Weekend Sailing around Oahu

To finish off the year we were invited for a three day sail with some friends of Mike's, Matt and Andrea. They own a beautiful Benneteau 473, which is a 47' sailing vessel. That's actually a prett big boat, but definitely still falls under "small craft". The plan was to sail to Pokai Bay on the west shores of Oahu, but a big northwestern swell caused us to shift our destination to beautiful Kaneohe Bay on the windward side.

We started the day early removing leftover Christmas lights and decor from the previous night's sailboat light parade in Waikiki. Then we headed out. It was a beautiful cruise out to Diamond Head. The waves became more choppy and confused. We had plenty of wind for a good sail with a reef in the main to keep our power in a safe range. We bounced along the beautiful south shores of the island, past Haunama Bay, Halona Blowhole and Makapu'u Lighthouse. Soon we were rounding to the windward side. The waves were bigger. Matt estimated 4-6 feet. At this point my brain decided it was done with the ride and I fell asleep.

I woke from my nap to Mike yelling about a whale and steering way off to a side. I jumped up and looked over the side in time to see the white side of a humpback whale slide under the boat. Apparently it surfaced right ahead of us and he almost hit it. That would have been a tragic and early end to our trip. I wasn't really feeling a swim. I know, pampered little princess right here.

Finally we were in the calm waters of Kaneohe Bay. A super battered reef keeps the waves out to sea. We anchored in front of Secret Beach. This is owned by Kualoa Ranch. So all day long tourists are shuttled in and out. It's a beautiful semi-private beach. It was lovely to have the place all to ourselves once the tours ended.

The second day was all for exploring the beautiful cove and enjoying the sunshine and water. We each took a spin on a standup paddleboard. It was super windy when I went and I had to come back on my knees. Mike took Schooner, the resident weenie dog, out for a ride. We all climbed into the dinghy and explored Chinaman's Hat. A lot of people swim or kayak to get there from the public beach. Andrea and I did a little snorkeling while Mike practiced his bushman skills on the island. We went back to the boat for lunch and naps afterward.

The sunrises were fabulous both days. I woke early and had the first sunrise all to myself. It was peaceful and wonderful. On Day 3, everyone was up for sunrise, though I still had the early dawn colors alone. It was gorgeous!


Oh, also important (my level of important, not like cancer important), some rain rolled in during breakfast and the rainbow was out of this world. It was a full arc. Pictures or it didn't happen, you say? Bam!

Our sail back was anything but relaxing. The earlier rough, confused seas were now larger. I steered the boat out the channel and through the "washing machine" past Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. Look Here's a picture of me driving. Annoyingly, the seas look flat in every picture. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Anyway, back to the tale. Suddenly, we caught a mahi. We reeled it in, filled its gills with cheap vodka (apparently that's a thing!?!??), and stuck it in the freezer to die slowly, because we're monsters like that. We continued our tack along the coast, flying along with 25 knot winds as we rolled all over the 8 foot seas. Waves crashed over the bow and we even took one over the stern. Unsurprisingly, we were the only boat on the water. Something minor about a small craft warning...

Soon we were nearing Makapu'u where we would hit a hopefully calmer swell. And, suddenly, we had another mahi! Two on the same trip just using hand lines and lures! I guess it pays to be the only boat. Once again, we doused him in vodka, but this one was not going down without a fight. He ultimately lost, but he definitely tried. He was delicious, btw.

As we finally rounded Diamondhead, the water calmed significantly. Once in Waikiki, it was calm and wonderful. There were boats everywhere. It was an adventure, and one I'm glad that I did (and survived).

Ohana Trip #3: Big Island Wanders

For the third year in a row our Hawaiian ohana flew to another island to explore for a long weekend. The first year was Lanai, last year was Kauai, and this year we visited Hawaii. Since we had access, we chose to spend a few days at the Kiluea Military Camp in Volcano, HI (inside the national park).

KMC is a government facility that's a little dated but way cool (and way cheap!) resort style hotel. There are a bunch of cabins arrayed around a central social area. The social area has all sorts of things: a cafe, bar, game room, mini theater, tennis courts, and even a bowling alley. The best part is its proximity to Volcanoes National Park.

