Stories and Pictures

July 20 2008

Will flew over from Oahu for a week or so to come sailing with us, and he and Brandon came down the coast with us to Nualolo two days ago.  We've been fishing, spearfishing, and throwing net non stop.  Tonight, we're chumming for sharks, and we've got two steel cables out with giant hooks and nenue's from earlier.  Somethings gotta bite them.  Had to repair the starboard rudder before sailing, and I think it should be good in the morning once some resin dries.  We'll head back up towards Kalalau, since Will's never been there.  I can't wait.  The winds have been to strong until today when I noticed the loose rudder.  I also noticed while diving that it was in fact my port centerboard that broke in half even with the hull last week when I was sailing and thought I had hit something.  Big bummer.   More projects everyday, the list seems endless.  I just hope I get the arch up before summer's over, and having the engine run reliably would be nice too.  Gonzo, gonzo, gonzo.

A 6 or 7 foot grey reef shark is cruising around checking out our shark trap.  He's tested one of the bait fish, and then shredded up our chum back right below us under a flashlight.  Pretty incredible...  let's get him, i want some jerky.

 

July 21 2008

We ended up catching a little white tip and letting it go.  Only about 3 feet or so.  We decided it's time to go to Kalalau, but the wind line didn't look like it was coming all the way in to Nualolo, but we were able to get a tow out about a mile from one of the commercial zodiacs that we know.   Then it was one to two knots of wind wing on wing, and it took us a little over two hours to go two miles, but it was beautiful out so we didn't mind. 

July 22 2008

The wind came up over night.  It was nasty all night long, and all day.  25 kts  with building swell.  Andrea and I slept up on the bluff, overlooking the whole coastline, beach, and valley.  It was an incredible sunset, and we sat up there with our valley friends and enjoyed good music, stories, and food.  In the morning, I hiked all the way to the back wall of the valley, and we found one of the fresh water springs.  I thought it would be a large area of wet ground, just slowly dripping, but we found a section of rocks about the size of a door that was gushing water out.  Pretty cool to see, and the water tasted great.  

The next morning, I woke up at about 6 and decided it was time to go, since the others had to get back and the winds were light.  I expected we find some gusts, so double reefed the main and rolled out half of the genoa, and then we pulled up the anchor and sailed.  We cruised for about half a mile, and then it stopped completely.  I saw the wind further out, and it slowly came in for us.  Within 10 minutes, we had 35 kts  and 8  foot waves to battle all the  way back to Hanalei.  It took about 5 hours, and it was the nastiest conditions I've sailed Gonzo in.  I'm a little less comfortable on a cat than a monohull when it starts blowing like that.  At one point my roller furling line snapped, and let out the full headsail.  I was lucky it was between gusts, and we tied it up quickly and pulled it back in, then lashed the whole unit in place so it couldn't spin out again. Pretty fun being on the trampoline with waves coming clear to the cockpit.  Good thing it's not cold here. 

July 23 2008

Safe return, crazy return, Will's gone, Andrea's going to California, and I'm loaded with boat work.  And hopefully a good charter day...

Gonzo at Nualolo Kai

Will and I, another sunset at at the office

Will and Monster in the green junker kayak, which sank the next day

Starboard sunset

Fire after sunset, Nualolo Kai

Will and Brandon, sailing down the coast of Kauai

Monster's Nualolo turtle friends

This is what confused Monsters do when

they find Monk seals and turtles playing in

tide pools

Nualolo Kai

This guy didn't want to play, and he barks louder 

than Monster.  Monster went completely nuts!

Nualolo

Andrea and me above Waimea Canyon

Monster caught peeing on the rocks at Nualolo

Another view of Nualolo...

The diving here doesn't suck

Dog nap on the beach

After Nualolo, it's back to Kalalau.  Damn...

Go Chargers

The only reason I wish I still had a TV

Gonzo back in the SF Bay

This is a picture I found of our boat back in the San Francisco Bay 2 years ago before it sailed out to Hawaii...

project week

This week is completely filled up with boat projects and trying to find rides to the hardware store.  A few breaks here and there to eat and sleep and play on the internet.  Last night the Surfrider Foundation put on a film festival on the beach right in front of Gonzo on a huge projector screen.  They played a few cool surf movies and then a great documentary on Nainoa Thompson, the Hokule'a, and non-instrument navigation.  I was so stoked to sit on the front of the boat and watch all of it, about 100 yards outside of the crowds gathered on the beach. Pictures didn't turn out, but I found a few more older ones...

I'm still having trouble getting all my pictures off the camera, but they're awesome and they're coming...

Andrea, baby Monster, and Dad in the background, at Kalalau

Dog hike

Kalalau

Monster dog at about 2 months

Baby in a bike basket...

