After a week in Molokai, we’re back in the land of high speed internet and I can catch up on the email.
We had an enjoyable week in Molokai. We left last Sunday (finally!) and sailed across the Molokai Channel into the wind with strong winds and choppy seas, but we were ready for it and had no problems – just a bouncy ride. For the entire week we spent in Molokai the wind blew 30-35 knots during most of the day and the ocean surface was frothy with whitecaps. The harbor was pretty protected with quiet water, so we were fine – but we are learning that Hawaii is not all that attractive as a cruising destination (see photo). Yesterday when we sailed back to Oahu, on the first really nice sailing day of our entire trip, we passed Waikiki and there was not another yacht on the water – a Saturday on a holiday weekend! In Auckland there would have been hundreds of sailboats out enjoying the water. San Diego, too! Here in Hawaii the boats seem to mostly stay parked in their respective marinas.
We entertained ourselves on Molokai with assorted activities. We rented a car and explored a bit, took a guided 4 mile hike into a rainforest valley to a huge waterfall, went on a guided snorkeling trip, and later a scuba trip with the same outfit. There is a 20-30 mile long fringing coral reef the length of Molokai, unspoiled because there is minimal tourism on the island. Molokai itself seems almost like a South Pacific island rather than part of the US – very pleasant and laid back, not touristy at all. Fourth of July there were no fireworks, except for a few kids setting off the home-grown variety on the dock. If we had been at Waikiki Yacht Club we would have been right next door to a huge display in Magic Island Park, sponsored by the Ala Moana Shopping Mall, but we missed it except for the TV coverage.
One day Mike and I got up at 4 in the morning and caught the ferry from Molokai to LaHaina in Maui for the day. Again a rough trip, even for the ferry, with a few seasick passengers and spray crashing over the roof of the boat for the entire 1 1/2 hour trip. The passengers included the Molokai 2007 Majors All Star baseball team – a bunch of excited Hawaiian boys with baseball bats in their backpacks on the way to the play-offs, I presume! We wandered around LaHaina, touristy but charming, for a few hours and then went to the Maui Ocean Center – an outstanding aquarium and sealife facility, quite enjoyable and educational. Hawaii has been having a drought, about 60 percent less rainfall than normal so far this year, and Maui just suffered a large wildfire right outside of LaHaina last week – we drove past the scorched landscape on the bus. At the end of the day we caught the ferry back to Molokai, a smoother trip this time as it was downwind.
We spent most of yesterday afternoon on a downwind sail from Moilokai to Oahu, and now we are in a new location – the Ko’Olina Resort Marina, a very modern upscale marina located on a 640 acre resort property with golf course, beach lagoons, six restaurants, and a couple of Marriott hotels and timeshares. We’ll explore a bit today and tomorrow, and we fly back to Tucson on Tuesday. When we come back in August to babysit Raven while Rod goes on vacation (he’s getting married in the Philippines!), we’ll be here at Ko’Olina for the duration.
That’s the update – I hope when we get home to Tucson the monsoons have kicked in for real. I guess there have been some teasers but not the real thing yet.