Banjo-ing it up in the stern. How I love this instrument. The fiddle has come out a few times too - its been a lot of fun to have it onboard, though its so hard to keep it from getting too damp!
Christina and I posing up a storm during bowsprit hanging. Note: these photos were taken only moments after she jumped in and completely smoked me in the head.
Well...photos at last. At the moment I’m in the Aloha Tower in Honolulu and am currently pilfering wireless from a store in the center. So very much nicer than an internet café, as I now have full access to all my photos.
Since my last update, we’ve been cruising through a few of the Hawaiian islands, including Molokini, Maui, and Kauai. We did end up finding the rumored waterfall in Hilo after quite a long and laboriously warm walk. It was beautiful. The falls were a bit small, and as such were somewhat lacking in their thundering glory, but it was so nice to spend the afternoon swimming in the pools. There may or may not have also been a bit of cliff jumping involved…
Hilo had a few other perks. We had a series of very enjoyable (albeit quite public) dock showers, which must have seemed terribly out of place to all the industrial freighter workers, and fully enjoyed the feeling of fresh water. We also spent almost an entire day on a road trip up to Mauna Kea, which is home to some of the world’s largest and best observatories. At 14000ft it was enough to make more than a few of us dizzy, but it was amazing. Everyone crammed into a few glorious rental vehicles, and I’m proud to say that our travel group (Bec, Nouri, Christina, myself, and Tavish) came through in epic style.
We drove with Antony and Dave in a Jeep Commander, brought an admirable supply of stash, and had a continual supply of epic music to keep our convoy spirits high. I won’t go into too many details, but I will let you know that our theme song was Danger Zone from Top Gun... you can go from there.
Our good-looking Commander Crew with our sweet-awesome ride. And of course, the travel group: Bec, Tav, Christina, Nouri, and myself.
On the way up we had to stop at 10 000ft for a but of adjustment (so as not to die of shock when we got to the top) and to have some lunch, then we headed up to the top. Got a tour of some of the bigger telescopes, and spent some time just looking around up at the top. It was an amazing view. During the drive up you go right through the cloud layer and its incredible to just emerge out of the clouds and have it completely clear. Definitely a new thing to be looking down on the clouds.
Jose, Quinn, Tav, and I: Giddy at 14000ft
Antony and Quinn with one of the bigger telescopes in the background...I dont recall the name.
You can see the layer of cloud in this shot, very neat to come out above it
We stayed for sunset as well which was very neat as it was so clear and the colours were so vibrant. Overall, quite the day trip; its not everyday I go from sea level to 14000 ft in a matter of hours.
Sunset over the telescopes.
From Hilo we made a quick early-morning stop at Molokini for some of the much talked about snorkeling. It was a lot of fun trying out the underwater digital, and it did quite well. We only got an hour or so in though before there were just too many people. Apparently its quite the hot spot for Maui tourist charterboats, and by 8am you couldn’t swim 5ft without bumping into someone. Annoying really, but the water was spectacularly clear. I definitely got chased by a school of fish...
Snorkeling around Molokini and test-driving the waterproof digital.
From Molokini it was only a quick motor to Lahiaina, Maui, where we stayed for a couple days. It is most definitely a cruiseship town. The streets are just lined with store after store, all selling the same things. Who knew there was such a market for baggy Hawaiian print dresses/shirts, and oversized fake shell necklaces. We did manage to get a bit out of town for some beach time, then most of us congregated again that night for Brad’s birthday. We went to an incredibly posh and classy place called...wait for it...Cheeseburger in Paradise. Maybe I lied about the classiness. It was delightfully tacky though, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Kiesa showed up the main performer when she took the stage and sang some of her songs - we were proud. I also exceeded all expectations and managed to consume ten ice cream sandwiches in the space of two days. Disgusting, but impressive all the same.
From Maui we made the trip up to Kauai. It was a bit of a rough passage, averaging 8-9 knts and taking a ton of water over the rail. Very fun. We docked in Nawilili (say it out loud, its fun), and our travel group reunited for a trip to the Na Pali Coast. Again, good music was involved, and the car ride was great. The short hike (we only did a small portion of the trail) was great. It was all through this dense, lush jungle, there were awesome views throughout the entirety of the walk, and a stiff wind kept you from dying of heat.
