Na Pali coast cruse
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ]
A slow morning. We’ve definitely been getting on an island pace. The weather is a bit dodgy and I’m trying not to be concerned about the boat trip (the weather will change, the weather will change). We eschewed our last chance to go snorkeling. Just not up for it. We had a swim in the pool before lunch. We shared the pool with a young girl and her inflatable, rideable blue walrus. Although mostly she just tried to get on and fell off. I was sure she was going to crack her head on the side. We left before we had to get involved.
Back up to the house where Marion took a rest and I watched Spain beat Portugal in the World Cup. Despite the fact that I really care nothing about soccer, I still couldn’t stop myself from yelling out when Spain scored. You do manage to get a good 30-40 seconds of excitement out of a 90 minute match.
On our way out to lunch we decided we should probably stop in the office and let them know we were there. We had arrived after the office closed on our first day and never had bothered to go back. I said hi, we’re leaving tomorrow, anything we need to do? She said, well, you probably should check in. It was kind of funny. It turned out she was from Philadelphia. I could actually tell from the accent. She was surprised since ‘after 25 years you think I wouldn’t have one’. Well you’d think that, but not if you talked to her. I also discovered she had spent 7 years in Portland before moving to Kauai. Ex Oregonians were everywhere.
We had lunch at Tropical Burger. And I bought a Kauai T-shirt at the mall. We returned the snorkel gear and most importantly got a shave ice (sour grape – mmm). Second one of the trip. I love shave ice.
Time to go meet Capt Andy in Port Allen. It was a bit early so we wandered around a bit. Marion spotted an oil tank that reminded us of a photo we always visit in Carmel of the sun shining on the steps. I tried to duplicate it and did pretty well I think. It’s the least “hawaiian” of all the pictures I took but one of my favorites.
We had a big concern about what shoes to wear. Should we wear flip flops or our water shoes or sneakers? Which will give the best traction, which more comfortable, which can get wet etc. When we got there, we were told to leave our shoes behind. Well that’s the simplest solution. It was good news for the girl with platform flip flops, which were about 4 inches high. She was going to go over the side otherwise.
There were about 35 people on the trip. Not bad. It was a catamaran motorized sailboat — the Spirit of Kauai. Pretty nice. The weather still looked dodgy but we were still hoping.
Captain Trent, our fearless leader was a bit of a character. He was regaling us with stories. It was a bit bumpy out of the harbor but not bad and certainly not as bad as he led us to believe it would be (always set expectations lower than what will actually happen). We’ve been on much worse seas (see Costa Rica log).
Once we cleared the harbor it was a beautiful sail up the coast along where we’d driven the first day. It was late afternoon and the sun (when it wasn’t obscured by clouds) made the island a nice golden color. We couldn’t really hear Captain Trent’s narration unfortunately. We just caught bits and pieces.
We stayed towards the back of the boat to avoid the spray (to keep the camera dry, not because we’re wimps). The more intrepid souls sat up front on the ‘trampoline’ between the hulls. They didn’t get too wet and on a couple of good waves, got a little airborne, which looked like fun.
We passed the Barking Sands Missile range (all quiet) then turned up the Na Pali coast. And it’s quite spectacular. 1000 foot cliffs to the ocean edge. Little beaches and sea caves. It was amazing. We saw a few brave kayakers and some intrepid campers. And sea turtles! 3 or 4 of them in a group. Marion spotted flying fish who would skim a foot or so off the water for a very long way. Very cool. No dolphins but you can’t have everything. We did see a blue-footed boobie so we got that going for us, which is nice.
We went as far as the valley we saw from the end of the road at Waimea. It got pretty bumpy at that point. Much worse than coming out of the harbor. But you can’t miss the good stuff and that was the best part. Marion and I didn’t have a problem but a few people didn’t handle it so well. I felt sorry for them but not enough to turn around before we got there.
After the turn they opened the bar and served the food. A tasty meal. Marion met an aspiring artist who has a show coming up in LA and has had work shown in Phoenix and Chicago. He was fun to talk to. It was 112 in Phoenix when he left. He came to Kauai to cool off. We came to warm up.
After dinner they raised the sail and we sailed under wind power for awhile. Very nice. Captain Trent pointed us out farther to sea and got us into the ‘deep water’. Kauai and the other Hawaiian Islands are really just underwater volcanoes with the tips showing. So the bottom drops off very quickly as you move farther away. We got out to where the bottom was at 2500 ft.
We saw more (lots more) flying fish. I managed to only get pictures of splashes where flying fish used to be. They can really go for quite a ways. And the move in swarms so there’d be quite a flurry when the boat disturbed them.
We paused outside the harbor for a pretty decent sunset. I was sitting up front in a perfect spot and the camera batteries, which had lasted the whole trip, died just then. A minor panic. I knocked a few people aside while I raced inside to my backpack to get my other battery.
But the sun was setting slowly so there was no problem. I got back in plenty of time. And as the sun set into the ocean, we saw (and I photographed) the famous ‘green flash’.
We sailed into the harbor at dusk. A great final act. Walking back to the car we realized the ride had worn us down a bit. We drove home, the first time we’d actually been out on the roads after dark the whole trip. And we realized, we had gone over 4 hours without seeing a chicken.
Time to pack. Ugh. We had tried to keep the suitcases to a reasonable size so we didn’t have a lot of extra room. It took some creative ‘tetris-like’ manipulating to get everything in, but we did.
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Top ]