Sometimes It Works Out

Today did not start auspiciously. My guts were entirely unhappy with me and the whole situation. After breakfast, we went for a little walk, that was actually quite good. 

It included going out onto a stone pier that was a great exercise in balance that echoed a lot of the strength work I've been doing for the last four years. So it felt really good. The only problem was that when we got back to the room, my gut was very insistent about any kind of movement being a mistake.

Kaopectate, an over the counter medication that uses Bismuth to "regulate your digestive system" was something that I had when I was a kid. It comes in vanilla flavored, now, and John got me some from Longs Drug, and I dosed myself as soon as he got it, drank some water and hoped that... well "maybe it will work out."

We dropped by Konohiki Seafoods, and bought their very simple bento boxes.  Mine had two inari along with a pickle maki and two pieces of fried ginger chicken. John's was pretty much the same, but with a slab of fish instead of inari. It would be a solid lunch, and we drove out to Hanapepe and Captain J's Kauai Offshore Adventures. I really liked the name. We ate our lunch in the car, checked in at the office, and then used the restrooms they had. So far so good. 

Then we boarded a boat with nearly thirty other people, with captain Landon and crewman Matt, and off we went. Landon took the harbor easy, but as soon as he was beyond the flags, into the big swells, we really took off. 

We were going into the swells that were coming to hit the island. And Landon knew enough to put us at an angle that allowed him to take the boat onto the crest of the swell and then turn with it to give it all a good bump without endangering any of us, and he turned up his playlist and we danced into the big winter swell of the southwest side of the island. 

We zoomed out past Palaka, Waimea, and up past Barking Sands Beach. John and I had gone to Barking Sands thirty years ago and with one look at the surf had stayed safely up on the beach. It's the second deadliest beach on Kauai because it takes the brunt of the western swells and the beach itself is super steep, so when the waves hit, they hit hard. 

The sheer strength of the swells is what makes this sheer wall. It takes the bottom of the wall out and everything falls down. The volcanic flows that formed most of this was fast lava, stuff that hit the water and cooled instantly. So it's fragile and easily falls down. After the volcano was formed, there were earthquakes, and the lava would flow into the cracks, vertically, and cool slowly, forming the hardest rock that's on the island. 

The vertical veins were what the old Hawaiians would look for to make their weapons, as it was mostly just stone age technology. There is no metal on these islands. 

We stopped before the first prominent point that was the start of the Napali Coast, and the Captain talked about how a lot of this part of the Napali Coast was only accessible by water, and many of the beaches and valleys had restrictions. The biggest of which was that in the winter, during the season of bigger swells, no one was supposed to go ashore from the sea, because even if it was as calm as it was this afternoon, it wouldn't last very long, and people wouldn't be able to get out. 

This one actually had the largest reef right in front of the valley, and it's low enough that when the tide is high, fish can come in quite easily, and they used to bait the reef with the cleanings of the previous days catch. There were leaves of particular trees that could stun fish, which they would scatter on right before the low tide, and then they'd just wade in and collect so much fish they could feed 70% of the island's population during the seasons when no one could sail the sea.

These monk seals and green turtles didn't have that problem on this beach. He surprised me by saying that there are only 1400 monk seals in existence. It's endangered. 

So many of them were right here on this beach, that is pretty much inaccessible by people. It was so cool to see them along with the turtles. The surf there was insane, especially compared to Poipu, but didn't seem to phase the critters that were there. 

A different valley was filled with goats, who were pretty restricted to just that area, but were doing quite a job of stripping it of vegetation and making it erode faster than some of the other valleys. 

There were so many valleys!! Each with a spring or a waterfall, and often if there was both sunlight and fertile earth, they usually held a village, each of which specialized in a particular thing. This first valley specialized in rope, that was made from long plant fibers, and then worked Kukua nut oil into the fibers to make them wear better and be more waterproof. 

This was a sea cave that was highly prized because of the freshwater stream that fell into the air. It was prized because it allowed canoes to replenish their fresh water without having to go through the surf and land on a shore. Not having to deal with the surf at all to get fresh water was so prized that if anyone was found upstream of this, fouling the water, they were killed, outright. 

Landon drove our raft/boat right into the cave and we all got a good freshwater shower. It was pretty amazing. The boat actually has a huge rubber raft all around it, so rubbing up against the rocks wasn't a problem for it, but it was still mildly unnerving to have what felt like a metal boat going into rocks in water that was breaking on the walls of the stone around us. 

It was fascinating what their boat could do that made my brain go agh!

What was amazing was seeing all these seabirds in the alcoves in the cliffs. 