Rainy day

rain rain go away I need to play with power tools

here's some random old pictures I found today

Monster at Ke'e, 5 months old

Ke'e beach sunset, August 0

Baby Monster at Pipe, 6 weeks old

Sailing!

Stories and old pictures

The pictures and stories in this post are completely out of order.  (Just FYI)

New anchor light! Backflip off yeahhhh!!!!

Another one from Dads visit....

gassin up at Ko'olina before heading to Kauai

Pre-kayak doggy dinghy

Can't really see the hook...  but its going straight 

through his lip.   Now he doesn't eat my fishing bait!

Will Pannell and JD, sunset at Kalalau

June 13 2008

Hanalei has been great.  We got work right away.  I'm working for Na Pali Kayak Tours, and the restaurant Sushi Blues, and Andrea's working at Papaya's, a health food store.  We've gotten 4 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  Found some new leaks to take care of. The trades are back, and I'm going to try to go kiteboarding today.  Hanalei's great.

When I was at Na Pali Kayaks the first day, a family from Texas came by.  They really wanted to see the Na Pali coast, but they said all the tour boats are full, so they wanted to sign up for the kayak tour.  Not all of them were up for the paddle though.  I ended up offering to take them on Gonzo...  didn't realize it at the time, but that was the beggining of the end of working for Na Pali Kayaks and the sushi restaurant. 

Today the owner of Panda's Kitchen, a chinese fast food place in Hanalei, asked Andrea's, not joking, " Did a fish bite off your fingers."  He also may have wanted to add Monster to his menu.

June 22 2008

I can't believe what's going on.  I'm getting paid to sail around paradise.  I just picked up some friends, and some other injured people from Kalalau, and lined up more trips for the near future.  Three guys I met from Utah want me to take them on a three day sailing trip down the coast, and teach about spearfishing.  Hard job.  Another three day trip lined up, with two of our friends from Hanalai, and 10 of their family members from the East Coast.  Should be fun.  Running out of time for real jobs...

Monster jumps off the boat on his own now to come swim with us, and launches himself into the kayak if he thinks we're leaving. 

June 25 2008

The three Utah guys were  pretty funny.  I couldn't believe how much gear they brought for two nights.  Something like 200 beers and a few bottles of rum on top of all the weird camping stuff they wouldn't need.  Oh well.  We stayed at Nualolo Kai the first night. The diving there is incredible...  tons of fish turtles, and sharks, and it's all protcted from the trades by a horseshoe shaped reef outside that we anchored within.  In the morning, before leaving to Kalalau, Monster wanted to try some of my fishing bait.  He runs up front, grabs some fish chunk, and darts back in the window with his prize.  I saw this, grabbed the pole, and pulled line out as fast as I could, but when he jumped downstairs -   YELP.  He chose the wrong snack, and had a new lip ring.  It came all the way out of his fur, and looked kind of cool.  I clipped one end off, and the rest fell through. Pretty funny.

June 27 2008

We're booked for weeks.

June 28 2008

Took 11 people today by myself.  First time sailing Gonzo with no help, and it went well.  Darren, the father of one of the family's, had met Andrea yesterday, and asked me if her hands were from a shark attack.  

Randy Turner, a family friend from Del Mar, has a home right by where we anchor in Hanalei.  He has a vision for a picture at Honopu, and so I'm taking his family, another family, and surf photographer Aaron Chang down there tommorow.  Should be fun.  Randy's letting us do laundry and take showers at his house while he's here!

Sailing around Kauai

Kalalau Beach

MONSTER

May 29 2008

Had a nice sail into Kalalau with Matt today. Great conditions for sailing, about 15 kts the whole way.  That completes lap 1 of Kauai.  We got in about 2 hours after sunset, with no moon.  Anchoring on this coast with no light was pretty fun.  We stuck around one day, then the trades got nasty. That makes the diving and fishing no good, so we decide to head to Hanalei to find some work.  I gave Matt a short tour before I left, but somehow the last thing I heard from him was that the frog legs tasted like chicken.  Whatever floats your boat...

When we left Kalalau, we were under full sails, and within 10 minutes we got blasted by 30 kts of wind unexpectedly, and the boat took off into the 6 feet of swell at 15 kts, out of control.  Scary.  I turned to run with the wind, and brought in the genoa, and we ran down the coast to Poli Hale to hide from the wind.  Learned the importance of reefing first with cats.  Left early the next day, and sailed the 20 miles upwind to Hanalei with no problems.

