Swimming with Spinners

Off da boat

Angela and I are on solid ground again, in Lihu'e at the moment, about to hop on a flight to Honolulu.

The winds were blasting out of the east yesterday, exactly the direction we wanted to go. Instead of beating upwind, we spent Saturday at Hanalei. Sunday morning, Angela and I hitch-hiked to Lihu'e and bought a plane ride to Honolulu. Elmar and Islandia are still in Hanalei Bay with no definite plans for the future.

I will spend Monday with my Hawaii client and Tuesday we fly back to Tucson.
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Back at Hanalei

We decided to set out for Oahu from the windward side of Kaua'i (the east side) so we turned around and spent last night in Hanalei Bay. We will depart Hanalei at 4AM on Saturday headed for Oahu. I am hoping to arrive Waimea, but we will see where the winds take us.
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At Nualolo

N 22 deg 9.5309 min
W 159 deg 42.2372 min

Amazing day today. I swam with a pod of spinner dolphin. Like in the water swimming freestyle with 6' dolphin 5' away swimming with me. Their songs - squeeking and squeeling and clicking - in my ears like a conversation. Amazing.

Sailed down the NaPali coast line. Spectacular. I am coming back with a sea kayak and a trike.

Anchored at the Nualolo reef. Will spend tomorrow snorkeling. Friday to our last Kuau'I anchorage. Saturday we set sail for Oahu.

Satellite phone call tomorrow AM. Work conference call. We are pretty remote at the moment, though I saw lots of high tech antennas, probably military, on top of a pali a mile down the coast line.
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Sipping Spiced Ice Chai

WiFi in the coffee shop.

Haena Bay

N 22 deg 13 min 21.1 second
W 159 deg 33 min 56.3 second

We have been enjoying Haena Bay. Yesterday I did a long solo hike up to a spectacular waterfall back in the pali cliffs. Spinner dolphin jumping around the boat, turtles nibbling algae off the rocky reef.

I think today we will sail 8 miles to an even more spectacular spot right in the heart of the NaPali. It is very remote - no roads or cell phone towers. So we might be incomunicado for a few days. We will be back in Honolulu on Sunday and should be posting before then.
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Leaving Hanalei

Iridium satelite phone worthless for data connection.

Blackberry worked great as a modem on Oahu, but does not seem to work on Kaua'i network.

So I can only post from my Blackberry and the tiny keyboard inspires me to be brief.

Arrived Hanalei Bay:

N 22 deg 12 min 39.3 second
W 159 deg 30 min 6 second

After a 16 hour all-night sail from Waimea, a grueling experience that made me grateful we were not sailing for Vancouver.

Hanalei Bay - absolutely georgeous. Swimming, jogging on the beach, hiking around Pali cliffs, waterfalls, groovy little town with natural food store and open air restaurants. Lots of Trans-Pac racers anchored in the Bay. Meeting all sorts of racers, cruisers, even the owner of Spectrum Water Makers.

Today we will move 4 miles down the coast to Haena which is supposed to have a nice snorkel reef with lots of turtles and a 10 mile hike to Pali waterfalls.

In another day or two, we will sail past the Na Pali coast and begin our return south down the leeward side of Kaua'i, across the channel, down the leeward side of Oahu, past Pearl Harbor and back to Keehi Lagoon.

My client on Oahu is in a bit of confusion after the unexpected death of their project manager so I am going to meet with them before departing for Tucson. The memorial service is on the 22nd, but I don't think I can stick around that long. My clients in Tucson demand attention. And I miss my dogs.
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At Hanalei Bay

Arrived safely at Hanalei Bay after an exhausting 16 hour sail. Having trouble connecting with laptop. Will post photos and details later.
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Island Magic

Islandia anchored in Waimea Bay, Scott modeling the latest fashion in sun protection.

We are about to depart Waimea for the all night channel crossing.

This morning, I got up at 6:30 (!) and went for a swim around Waimea Bay. In the last few days of swimming here, I have only seen two big rays. I don’t recall the name of the first ray – fiddle head or guitar or something like that – and last night a big spotted eagle ray. The eagle ray swam up to look at me as I swam down to look at him. After my swim this morning, Angela and I went to shore. As we swam in, a pod of spinner dolphin swam into the bay. We stood on the beach for half an hour watching them leap out of the water doing their characteristic spin. Several folks tried to paddle out to the pod, but the dolphin stayed a safe distance away.

Angela and I then walked about two miles to a beach where big green sea turtles haul out to sun bathe. There was one turtle laying on the beach and several others munching on algae in the shallows. We walked back to Waimea, stocked Islandia with water and are now getting ready to sail away. The trip could take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

Angela sneaks up on a stealthy green sea turtle.

Channel Crossing

Today we set out for Hanalei Bay on Kauai. It is 100 miles as the seagull flies. We have strong east winds and I am hopeful that we will not have to tack too much. We will embark Waimea this afternoon and sail all night for a late morning arrival. I’m hoping for clear skies tonight. The star gazing should be extraordinary.

