to talk her son out of what any mother would believe to be a foolish and dangerous thing to do, has blocked it from her mind.

“She doesn’t even want to hear about it,” Fisher said.

His sister has flown out from Michigan, “because she wanted to see me before I leave.” What she probably meant was, she wanted to see Fisher again because it might be the last time.

Carol Hogan, a Transpac race promoter, went so far as to accuse Fisher of having a death wish. “It’s one thing if you have a backup boat, but he has nothing,” she told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin last week.

Fisher, 37, has no backup boat. He doesn’t even have a support boat accompanying him.

What he does have is plenty of confidence in his sailing ability and a philosophical attitude toward life that any adventurer can appreciate.

“I’m not an idiot,” he said. “I realize there is a possibility of me not making it, of not ever being seen again once I leave here. So I accept that and that’s the reality. It’s not so much whether you’re going to live or die--we’re all going to die. It’s whether or not we’re going to live.

“A lot of people don’t really live, they just exist. I don’t want to exist, I want to excel.”

Fisher, trying to become the first person to windsurf from the West Coast to Hawaii, hopes to cover about 75 miles a day and make landfall at Lahaina in about 30 days.

His sailboard, with a foam core encased with fiberglass, is not your typical sailboard. It has all the fittings of a conventional sailboard on the surface, but it is twice as wide and heavy--nearly four feet wide and 250 pounds--and includes a tiny cabin that has room enough for some supplies and for him to lie on his back and sleep, when weather permits.

On top of the cabin is a small chair--on the back of which are the painted words “Lazy Boy”--on which he can sit when he isn’t strapped into his sailing gear.

At all times, he says, he will remain tethered to his vessel in case he flips.

His supplies include a Walkman, two global positioning systems for navigation, two emergency position radio beacons, a VHF radio, an avionics radio, two flashlights, four days’ worth of emergency water and a small device that desalinates water to the point where it is suitable for drinking.

As for food, he plans on trolling for fish along the way. “I also have nutrition bars, freeze-dried fruit and peanut butter and jelly,” he said.

Sitting on a storage bin at docks at the Marina del Rey waterfront next to Da Slippa II, Fisher explained the turn of events that brought him to this decision.

A native of Michigan, he has been sailing since he was 6.

After high school, he got a job in a nuclear power plant. He took an extended vacation to Hawaii in 1980, loved it, and when he went back to work he started yearning for the island lifestyle, and for adventure.

“I was working there and I came in one day and said, ‘Hey, I’m buying a sailboat and sailing to Hawaii,’ and everybody thought I was crazy,” Fisher said. “I was 22 years old and making good money--$1,500-$2,000 a week. And I quit, walked away from it. I bought a boat, sent it to San Francisco, and a week later a lady and myself sailed it to Hawaii. I was 23.”

Fisher remained in Hawaii and settled in Maui, where he sells time shares for condos and offers “unique adventures for unique people” on his 40-foot trimaran.

He has two black Labradors, Kia and Gypsy, and the dogs and their master are virtually inseparable.

“I’ve entered them in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest swim by two dogs,” he said. “We’ve done 9 1/2 miles from Lanai to Maui nonstop. One year we did it in 6 hours 3 minutes and the next year 6:23.”

Fisher’s latest brainstorm is the result of an article he read 10 years ago about a guy who had paddled a kayak from California to Hawaii. “I had done some kayaking, but I knew that no one had windsurfed it, so I put two and two together,” he said.

He knew it was a crazy idea, but “I couldn’t get rid of the thought.”

He built the original Da Slippa in 1989 as a prototype for his crossing, and started sailing it around the islands. On one trip he windsurfed from Maui to the Big Island of Hawaii, turned around and in 3 1/2 days sailed 350 miles the length of the state nonstop to Kauai, setting what he calls “the unofficial record in the state of Hawaii for the longest windsurfing trip.”

