reardenmetal.com

We got up today and motored back across the southern side of Molokai.

Along the way, we stopped in at this little shack built on pilings and stilts on a reef. Again, I suck remembering the Hawaiian names for things, but will be sure to get it right for the special post-vacation Google Earth map of our route — which will be highly detailed and totally entertaining. You might pass out when you see it.

Some locals built this thing as a getaway space where they can come party without their wives. The outhouse opens directly to the sea. Not a great picture, but you get the idea. Elks lodge for Molokai dudes.

It was a really incredible day. Light winds and a beautifully calm ocean. We continued on creeping back toward the end of the trip in Honolulu. Fortunately, it is a long ride back and it gave me plenty of time to reflect on what a great experience this has been. Also, Captain “Mac Guyver” Brad rigged up a new contraption to try to catch some fish. It had been a few days since the sting of the Gaff-Gaffe and he was all fired up to rig kind of an outrigger out of one of the fishing lines, some of the rigging from the sails and a rubber band.

Well guess the heck what? It worked! zzzzzzzzzzzz — he had another mahi mahi on the line, and this time it was going to die and be eaten.

And the death scene…

This is Captain Brad with his catch. He was very proud that his Rube Goldberg machine yielded a big fish. He should be! Way to go Captain Brad! We shouldn’t have doubted you. She’s a beautiful fish. I think she should be named Gerta.

After Gerta had been beaten unconscious and then suffocated to death in the “fish bag” (think of it like the seafaring version of the “marriage sack” Borat used at the end of the movie on Pam Anderson), First Mate David decapitated her, drew out her organs from the belly side, peeled her skin off and removed her flesh in two big honking filets. He had a good idea for Gerta’s skeleton — salt, pepper and stick it on the grill. I thought that was clever. Anyhow, Gerta was put on ice and I am confident that she will find a good home, get eaten, be excreted, return to soil and perhaps find a new start on another world when our Sun goes nova and destroys the Earth.
BTW, side note, the ratio of usable meat to bodymass on a mahi mahi is very high. I wonder if anyone has analyzed that for other species and made a comparison. Personally, I would think that this high ratio is a disadvantage in evolutionary terms. It makes you really freaking attractive to predators. I guess that evolutionary theory would say that this fish should adapt in terms of speed, fertility, and independence at an early age. I suppose those things are true; but I wonder why they haven’t gotten smarter over the years.

From the scene of Gerta’s death and dismemberment, it was a short ride to Diamond Head (but first we passed Coco Head — which I like a lot better as a name than Diamond Head) and the harbor in Honolulu.
I will be honest: ending this trip was hard. It was sad to leave the boat and it was sad to walk away from seeing more beautiful things. This was a great trip in every respect. As you might say if you were in the HR department, both the what and the how were 5s. It was all what and all how. Captain Brad and First Mate David were true pros and a pleasure to cruise with. I am sorry to leave but excited to come back another time! My new favorite island is Molokai and I may or may not have a map of it tattooed on me when I go to the Tattoo Expo at the Cow Palace this weekend! You’ll have to tune in next week to see what happens there.

Category : Stuff, Travel, Worth knowing