They seemed to be nested there, and they were entirely unfazed by us crazy humans, screaming at every splash of fresh water. They were there for the water as well, since a fresh drink is always valuable. 

They just flew in and out and some of them watched us as we bobbed so close to them.  So much of the wild life here doesn't really seem to care about human beings, or even go to them to look for handouts, not at all frightened. 

There was a different cave that had a big rock in the middle of it, and it turns out that there were a lot of movies that cheerfully had people standing on that rock, in summer seas, to do their thing. 

The captain wouldn't take us in, and I was glad, you could see the waves breaking in there with a lot of energy. We were so lucky, though, with the lack of swell and wind while we were out there, both Matt and Landon were good about telling us how we were lucky not only for the lack of swell, but the lack of mist and fog, and how the light was working out on the mountains as the sun was falling down the horizon.

They almost never have sunset cruises, but at this time of the year, the days are getting so short that it's possible. 

This was a burial site for royalty. 

The ritual involved someone taking the bones of a royal into this valley by rappelling in from above. Then, they would hide the bundle of bones somewhere in the valley and then go and kill themselves in the surf below. 

What was in it for the burial attendant was a change in status from their family. Often taking a family from slave status to citizen status.  That was so valuable, it was worth a life to keep the secret of where the royal's remains were. There was a belief that cut hair, finger and toe nail clippings, and any part of the body could be used to harm someone and also to extract mana, a spiritual power, from the originator of the clippings, so much worse could be done from remains. So it was super important to hide them well. Now, no one is allowed into that valley who isn't associated with a Hawaiian archeology effort that interns Hawaiian youth to get them into these culturally important places. 

For those of you who saw the Pixar short named "Lava", this wall was actually the model for the volcano's face.

I love that. I recognized it as we came up to it, but was like, "Where do I know this from?" and ah haaaa... 

I love that song and I really did like that character as well. So it was cool to know that he was actually modeled on a real volcano wall in Kaua'i. 

There was a stop to do pictures for everyone, and then we started to head back. The mist here is actually salt in the air, where the mist is thrown so high it actually dried and the salt floats in the air. 

The lowering light as amazing as we zoomed along the walls we'd come by before.  We ended up in a cove that was unexpectedly calm. And, to my mild surprise, Matt started pulling out swim fins and explained the whole process by which we'd get to snorkel in the bay. 

This picture isn't of it, as I just never thought to take a picture as above water, the area was pretty unremarkable. The reef that protected it was underwater. 

The water was 81 degrees (27 C). So warm. I decided to jump in with everyone, as they had swimming pool noodles along with the usual fins and snorkel, and it felt good to have a float that made it so that I could deal with my snorkel when I wasn't sure of what I was doing. 

And there was so much coral underneath us. There was seaweed, hundreds of sea urchins, brilliant fish, and tiny fish and so many fish up on the shelf. There was so much down there that even with my awful nearsightedness, I could see all that teaming life in the water. 

Landon then took us on a wild ride to the mouth of the harbor, as he had to be in his berth soon after sunset. He didn't want to do that in the dark, so we had to get to where we were ending up so that we could stay out there and watch the sun set. 

It was so cool to be out there, feeling entirely safe in those big swells we'd slammed around on, and watching the sun set on a fairly clear horizon. 

It was an amazing day, honestly. There was even a double rainbow. 

And then, we got the cherry on the whole sundae. 

We got a green flash. 

Sometimes, on a sunset, just as the top edge of the sun crosses the horizon, you can get a flash of green. I'd never really known what to look for. I thought it was something that would flash across the horizon or something, but about a decade ago, I saw that it was actually just the outline of the sun itself that goes green. 

John got super lucky, and he caught the moment of the green flash on his phone camera. It's so cool to be able to show people what a green flash actually looks like. Click on the photo and you should get a better look at it. 

They got us into harbor right at six pm, and there was a public shower. I just stepped under it and doused myself and my swim setup, ducked into the ladies, dried off, and changed. There were a lot of restaurants right there by the docks and we ended up at Kauai Island Brewing Company. We had a green papaya salad and a good chunk of mahi mahi on curry with pineapple salsa and asparagus. AND John got a beer, and I got a five ounce glass of the Lilikoi ale. 

It was so good, we were pretty hungry after a four hour cruise. And we didn't even get stranded on a desert isle. 

And... my gut didn't protest at all. 

So it all worked out. I drove us back to the resort. We hot tubbed, showered, and I got to write. I'm so grateful it all worked out. Especially since I drove home in the rain and for the next three days the swells are going to be unexpectedly high, in the 22' range instead of the small stuff we had today.