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Published: January 30th 2007
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Great place for a swim
Especially enjoyed getting out... Flipped the kayak, swam to shore... well, yeah, but that was in July of 1985. Yesterday I walked the same shore and 'relived' the event. The hike was easy enough - six hours, blue sky, blue water, puffy white clouds and Kona winds. The kayak story goes like this...
When I lived on Maui in 1985 my friend Mark had a 2 person Nautiraid folding kayak. We'd used it for a year or so to explore the coast of Maui. It had a danforth anchor and we'd kayak out to a stretch of remote coast, drop the anchor 20 or 30 feet of water and snorkel in areas where few had ever been. Nautiraids have theses inflatable tubes along the side and it is relatively easy to get back into them from the water.
Mark had read 'Paddling My Own Canoe’ by Audrey Sutherland. It's about this gutsy woman who first solo swims then kayaks the north coast of Molokai. One day we were out the northwest side of Maui and we could clearly see Molokai beckoning. A couple of weeks later I got a long weekend and with not a whole lot of planning... we kayaked across the
Maui - Molokai strait and along the north shore of Molokai. We spent a night in one of the big valleys in the east and then figured we'd stay another night somewhere about two thirds of the way along the north coast. We knew there weren't a lot of stopping options.
Mark had a big parafoil kite. We used it to pull the kayak, the trade winds were strong and it worked very well. We made such great time that as we looked at the big swells crashing against the rocks along the western part of the north coast, we decided to laze back, round the point and spend the night in the luxury of the resort on the west shore of Molokai, just south of Ilio point.
As we got to Ilio point I learned some valuable lessons about the affects of protruding land masses on the movement of surface waves. We'd been slowly turning off the wind to round the point and the kite was pulling us from a bit to the right. A wave crested almost broadside, we started to slip down the steep back side and flipped. Now... this was 1985 and we were
a couple of learn as you go types.... I think we had heard of 'dry bags' and 'flotation' but owning these devises was something for the future. The boat was packed with stuff and almost immediately became completely full of water. As my friend Rusty likes to point out, a double kayak full of water is a very unwieldy beast. We got the boat righted and tried to bail it out but the 5 foot swells would roll over the kayak and refill it about every minute.
So I'm standing on the cliff yesterday looking out at the ocean where all this took place. It is January, and January in Hawaii is the time of big waves. The photos give you the idea. June and July are the best months for kayaking the north shore - the ocean is relatively calm. Regardless, the view from the cliffs tells a good story - a lot of water. Oahu is visible way off in the distance, 40 miles. To the right of the west coast of Molokai, open water, forever. It is toward that open water that we found ourselves drifting.
The kayak had spewed a portion of our stuff
as it flipped and as we righted it. The waves sloshing over it liberating more stuff and I started feeling hopeful that the Coast Guard would come and nab us on a littering the seas charge.
We'd flipped at sunset and as is typical in the tropics darkness descended rather quickly. With Molokai looking farther and farther away every minute and Tahiti looking like our next destination and not looking closer and closer every minute, we made a decision. We searched the flotsam, yanked out more stuff and salvaged our masks, snorkels and a swim fin each. We'd been struggling with the boat for maybe 45 minutes and by the time we got in snorkel mode it was quite dark. We could still see the outline of Ilio point but not much more.
Looking down from the cliffs the ocean is blue, the dark blue that is Hawaii water and I don't think happens very often anywhere else. But what I remember about that swim was the blackness of the water and the phosphorescence. Not the 'oh wow!' phosphorescence we sometime get in Alaska when a paddle in the night water creates an explosion of tiny lights but
a here and there of points of light beneath and further beneath. We swam for maybe 40 minutes till we reached the rocks.
From the cliff this January the water was boiling. If it had been this bad we would have swum south and followed the coast. It wasn't calm but we'd done quite a few rocky shore exits on Maui. You can be in the water or you can out of the water, where you don't want to be is at the interface.
We had our neoprene on, me a vest, Mark a full wetsuit top. We both had on gloves and tobies - felt bottomed 'shoes' designed to grip and protect your feet on rocky shorelines. But as we got closer to shore it looked, well, mostly sounded, rougher than would be realistic.
We swam along shore for a bit searching for a place to get out. We needed a place were the water moves along the rocks, not straight onto the rocks. In good conditions you can float right next to a rock cliff and ride a swell up and down with the cliff just an arms length away. We couldn't find a great
place. But we found an OK place. The trick is to get the swim fins off and stowed - tucked under the neoprene vests - and then ride the swells up and down and wait for the right moment. Then for a brief few seconds, act like a crab... latch on to the rocks as the wave drops and scramble up. We both made it, water boiling.
From the cliff top I'm not exactly sure where we got out. I'm certain I took it in the next morning but the details have washed away.
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Rusty
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Cool Blog!!
Bill you are definitely a world class traveler!! Love your blog, it really shows how attitude is everything when it comes to third world travel.....We're just back from our two months in Mexico, and though I have to confess it seems a bit tame next to your adventures, we had a great time. Hope your stay in Hawaii goes well, see you soon Rusty