FROM HAIKU, MAUI (HAWAII)

Day 2: Kauai Surf Rodeo

Sunrise in Lihue, Ride to Port Allen

HAIKU, Maui, Dec 24 - Like a lull before a storm, our second day on Kauai started with a beautiful sunrise...

The two left shots were taken from our hotel room, the other two around the pool area of our hotel.

Our drive to Port Allen (see above map), where we were supposed to board the Zodiac boat for a ride to Napali coast, was also uneventful.  We did a little souvenir shopping while waiting for the crew and passengers to assemble.

After receiving copious warnings and instructions from Captain Ted, we met Ola, his only crew member (middle shot... the Hawaiian guy who looks in that picture as if a tree is growing out of his head :-), we boarded our 24-foot Zodiac (right shot) around 10:30AM and sailed out of the harbor.  Zodiacs are fast boats used by Coast Guard for rescue missions.  They constructed for just about any weather, Captain Ted explained.  With just a couple of crew on board, they can fly up to 60 mph.  Fully loaded, with 15 people on board in our case, they can still manage a respectable 40-45 mph speed.  It sounded exciting.  For, that's more than double a typical cruising speed of a cruise ship, for example (20 mph).

What followed next could be best described in military lingo as "hurry up and wait."  The captain drove the boat to a quiet lagoon so the people who wanted to snorkel could do so.  Elizabeth and I can do that any day of the week and have done it many times before.  We were here for a "surf rodeo," not to float around a boat.  So we passed on snorkeling and patiently waited until the rest of the passengers had their fill of coral reef and small fish.

While chatting with Captain Ted and Ola, we learned some interesting things about Niiahu, the "Forbidden Island" and the Lehua Rock (above, see the map, too), both of which were visible in the distance.  Niiahu is a privately owned island with only about 100 permanent residents.  It is the only Hawaiian island on which the Hawaiian language is spoken by the majority of people.  You can learn more about it by clicking here.

Dolphins, Surf Rodeo

After a while, Captain Ted collected all his snorkeling "chickens" and we finally took off on a real sailing adventure.

As we were passing the US Navy base at the southwestern tip of Kauai (see above map), we spotted a school of dolphins.  Captain Ted slowed down the boat to a "crawl" so his Zodiac could "swim" alongside of them.  They were wonderful.  Very playful.  Some of them even "sang" for us in their high-pitched voices.   When I tried my "bird call" whistle, they responded in kind. Amazing! 

After about 20 minutes of fooling around with the dolphins, Captain Ted said, "Okay, it's going to get pretty rough from now on.  You'd better hang on tight to the ropes and hook your feet under the ones at the bottom of the boat.  Some of you may get splashed by the spray from the swells.  So get ready." 

We did.  I took the right point (bow) of the boat.  Elizabeth was right behind me.  The captain had already told us earlier that in the rough seas, we will need to play musical chairs so that everybody gets a chance to take the bow or rest in the back as they choose.  Then he revved up the two 150 horsepower Suzuki engines, and off we went...

What happened in the next hour or so is about as blurry in my memory as the ocean spray in the above pictures.  What I remember the most is being completely soaked - jeans, shirt, shoes..., whipped by the wind, and chilled to the bone.  Since we were sailing at 40-45 mph into a 20 mph headwind, it means that our bodies were facing about 60-65 mph wind pressure.  The swells got bigger the farther we got up the Napali coast.  They ranged from 12-15 feet, according to Captain Ted, a Napali coast veteran who has been doing these kinds of trips since 1982.

"Some of the swells were big enough to get my attention," he recounted later on.

They sure got the attention of everybody else on the boat.  You couldn't help but "notice" them.  When the boat goes up a big wave, and then crashes down down into the ocean valley below, it is a really hard landing.  Imagine sitting in a bath tub, when somebody picks it up six or eight feet and then drops it to the ground.  Or riding a horse sidesaddle while jumping hurdles.  Get the picture?  Being at the bow had its advantages.  You could see and anticipate the big waves.  So you rise up like a horseman and use your thigh muscles to absorb the shock of a hard landing.

After a while, you feel your whole body is turning numb; partly from cold, partly from exhaustion.  Elizabeth had an additional reason for getting tired.  Like a child on a roller coaster ride, she would scream her lungs out in excitement every time we hit a big one.  At first, I kept turning around to see if she was okay.  She said she was; just having fun hanging on for dear life.  So after a while I learned that when riding the surf rodeo with her, one needs to get worried when she goes quiet, not when she screams.  :-)  I also learned that every time I turned to check on her, I would get punished by the next wave that would slam by butt into the deck while I wasn't looking. :-)

When we could look up over the waves, we were rewarded by some magnificent views of the Napali coast.  At one point, we came to about 50 feet or so from the cave you can see on the right, but could go no farther because of the high surf.  In summer months, boats like ours can pass right under that archway and enter the cave, the captain explained.

After about an hour or so at the bow, Elizabeth raised her hand when the captain asked if everybody was okay. "I want to go to the back of the boat now," she said.  I moved with her as we played musical chairs on the starboard side of the boat.  A young couple on vacation from serving with the US Army in Iraq took our places at the bow.

We went on sailing into the blustery wind for maybe another 20 minutes or so before the captain stopped the boat and asked everyone, "have you had enough?"  At that point, we were close enough to the northwestern most tip of Kauai to see the "three kings" (the three needle peaks I took pictures of the day before from the Kaulau trailhead).  Nobody said anything.  "Well, I've had enough," the captain said, before turning the boat downwind.

Sailing downwind and being at the stern of the boat felt marginally better.  The worst part was not the rough sea.  The worst part was the cold.  Since our clothes were soaked (for those of us who wore clothes), they felt like an ice pack around the body.  So as the core of the body cools down, you start to shiver like a leaf.  At least I did.

"Next time, I am wearing a wet suit," I said to Elizabeth and later to Captain Ted, too.

Yet we all had to grin and bear the same wind and cold.  And nobody complained.  Not even the two (young) people who got sick (motion sickness) and had to throw up.  Captain Ted complimented us all at the end of the 5.5 hour sailing adventure.  "I can take pretty much any weather," he said.  "But not everybody can.  You guys were all great."

It took the rest of the evening for our bodies to slowly return back to normal.  Yet even after a hot Jacuzzi, my feet were still freezing during dinner (above).  Maybe it was because that big marlin that was mounted on the wall above our table reminded my reptilian brain of the Zodiac surf rodeo earlier that day?

And that's all she wrote so far from this weekend trip to Kauai...

Merry Christmas to one and all!

CONTINUED... CLICK HERE TO GO TO DAY 3 OR TO RETURN TO DAY 1

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