Position: 21 degrees 17.5 minutes north, 157 degrees 51.4 degrees west, still at a dock slip in Kewalo Basin, Honolulu
Playing in Waikiki sure is fun. My friend Meta, her husband Sean and their two great kids – Maggie (9) and Kate (5) were here staying two blocks from the beach for about 10 days.
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| Kate, Maggie, Meta & Sean arrive in Hawaii |
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| Kate, *Aunty* Jane, and Maggie -- we love the beach! |
We would have hit the beach every day – except it turned out they were here during the time period 9-10 days after a full moon, which is when the box jellyfish are around, and so we chose to stay out of the water. The box jellyfish here are not the same as in Australia where the stings can be fatal, but apparently the stings can still be pretty bad here. I guess this happens every month – Sean joked that he thinks the surfers made it up to keep people out of the water. We did hear of some folks getting stung, and I read about it in my guide book and they had warning signs at the beach…so I don’t think it’s totally made-up. It was hard for Maggie especially, as she was anxious to surf! Their first day here, Tim and Sean took Maggie out and she rode a couple waves… then towards the end of their stay she got a lesson and caught a bunch more waves! Kate was a bit apprehensive of the ‘wavy side’ of the beach and preferred the calmer section which is protected by a breakwater, so we traded days. But by the end Kate was boogie boarding like a pro, and seemed to really enjoy diving under waves and even bodysurfing!
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| We had to go to Haunama Bay - the *famous* snorkel bay. It's a pretty bay, but visibility wasn't that great and the crowds are horrendous - I can't say i'd recommend it! |
One reason I was looking forward to their visit was because Meta and I had read Harry Potter and seen various movies together, so her timing was good for us to go to the latest release. Maggie has also recently gotten caught up in the Potter craze and was SUPER excited to see the movie. She especially loved the Bertie Bott’s every flavor jelly beans we bought that included flavors like earwax, vomit and black pepper, which she convinced people to try. We all thought the movie was pretty good, but we're sad that it’s the end of an era! For my special day with Kate, we went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie – perfect timing since she’s about to attend a drama camp where they will put on a Winnie the pooh show. Tim & I have also been taking advantage of the 16 screen theater across the street from the marina – we’ve seen a couple of good comedies: ‘Horrible Bosses’, ‘Bad Teacher’, and ‘Crazy, Stupid Love’. I don’t believe I’ve seen so many movies in a month in a very very long time.
Tim’s been really busy with getting the boat all ship-shape, and has dealt with various engine issues over the past few weeks. Luckily he found a good machine shop, cuz it turned out we needed help with several projects. He’s had the fuel injectors out and serviced, and then our saltwater engine cooling pump developed a leak, so we had to have that rebuilt… One day when Tim stayed home to work on the engine, Kate asked, “where’s the grease monkey?” She liked that term that we had used to explain what Tim had been doing on the boat. That day I thought Tim was being a plumber, fixing the foot pump that we use for our kitchen sink… but turns out he was in the engine room!
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| Tim *the grease monkey* doing some boga in the engine room. |
In between the engine troubles, we took Meta & family out for a sail, then today, for Tim’s brother Kevin’s birthday, we took Kevin and an old friend of Tim & Kevin’s (Kenny – who they new way back when in Maryland, who now lives near Kevin) out for a sail. Try as we might we didn’t hook any fish with our lucky lures. Hopefully we’ll have better luck on our way to Fanning Island.
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| Wait - who's steering? |
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| Kevin was ready to catch that fish! |
It was fun to get to celebrate Kevin’s birthday with him – he had the day off, so after sailing, Tim & I headed over to Haleiwa (North Shore) and took him out for dinner, then had cake with him and delivered his (and his dog Primo’s) presents. We realized on the way over that we had gotten Primo more presents than Kevin! Sorry Kev!
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| Birthday Cake! |
Now we’re focused on provisioning and getting together supplies to bring to the folks of Fanning Island. I even cut off half my hair so I won't be so hot further south, and it'll be easier to care for!
Of course, we’re going to Fanning mainly as a surf destination, but are also excited to experience another new culture, and a very remote place. We’ve been gathering medicines and clothes, school supplies and other items to bring to the folks there.
From what we understand, Fanning (also known as Tabuaeran) is part of one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas). It used to be part of the Gilbert Islands, and was settled fairly recently by Micronesians from other islands. Fanning Island is part of a group of islands called the Line Islands, and is about 1100 miles south of Oahu. It should take us about 10 days to sail there, depending on the weather. Assuming the weather is good, we will plan to depart next Monday, August 8th, and will be checking in on the Pacific Seafarer’s net once we depart. Apparently there are several videos about Fanning Island on YouTube (we haven’t seen them yet as our connection isn’t fast enough to watch You Tube), here are some links:
Surf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj5YsuORJlg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4pEz_Rxfd0&feature=fvwrel
Needs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByNh7D8CC1g&feature=related
Fanning from the air: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdnsx11Brg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4pEz_Rxfd0&feature=fvwrel
Needs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByNh7D8CC1g&feature=related
Fanning from the air: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdnsx11Brg&feature=related
Also, fyi, we won’t have any access to phones or internet (i.e., no Yahoo! Email), once we leave Hawaii. At this point it seems likely that we stay in Fanning until November, then our options are to return to Hawaii, or find somewhere to hide out from Hurricane season in the south pacific (so we can’t go too far south)! Stay tuned… I will have sailmail over the ssb radio, so will be posting blogs periodically.