Hiking to the beach
The trail came out at this beautiful little beach with a fresh water pool behind it (note: we were not able to swim at this beach...there was a sign letting us know about the ridiculous drop-off/undertow, and how many people had been killed thus far...interesting). We spent a bit of time there, and even got a bit of climbing in on the fantastically rough rock.
A little spot ot climbing. Very fun.
We then made our way (driving) to the Waimea Canyon, but got sidetracked by a massive mango tree. Yes. An entire tree of magoes. Waiting for us. To eat them all. So we spent the next hour or so in a half-crazed state, up the trees, picking (harvesting, if you will) as many mangoes as we could reach. I doubt Ive ever been so covered in juice. Definitely worth it. We finally made it to the canyon lookout (which was amazing in itself. Colin, Ros, and Erin, it was almost like a lesser version of Worlds End...very neat) for a bit, and I even got to practice my newly acquired driving skills. (Note: I now love driving vans. I realize that’s odd, but Im alright with it).
At the viewpoint in Waimea Canyon, and a view of our bountiful mango harvest.
Most of our nights in Kauai were spent exploiting the Marriott Resort. It was a rare occasion indeed to not see at least one of us in the pool or hot tub. There was also the usual large amounts of towel fights; hilariously fun, but to be honest – quite painful.
A group of people went surfing with Ambrose (a fantastically crazy board shaper) and he lent us four boards on the condition that we use them tons and drop them back off after Leg 6. Also had a day with the family which was a lot of fun, doing a bit of snorkeling around the base of the Na Pali Coast trail. The water wasn’t the clearest, but the reef was super interesting. Tons of urchins, really colourful fish, and tiny little wee things that would sneak out and dash around. There were even some sea turtles who made an appearance. *Highlight: I found HagenDaaz icecream bars for $1. Coffee ice cream covered in chocolate, almonds, and toffee. I was delighted*
We then had the roughest passage (I think) thus far, back to Honolulu.
Just out of the harbour on our way from Nawiliwili to Honolulu. Oh so rough, but it was good; kept us busy.
My time here has been spent primarily walking around, relaxing, sleeping on deck, and taking advantage of the $1 movie theatre down the street. Tav, Sarah and I took Bec out for dinner for her birthday at the Old Spaghetti factory (I had, until this time, never experienced this spectacular establishment), and we were all very much impressed. The two work days went smoothly; I was on deck work. I have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with the orbital sander (I wont lie, its mostly hate), and a complete passion for putting the first coat of oil on a purple heart rail.
We went to see fireworks for July 4th, and though they were quite impressive in themselves, we were rather surprised at the apparent lack of celebration regarding this most patriotic of American holidays.
Oh yes, and I had my first, and very hilarious karaoke experience. A few of us stumbled upon Club Eva (really, the name says it all) when searching for food in the wee hours of the morning. After ducking to fit through the door, we realized we had entered an exclusively Asian karaoke bar. They were very gracious with out attempts at communication, and even had an English song list for us to look at. All in all, our three songs were the only English ones sung, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and left Club Eva quite deaf (and wondering to ourselves if the whole thing had actually happened). Very funny.
Well, Im running out of steam with this whole update and Im sure you are too (if you indeed made it this far!), so Ill wrap it up. Everyone is doing well, the fancy dinner was a success, and I will be very sad to see people leave in the next few days.
If you guys don’t already know, you can keep track of where we are and read all of the logs (daily) at www.salts.ca/011_SALTS_join_odyssey.htm . I think there are also a few photos up there. Ill get the mailing address for our agent in Tahiti to you guys before I leave Honolulu and then I fully expect glorious amounts of mail! I hope all is going well at home. Send me emails, I love hearing from everyone. Pray for a smooth passage to Tahiti, steady winds, minimal seasickness for me, and good connection with all the new trainees. Take care, Ill be in touch.
