Oahu to Molokai
March 28th, 2007 by md
Fun day today. We sailed out of Honolulu at about 10:30 heading almost due east toward Molokai. Molokai is much less settled or developed than other islands, particularly than Oahu. It’s also the home of the Leper Colony (not sure if that’s supposed to be capital L, capital C, but I think it should be). According to Captain Brad, there are still lepers and descendants of the lepers on the island. I haven’t seen them yet … but I am getting off topic.
The part where we crossed the open-ocean-ish section was pretty rough. I have almost never been seasick in my life, but I came close today. I took a picture of my green face. But I won’t post that. During that part we also hooked a beautiful Mahi — very colorful but strong. Tricky fish flipped off the gaffe and got away. All we got was a spray of fish blood on the deck. Can’t eat that. 
Fortunately, we are well provisioned otherwise.
We got to Molokai and things got a lot more comfortable. The waves were much more gentle. We anchored a little ways off a totally deserted beach on the western part of the island (21′13.28″ N ,157′15.53″ W) and took the inflatable to shore. It was really beautiful with whitish sand and big black volcanic rocks on the shore. There was a large volcanic cliff above the beach. Probably the coolest thing, aside from not seeing other people, were the little tidal pools that gathered in the rocky areas. In these pools I saw little tiny anemones (forgot to photograph them), Opihi (little scallop-like things), snails and some very small fish. The rocks were also very cool. Most were volcanic so they were all pitted and black. Occassionally you would see a regular beach rock or shell that had been fused into the volcanic rock from the time it was formed. Very cool. I never thought about that but I guess it makes sense.
We decided to bbq there on the beach (that’s our boat in the picture above). That was also fun because I haven’t been at a beach bbq for a long time. We built a fire using some of the mesquite wood from the trees around the beach. David (first mate) cooked salmon, rice and veggies. It was great to eat without nausea. It was really delicious. We had a nice wine with dinner and watched the sun set (from the little campout setting in the picture below). It was a little bit cloudy, but the sunset was really beautiful nonetheless. Nice bright moon too and lots of stars. So far, this is a really good trip. Tomorrow, we are going to sail around to the north side of the island and see the very high sea cliffs I’ve been hearing about. There’s also some waterfalls that are supposed to be spectacular. I will do a better job capturing the images tomorrow.
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Greetings from the other side – the Caribbean
It is so wonderful to read your post (except the fish blood part – poor fishie!)
So, what’s the plan – do you sail for a few hours every day and then dock and hang out and chill?
Yes that’s about right, we sail from morning till midday then find a place to anchor and hang out.
BTW, what’s the deal with the murdered coach at the cricket hall of fame or whatever?
India and Pakistan both are out of the world cup. The thing is that Pakistan got out first by losing to a team that doesn’t even play test cricket – Ireland (at least India lost to Bangladesh!)
Anyway, the night of the loss, the coach of the team, Bob Woolmer was murdered in his hotel room. There are several theories ranging from players to bookies. No one knows and it is still under investigation.
Very sad. Poor man.