After trying for years, and failing, to line up corporate sponsors for his journey from California to Maui, Fisher eventually saved enough money to build and supply Da Slippa II. He was able to talk the owner of American International Cargo into footing the $2,500 bill for flying the sailboard to California.

Fisher, who is 5 feet 8 and 150 pounds, originally had hoped to leave with the Transpac boats, but delays in preparations led to a postponement until today, which is fine with him.

Similar weather conditions are expected: light and fickle winds for the first few hundred miles and then north-northeasterly trades Fisher hopes will carry him right up to his front yard.

“I’m just going to have to work my way into that weather [the trades] and they’ll take me all the way to Hawaii,” Fisher said. “The winds are with you. That’s why sailors call this [route] the ‘Milk Run.’ ”

A milk run? For sailors in actual boats, perhaps. Fisher, on the other hand, may find himself wishing he had Aladdin’s Lamp instead of only Da Slippa.

GOT MILK?

The Boat Owners Assn. of the United States magazine reports the following news item it dug up on the Internet:

“It seems the Japanese Coast Guard responded to the sinking of a fishing trawler in the Sea of Japan and the crew members rescued all told the same story--a cow fell out of the sky and hit their vessel.

“The crew were all held on suspicion of sabotage for concocting such a story, until authorities in Russia heard of the incident and admitted that one of its air force crew had taken a cow along on a long flight and when it became disoriented and went berserk in the cargo hold, they pushed it out of the plane, 30,000 feet over the Sea of Japan.”

Adds BOAT/US: “We don’t believe everything we read on the Internet, but this one had a U.S. military return e-mail address.”

ALBACORE UPDATE

If you are among the few who haven’t gotten your hooks into one of these high-spirited tuna, don’t count on doing so now. At least not locally.

The San Diego counts have dropped to near zero, while those off Central and Northern California have skyrocketed.

This comes as no surprise: The cooler water up north is much more to their liking. The Admiral out of Virg’s Landing in Morro Bay scored 81 albacore for 15 anglers on Monday. The skipper of the Princess reported 50-plus Thursday morning.

Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey have been hot spots all week. The fish are definitely there in huge numbers. But for every calm day, there are five rough days.

And don’t count the local bite out just yet. There is still a huge body of fish just beyond the reach of San Diego’s overnight fleet. Point Loma Sportfishing’s Qualifier 105 proved this by returning Thursday from a five-day trip 100-plus miles below the border with 398 albacore in its hold.

AROUND THE SOUTHLAND

A 22-foot operational replica of the Titanic will set sail for a cruise of the Long Beach Harbor today at 11 a.m. to kick off the American Boating Jubilee at the Downtown Long Beach Marina. No word on whether any icebergs have been strategically placed in its path. Titanic Historical Society President Don Lynch will be host for the event, and descendants of some of the 1,500 who were killed when the Titanic sank are expected to be on hand. The boat show runs through July 27.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro is host for a Meet the Grunion program that includes a slide show and grunion hunt Monday beginning at 9 p.m. Cost is $1. Details: (310) 548-7562.

The Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area, which has been the site of an earthquake-retrofitting construction project for two years, will celebrate its grand reopening July 26-27. Activities at the San Bernardino County reservoir include a children’s fishing clinic, a six-mile run/walk, guided nature walks and boat tours. A fishing contest will be held on July 27, beginning at 6 a.m. New features at the lake include a seven-lane launch ramp and improved hiking trails. Details: (760) 389-2303.

The wonders of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, above and below the surface, will be on display for those aboard the 85-foot Condor out of Santa Barbara on July 27 and Aug. 10. Sanctuary and Sea Center naturalists will identify the various visitors to sanctuary waters, including blue and humpback whales, dolphins and a multitude of sea birds. Divers from Passage Productions will provide a video uplink of the kelp-forested world below. Cost is $65 for adults, $35 for children under 12. Details: (805) 963-3564.