Finding Flipper

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Despite all of the advanced scheduling that went into planning “My Big Day”, it actually began with a very, very lazy morning, waking up to the chilling hum of the overhead fan and hoping that I’d had the foresight to pack something green. Originally the trip had been planned so that it would include both Sharon’s birthday and mine as well. We’d hoped for a sunset dinner cruise; but, managed a last-minute catamaran whale watch outing that was scheduled to last two-hours. At this point in our vacation we didn’t want to risk anymore “three-hour-tours”. I searched on-line but couldn’t find any restaurants showing that they served “fish-and-chips”. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a bummer having “My Big Day” fall on a Friday during Lent! We’d seen plenty of restaurants in the concierge’s “Book of Recommendations” in the Wyndham Lobby that had had fish and chips on the menu, so we stopped in there to jot down a couple of likely picks. Brennecke’s Beach Broiler looked like a nice expensive place for Sharon to buy me my birthday dinner. I had a solid green polo shirt to wear; but, when Sharon saw it she lamented that she hadn’t brought her green blouse. She did however find a floral print blouse that included green stems.

We followed my GPS to the other side of the island; and, this time we’d remembered to bring the portable car charger for the phone. The speed limit seldom gets up to 50 MPH so it takes a bit of time to get anywhere. It was just past ten in the morning and the traffic was heavy on these mostly rural roads. We found the marina, and there was one spot (sort of) remaining in the dirt/gravel parking lot for the Kauai Sea Tours company that we’d selected (actually, this was the only company that had any spots for two people on Friday or Saturday, and it was the fifth company that the concierge had tried the day before). We checked-in with the office and were told to be out front at 1:15 PM. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we headed across the street to the Kauai Island Brewery and Grill. This brewpub and grill makes perhaps a dozen types of beer from light ales to stout: I decided to try the “Cane Fire Red” and it was quite good. I ordered the seared ahi sandwich and fries, one of the two specials being offered. Sharon just had some fries with her Sprite. She could have ordered fish-and-chips; but, didn’t want to do that TWICE on the same day.

We waited for the captain to show up in the waiting area. If we were expecting someone like Jonas Grumby to “skipper” our boat, we were to be disappointed (or perhaps relieved). Our thirty-something captain was a gangly laid-back long haired jovial skipper with a mixed Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian ancestry. He gave us the required Coast Guard safety talk, confirmed his passenger list, and escorted everyone to the catamaran at the end of the pier. As with our previous whale-watching tour, they prefer that you go barefoot onboard, assuring us that the sandpaper like walking surfaces work best with bare feet. We stowed our shoes in the dockside cabinet, and I was pleased that the cabinet was remaining on shore. On our previous tour in Maui, the put the container onboard, and people had to grab their shoes getting off the boat. I’d grabbed mine, and while stepping from the boat to the dock a slight sea surge had caused me to grab the railing (of course releasing one shoe and sock stuffed inside to fall between the boat and dock). I guess I just wanted to see if Sketchers float… They do! A deck hand sprang like a cat and retrieved them for me. The captain introduced himself, “I have a very easy name to remember: I’m Captain Kauai. You can call me Captain or you can call me Kauai.”

He began with a brief history lesson, of how Hawaii was discovered back in 1778 by Captain James Kirk (I guess on the starships Resolution and Discovery). I think he was just testing us to see if we were paying attentions: it was of course Captain James Cook.

We had barely cleared the harbor entrance when the Captain announced that he’d spotted a magnificent breaching humpback perhaps half a mile away, when out of nowhere our catamaran was surrounded by dolphins. Rather than chase the single whale, the captain decided to idle along and enjoy this pod of dolphins, which the captain had said contained 173 dolphins. In the sea swells you would see four to six dolphins at a time appearing to body surf side by side. Others were putting on a show, jumping out of the water, and spinning their bodies 360 degrees before falling back into the water. This is perhaps why they’re called “spinner dolphins”. Forward, you could see the dolphins in the water darting just ahead of the boat. Someone asked, “Aren’t you afraid that you might hit the dolphins?” The captain was resolute, “You can’t hit the dolphins, I know, I’ve tried!” He said that their echo-sensing enables them to keep track of the boat and where it is and where it’s going to be and the just enjoy the hull pressure wave in the water that allows them to propel themselves effortlessly. The captain confided that the typical dolphin pod contains 150 dolphins; and, after watching them for ten minutes or so, he admitted that this pod may contain 200 dolphins. I said, if this was a snorkeling with the dolphins tour, if you were in the water you would see the massive array of dolphins below the surface, and that is a sight to behold. The captain said that in his next life, he would like to come back as dolphin. He said that in a group like this, dolphins can “puni puni” up to six times an hour.

Our vessel is a catamaran, but our journey today is completely under engine power. There is seating for some on top, but it is not covered seating and the sun is bearing down. Sharon and I have been particularly diligent on this vacation to put on our sunscreen each day; and, this day was no different. Still, we sought the shaded protection of the lower deck cabin open at the back. Three other crew members were busy, offering people cups of iced water, soda, fruit drinks, beer and even a Mai Tai if you wanted one. I tried one, but wasn’t the best. They also had little sandwich finger food items and pretzels for people to try; but, I’m not sure there were any takers. Sharon said that a couple of people either got sick or were uncomfortable by the ship’s motion. Captain Kauai certainly had a heavy foot at times when he would step on the gas and the cat would race across the surf. And turning always seemed to subject us to some serious yawing.

