Maui Trip!

Ahhhh Maui! A beautiful place with a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. OH ... and expensive! We stayed in an area where the lawns or should I say the golf courses were wonderfully manicured. Lots of golf courses that wound around tall palms and soft sand traps were all around us.

Kathy and I stayed away from the golf courses ... maybe next time or perhaps the time after that.

We took the Ferry on a Friday afternoon and soon were rocking and jerking to the bumps of the Pacific Ocean interrupted by the winds and the channels. All in all ... it was a lousy trip to get there. Kathy got sea sick even though she took Dramamine. Not fun. Fortunately, the trip back was much better!

We got to the hotel, checked in, put away our clothes and could hear classic Hawaiian music and quickly found our way to a small bandstand outside the bar. Even before the 2nd Mai Tai, they sounded pretty good! :-)

The hotel was pretty nice. Not stunning rooms but it was clean and in a good location, right on the beach!

Kathy and I started a game of checkers. WELL, as soon as I jumped one of her guys, she quit and accused me of playing like her sister Cindy. I guess I'm supposed to try and lose! Cindy, she will never play checkers again because of the way you abused her as a child! (or maybe that was last year?)

We wound our way to the less travelled part of the island ... the picture below is especially for Barbara Horton. The road was more narrow than Ireland! Kathy screamed the entire time we drove down this 1 lane, 2 way road and also screamed all the way back. Note the narrow road. Note the lack of guardrails. Note the nice sloping hill we'd fall down if I went off the road.

Kathy recovered enough to chit-chat with the 10 year olds running this refreshment stand.

On the way back to the hotel we found this beautiful stop ...

I am never far from my camera ...

Kathy enjoying dinner ...

The sun began to set and I began to click away ... Kathy had another glass of wine ;-)

This family walked by and made nice silhouettes.

I'm not sure what to say except the color of this sunset was stunning. Kathy refilled her glass.

We also went snorkeling with my new underwater camera from Olympus. It is a pretty good little camera but I'm still learning how to use it. Below is a video clip of a green sea turtle. Sorry about the shaking!

We had a wonderful time and are already disagreeing on where we are going next!

Peace, love and grace

John

Sailboat Racing on Siesta

Craig's List is a pretty interesting classifieds page. It is frankly, stealing the local newspaper's hold on classified listings ... it is free. You can list all sorts of stuff there. For some reason, I typed in "Sailing" and found a "Crew Wanted" article.
I responded to the ad with an email and next thing you know, I'm looking at a 44 foot sailboat that is built for nothing but racing.


There were more lines, blocks and winches on this boat than I have ever seen! Her name is Siesta and I was pretty excited to be able to sail her.
Every Friday night out of Ala Wai harbor is the Friday night races. There are some big boats there and Siesta is one of the biggest and fastest. I wasn't really prepared for big boat racing. I had never operated a "grinder" or knew what it did. Racing on the J-22 is a different experience from these bigger boats. Below is a picture of me on the grinder of Siesta.


I must have done something right as they invited me out to sail the entire Memorial Day weekend. It was an around the island race and would take up all 3 days of the weekend. I love sailing but I couldn't give up my weekend with Kathy, Krista and Tucker.
I declined the offer but then figured out where they would be and when they would be there. Tucker and I drove out to Spitting Cave which is at a point of the island where the depth is such that the sailboats would be close. Me and my trusty long lens capture a couple dozen pictures of the boats zipping by. They were moving at a very good clip. Siesta is below just ahead of another boat.

The following Friday, I joined them again for racing. There weren't enough crew and I wondered why. The captain complained bitterly about not having reliable crew as we waited. Just before race time, one last person arrived and we headed out. In addition to the sailing crew, we also had 4 Japanese tourists who were friends of one of the crew. They were told where to sit and when to sit there ... only two actually knew English.
The race was pretty good and we got off to a good start. The winds were light for the most part. Even so, the captain yelled at people commanding what to do as if it were an emergency. It was tough to be a crew member. My turn came and he yelled at me. I did what he asked and he yelled some more. We had a communication problem. He was in the wrong. I pointed it out to him. He calmed down a bit but attempted to make light of the situation by teasing me about my experiences on a "small boat" ... the J-22's.