Kalapaki Beach

May 21 2008

Wind is unfavorable.  Unbeleivably calm out here.  Motored for a while, then we here a loud cracking sound and bang.  I was in my bed at the time, which is kind of under the transom.  I ran outside, Dad and I look around for a second, then realize the motors gone...  hmmmm.   We look over the transom, and its hanging down there on the hinged mount.  It is raised and lowered by block and tackle, the block attached to the transom had ripped clear out of the glass.  After checking it out we saw whoever installed it skipped the backing plate idea.  Surprising it lasted this long.  We made a tempoprary rig for it, and ttried to get going, when we realize that we had jammed the throtttle cable beyond easy, immediate repair.  So we wait for wind.  And it comes.  A little puff had us questioning where to drop Dad off, Lihue or Honolulu, and we went for it.  This is when we learned how well our cat can go windward...  it doesn't.  It seems to me that with the same sail plan trimmed the same way as a monohull, we should make similar angles sailing upwind.  On Del Gnar, my Columbia 26, sometimes it felt I could sail straight into the wind.  Not so with Gonzo.  It was going to be a bit longer back to Oahu than we planned, timewise and waterwise.  Middle of the night, we turn back to Nawiliwili.  We pulled into Kalapaki beach in front of the Marriott just after sunrise the next morning.  Dad, Andrea and I wandered around until he had to catch his flight to Oahu and San Diego.  We had a few good meals, and walked through the Harbor drooling at all the nice boats.  

Now that Dad's gone, it's time to figure out what we're doing next.  If we go to Oahu, we won't have a slip, most of our friends will be gone for the summer, the traffic will still be there, and Honolulu will still be dirty.  If we sail around to Hanalei, we have a safe anchorage through mid September, a beautiful little town to get jobs in, and mountains towering above the bay with anywhere between 2 and 50 waterfalls at all times.  Sticking around was an easy decision.

At anchor in Kalapaki Bay

View from the anchorage in Hanalei Bay

Dad at sunset, sailing to Nawiliwili

May 27 2008

We've been at Kalapaki for a few days, and I'm ready to move on.  My friend Kiko, from San Diego, told his brother in law some of my stories of Kalalau a while back, and so now Matt Johnson is on his way to Lihue tommorow to sail around the island with us for a drop off in the valley.  We've been busy here getting things and stuff for the boat.  This morning, DLNR Harbor Police came by to tell us that we are moored illegally; we've got to move to the mooring balls across the harbor.  I told them I'm working on fixing the throttle cable, and they gave me a six hour deadline.  I hitchhiked up to Kapa'a, where there's a Honda Marine store, and got the replacement part.  By the time I made it back and fixed the problem, it was dark, so I set my alarm for 6 am to move the boat before the Harbor Police come back.  6:15 was too late;  when I got up, I looked outside and one of them was already on my boat!  I talked to them for a bit, and they inspected the boat, and then gave us both tickets for being anchored there.  Instead of a $25 or $50 ticket, we actually have to appear in court on July 7 to pay.   Bummer.  But the engine runs well, and we move over to wait one more night until Matt gets in and we can leave. 

Sailing break

Dad's visit

Sailing down the Na Pali coast

Morning arrival from Oahu

May 19 2008

Gonzo is acquired at about 11 am in front of slip 784 at the Ala Wai harbor on Oahu.  We left Oahu within about 5 minutes of handing the last check over to Graham, destination Kalalau on Kauai.  After a quick fuel stop at Ko'olina, we took off.  The sail over is nice once we get in the channel, and with 15 knots through the night we arrived on the early side the next day.  

We decided to continue onward to Ni'ihau to dive and fish.  The wind had died, so we got to try motoring for a bit.  Vog, which stands for volcanic fog, from the Big Island, was heavy.  At some points the visibility was under 5 miles.   We dropped the anchor in Lehua Rock, a horseshoe shaped island that is the remainder of a volcanic crater.  While entering the cove, a huge pod of spinner dolphions came along the boat to welcome us.  We motored at about 1 knot, while I hung off the bow taking some underwater shots of them swiming around the boat.  Some of the pics turned out alright.  Pretty fun.  The diving  here is incredible.  Maximum visibility, and lots of life.  I shot some black fish that looked good, and we had some lunch.  We used the guts for chum and tried shark fishing that night, and we got a 3 or 4 foot white tip up to the boat.  The next morning when we went to leave, we find a cormarant tangled in our anchor line and a bunch of nets.  Dad tries to cut it free of the nets, but it snaps back and slices him, so we had to let it float off to die in the nets somewhere.  I've heard of this a bunch before, but it's kind of a bummer to actually see wildlife out there so far from people, just wrapped up in our trash and dying.

Summer on Kauai

I've got a ton of pictures and stories that I want to get up on this blog, starting with those from trips on Del Gnar last winter, and working towards what's going on now in Hanalei.  I finally got the usb cord for my camera, and it's got over 600 pictures on it from January on.  I'm going to try to add pictures and stories as I sort through them, but I also want to keep up to date, so some of the stuff I add will be out of order.  But I'll try to get it all....