One whale that we hung around would spurt every so often sending a spray burst into the air; but, he was rather lethargic, no flipper or tail action, no breaching, no diving or fluke display, no ramming the catamaran: none of that! The captain said that this whale was probably napping, where one-half of the brain is sleeping while the other has more or less keeps track of basic things like breathing (which whales do consciously unlike land mammals). The captain said that it’s rare to see a whale napping, probably because by instinct the whales think that they probably should pay attention if humans are around. While napping whales remain fairly near the surface, and it’s then that they are in the greatest danger of being injured (e.g. hit by a large ship).

As we went further off shore the captain noted that he was pleased that the winds had just changed, and now the prevailing trade winds had returned. This would clear the air, and even as far away as Kauai is from the Big Island, it too has been subject to the vog.

We passed by the looming smoke stacks of a now vacated cane factory, off to our right side. As of this year, C&H has shut down all of its sugar cane production in Hawaii with its closure of the last factory on Maui. So I’m guessing sugar cane won’t be making the top three in cash crops next year. We spotted a group of whales, and they put on quite a show for us with plenty of flipper action and tail slapping. Everyone was able to get a chance to see this group. After watching for a bit the captain said that we would need to return to get back to the pier by 4PM.

Enroute to the marina another pod of whales began putting on a show just behind us. Captain Kauai saw the action, slowed his speed, and circled around as the display of joyful playing continued. Earlier, the captain had the crew lower the sonophone into the waters, but there the whales weren’t talking. He’d done this when we’d spotted a whale at our nine-o’clock position and another at three-o’clock. We’d also done this on Maui, and there the cacophony was unbelievable. There songs, are part of their mating ritual, and only males sing. It is a prescribed song just over fifteen minutes in length. The song does morph over the years, and pods in one area may start mimicking parts of the song of another pod, I guess all part of “keeping things fresh”. But these whales were just playing, very active, and the captain didn’t care if he was late getting back, he wanted us to have a chance to see this. And when we were on our way again, he said, “Now this was a GOOD whale watching trip.” I guess it makes up for his previous Friday when they hadn’t spotted any whales. And here, they didn’t guarantee that you would see whales (as they do on Maui… but you need to be able to have the time to come back and try again).

We disembarked, and drove to Poipu to find Brennecke’s Beach Broiler. On the way Sharon spotted a road sign pointing towards “The Spouting Horn”. That’s one of the places the lady on the plane had told her we should see. “Maybe we can go see that after dinner.” I was skeptical because I thought it would be dark by then; but, I forgot that Kauai is farther west than the other islands, and the sun doesn’t set here as early as it did on Maui.

At first it didn’t look good for us to get a table on St. Patrick’s Day, as the party was beginning to ramp up, and a couple ahead of us were being told 7:30 or 8:00PM (but I guess they were asking for a larger group). It took a while for the group of 12 ahead of us who did have reservations to be escorted to their table, and then we were seated at a nice table overlooking the beach and ocean below our second story vantage point. I ordered the Grilled Ono (and today it is the fish) with grilled shrimp and wasabi sauce with vegetables. You know what Sharon ordered, and I knew that she was going to say that it wasn’t as good as what we once helped serve at the Friday Night Fish Fries back in Ohio. I loved my meal, and I had to try one of their Mai Tai’s as well (they proudly noted that they’d just recently sold their one millionth Mai Tai! I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it didn’t seem fruity enough to me, and something was overpowering the taste. I’ve since put my finger on it… the orgeat syrup (I think it was pure syrup and rum). Not the best Mai Tai that I’ve ever had; and, a bit light on the rum. I had to help Sharon with one of her two pieces of fish. I thought that it was pretty good; but, Sharon is right… the beer batter fried haddock that was served at our fish fries in Ohio would be pretty hard to beat.

We got a buy-1-get-2 offer for the Shave Ice sold downstairs. Sharon didn’t have room for any of the sumptuous dessert offerings on the menu, probably because they all had something to do with Macadamia Nuts or Coconut; but, she did have room for shave ice. Since mine was free, I tried the chocolate and coconut. Sharon had the lime, root beer and cherry. In search of the best shave ice in Hawaii, this was not it. This shave ice machine fed ice cubes into a mixer-like crusher and dispensed finely granulated ice shaped into a snow cone. Syrup was added; but, not in the thoroughly saturating portions that most of our shave ice cups have been served. The top of Sharon’s already seemed to be draining of color, before her first taste. My coconut side made it hard to tell if the same was true for me, but the chocolate side did appear showing a whitish tinge as well. I didn’t finish mine, and after Sharon dropped her spoon in the car, she didn’t finish hers either.

We used the GPS to direct us to the Spouting Horn, and I must have taken a wrong turn leaving the restaurant (how am I supposed to know which way is North); because, we wound through precarious residential streets in what must have been a neighborhood featuring million dollar homes. We did finally arrive at the sign that Sharon had seen, and were soon at the parking lot for the Spouting Horn. We walked over to the observation point, where one other couple had just finished taking pictures. We took some pictures as well, as the sun still hung in the sky prior to the first stage of twilight. There were actual two spots in the lava field below through which water could rush when the sea surged in. The spout and spray was much more impressive than what we’d seen at the blow hole in Maui. This time of year, one needn’t wait long to see some activity, as the lady on the plane had promised.



We still had an hour drive back to our time share, and there was heavy traffic most of the way.

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