We finished the race in 3rd place out of about 10 boats. On Saturday, I received an apology email from the captain. It was a nice note.

Racing is exciting and even sometimes dangerous. More can happen than the boom hitting you in the face (yes, I have a scar beside my nose because of that). You can lose a finger by getting it tangled in a line or you can trip on a line and go overboard. I am a very careful sailor and an even more careful racer just because things happen so fast.

My initial foray into racing was on a Catalina 22 with my friends, Bob Smith, Steve Soroka and Bill Toth. My desire was to learn to sail. After I learned to sail, I kept racing with this crew for about 10 years ... by why? It wasn't the competition, we always seemed to lose. It was the camaraderie and companionship.

I examined my racing with Siesta. This wasn't about camaraderie or companionship and I could never see it becoming about that. If I sail, I just want to sail and not necessarily race. It took a while to figure that out ... I'm slow I guess!
So, I've decided that racing on Siesta isn't for me. Actually, racing isn't for me unless it is with my friends from back east. Where else can a guy get such great nicknames like Monkey Knuckles and Mega pixel ???

Hawaii Floating Lanterns

Every Memorial Day at Ala Moana Beach park there is a celebration of those who have passed out of our lives. Tens of thousands of people gather at curved beach and there is music, a few speeches (in many languages) and special guests. This year was the 10th anniversary of this event. http://www.lanternfloatinghawaii.com/home.html

Many folks come and buy a floating lantern and spend the day with their family and friends by decorating the lantern-boat. Usually, these are brightly colored with names of loved ones who have died.

Kathy and I attended and listed to the traditional Pacific Island music. The drummers were fantastic and the children hula dancers were incredible. We sat behind the stage but it gave us a great vantage point of the lanterns as they got launched.

This is a big event for the city and the locals have practiced hour after hour to do their chants and their dances for this televised event. We could see the nervousness of the performers backstage but we also saw the monk walk to each one and give them words of wisdom and calm each of them down. As the show was in the front, he walked to the side and meditated for a long while (below). It was obvious that he was a kind and thoughtful man.



Kathy noted that the security detail for this event came with surfboards!


The sun set and people gathered at the shore, putting their decorated lantern in the quiet bay. The breeze had been coming in all day but as the lanterns floated, it changed and gently pushed them out.


Many years ago, the lanterns were floated out to sea and often found the next day on other islands. It is kind of neat to think that one's well wishes could go so far. Recently, the organizers have stopped the lanterns at the mouth of the bay and brought them in so that the lanterns don't add to the pollution in the sea.

Amanda, Laura and Lauren Visit

The planning seemed to take months and the time they were here seemed to fly by. Funny how that works! It seems like that for everything as we mark our time on earth with events and anticipation of events.

The girls from NoVA (Northern Virginia) arrived and suddenly they became 4 girls from NoVA visiting Oahu. It was as if they weren't apart for the last year.

They explored around to nightclubs and bars and did the Luau thing. There was lots of laughter and fun that enlivened the house. We ate dinner together often and their company was fantastic. We played games but they were too competitive for me! Yes, you read that correctly ... they are too competitive for me!

I still feel a little guilty as I took them on a hike to a waterfall I know. Actually, it is a series of waterfalls but it is not necessarily an easy hike. I forgot the uphill climbs and the stream crossings and the narrow ledge ... so, we went on a "short hike to a local waterfall".

To make matters worse, it has been dry here lately and the waterfall was only 18 inches wide and slowly dropping off a cliff into a pool of water.



They enjoyed a "Where's Waldo" moment in the Banyan tree.


It seemed like everyone got hurt. Krista sprained her ankle multiple times and she sprained it hard. Amanda got cut by a bush and Laura had a trickle of blood running down her arm. Fortunately, she couldn't see it. Laura scraped her leg pretty good. Despite the falls, the trips, the scrapes and bruises, they were in good spirits getting there and getting out.

In the end, the bruises and cuts healed quickly with a little triple antibiotic and they were ready for their next adventure!