 

At Waimea Bay

Honu passing by Islandia in Kaneohe Bay
Kaneohe Sunset
Waimea Sunset

N 21º 38.5346’
W 158º 3.8672’

We left Kaneohe this morning and sailed a broad reach north along the windward shore of Oahu. Beautiful green Pali cliffs and half a dozen paragliders flying at Kahana. We rounded the north east corner of Oahu and sailed almost straight down wind, past the Turtle Bay resort, and into Waimea Bay. I went for a swim across the bay, followed a big ray across the sandy bottom, then went ashore for a fresh water shower with shampoo and soap.

I think we will spend Monday the 4th on the North Shore and then Tuesday the 5th we will head for Kauai.

This island hopping trip is working out much better than the planned Pacific crossing. The scenery is beautiful, we get to stop frequently in magnificent places and go swimming, the sailing is much more complicated so we are learning a lot, we don’t have to be frugal with our fresh water and food, the climate is perfect for shorts and tee shirts, etc.

Sunday Plans

We’ve decided to sail from Kaneohe to Waimea (North Shore of Oahu) on Sunday. Should be an easy sail.

 

Waimea is where the big wave surfers ride the monster waves in the winter and it a great place for open water swimming. AND they have fresh water showers right on the beach. We’ll be a little less stinky tomorrow.

Reflections from Kaneohe

Islandia anchored on the sandbar in Kaneohe Bay

N 21º 27.6155’
W 157º 48.2652’

Finally. A moment to put down some thoughts.

The original plan was to sail from Honolulu to Vancouver in June, but I was too busy with work, so we postponed the trip until July. Elmar supposedly had his boat, Islandia, ready for the crossing back in June, so he was going to do a month long shake-down cruise around Hawaii. He canceled his lease on his mooring buoy at Keehi Lagoon, but instead of setting off on the shake-down, he continued working on Islandia, moored to the Keehi buoy. The third sailor that had signed on for the Vancouver trip, another friend of Elmar, backed out of the trip, so I asked my friends in Tucson if anyone would like to go. Angela was the only adventurous soul.

When Angela and I arrived in Honolulu, Elmar had the rudder steering mechanism torn apart and the stainless steel pins at the top of the mast removed – the pins that hold the steel guy wires in place, the guy wires being what holds the mast up.

Hoping for a quick repair, Angela and I spent several days chasing down parts at marine supply stores, machine shops, Home Depot. We bought diesel and propane and stocked Islandia with food and fresh water. We helped Elmar install the steering mechanism and the mast wires and replaced temperature and pressure sending units on Islandia’s diesel engine.

Elmar is German and when he was 13, his family was in a terrible automobile accident. Elmar was in a coma for several months and had 28 broken bones. When he awoke from the coma, he had lost both parents and all his memory. He couldn’t even speak. So he had to learn to speak and reinvent himself. The void in his memory of the first 13 years of his life haunt him to this day.

Angela and I told Elmar we could not begin the trans-Pacific crossing because we had commitments to be back at work. I think Elmar was actually relieved. So we decided to set off for a cruise around the prettiest Hawaiian Island, Kauai. This will be a much better trip; much more scenic, relaxing, fun. I suspect I will learn a lot more about sailing on this trip than I would have crossing the Pacific.

We sailed upwind from Keehi to Waikiki on Thursday and Friday we beat upwind all day long to arrive at Kaneohe Bay. We must have tacked 100 times. Thank God for anti-nausea drugs.

We arrived at Kaneohe after dark. There is a huge sandbar that runs through the bay and Elmar wanted to anchor behind the sandbar. We followed the channel lights – right red return – into the bay and found the sand bar by sailing into it at 2 mph. We backed off with the motor and dropped anchor.

This morning, we moved a short way down the sand bar and are enjoying a day of swimming and snorkeling. It is spectacular. Big green Pali cliffs behind us and the full color spectrum of blue-green water around us.

I received a call from my client here in Hawaii this morning. My client’s project manager, the fellow I interfaced with, was a very pleasant 41 year old engineer named Kelly. Kelly suffered a brain aneurism while working out at the gym last week. The latest news is that he has no brain activity and has been taken off life support.

As I type this, I am sitting on Islandia surrounded by spectacular scenery. It occurs to me that I have forgotten how to relax, enjoy myself, enjoy the company of other people, to do nothing.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we embark Kaneohe headed north. I don’t know if we will anchor again on Oahu or make for Kauai.

At Kaneohe

N 21 deg 27.326 min

W157 deg 48.0893 min

 

We slammed up wind all day today. We must have tacked 100 times. Everyone exhausted and sunburned. Thank God for scopolamine. Beautiful sunset behind the Pali cliffs on windward side. I will elaborate tomorrow AM.