Unfortunately for the first day we arrived right as the sky opened up and downpoured for the next several hours. We hung out at the cabin we rented, made a bunch of food and played games. It was nice. Once it was time for Iris to go to bed, Mike, Thomas, Camille and I wandered over to the game room and played a couple of rounds of pool. As it turns out, we're all really bad, but we had a great time anyway.

The next morning was bright and beautiful. We drove the couple of miles to hike the Kiluea Iki Trail. I've done this one a few times before, but it's so cool that I'm sure I'll do it a few more. The trail is a 4 mile loop that circles the top of the crater for a half mile before dropping in. Then, hikers walk across the crater, back up the other side, and around another top section. The whole hike is STUNNING! Brad, Rachel and Iris came down to the crater but didn't finish the loop. Iris is only 18 months after all.

Thomas has a geology degree and was absolutely fascinated by the lava formations and steam vents. Camille and I spent a good amount of time checking out beautifully iridescent bits of lava rock. Mike was, as always, perfectly content to wander all over the place and climb on things. Overall, I think it took us about an hour to wander across the crater.


Afterward, we walked around the steam vents and checked out the overlook into the main Kiluea crater. This is the one that caused all of the fuss last year when it erupted. It's changed so drastically in the past year and a half. Check out this video for timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2BFFK_r5NU. Way freaking cool!

Later that day, we all piled into Brad and Rachel's 7 seater car and drove a couple of miles to Volcano Winery. We honestly could've walked it, but the skies decided to open up again. Less rain, but being wet in a winery just didn't sound fab. Weird how that works. The winery is a way cool little tasting room. They import almost all of their grapes, blend them and ferment them locally. I believe they have some grapes they grow there, but they're more expensive. Instead we paid $8 each for 8 tastes. It was pretty fun! We loved the first white wine they served, which was super strange because Mike doesn't like white wines.

We decided that it was a perfect night to check out the bowling alley. It was actually pretty decent. Brad and Rachel stayed for a game, which Brad won (Brad wins everything). Thomas, Camille, Mike and I played round 2. Everyone did better the second game except for me . It was fun anyway. I hadn't bowled in years.

The last morning of the trip, we were awakened by a 4.9 magnitude earthquake that happened near Mauna Kea, one of the larger volcanoes. It made the whole place jiggle for a minute. Way freaking cool! I made a ton of pancakes and we had a brunch feast. Then we parted ways. Brad really wanted to visit the botanical garden. The rest of us really wanted to visit the newly formed black sand beach at Pohiki.

We stopped at the Volcanoes National Park visitor center. I wanted to stamp my journal since I just realized in Joshua Tree that this is a thing. Seriously, I've been to six national parks this year and only managed to figure this out on numbers 5 and 6. We ended up watching a video on the collapse of the crater. It was similar to the one linked above, but longer and more extensive.

Then we drove about an hour to the coast, past the infamous Leilani Estates where big fissures opened in the earth and cars and homes were swallowed by lava. I drove through wide sections of road that had been newly constructed through recent lava fields. There were dead trees uprooted and baked stark white against the black stone.

When we arrived at the park, we were amazed to find that there was a wall of rock that blocked roads, covered sidewalks, and crumpling picnic benches. Below is a screenshot from Google Maps that hasn't yet been updated. You can see a park on the right side that is scribbled out. That no longer exists and is covered by a hugs field of lava (as shown in the pic above). Along the beach, the area between the black lines is full of black sand. There's a little dock and boat lauched there that used to go to the sea and now have only a little pond to service. CRAZY! The world's newest beach, and we got to visit it.


We walked down the beach, doing a bit of exploring and just taking in the amazingness of the whole thing. The waves were breaking pretty hard on the shore, but wanting to get my feet wet, I walked to the edge of the waves. The next wave ended up being the biggest one we'd seen. It crashed toward us and Thomas was the only one to escape. Camille, Mike and I were soaked to our waists, laughing and shrieking as we ran up the beach. (Ok, Mike wasn't shrieking.)


Brad, Rachel, and baby girl met us at the airport. I asked how the botanicals were. It turns out Iris was sick and they didn't end up going. They just puttered around Kona and got ice cream. I love both of those things, so it doesn't sound like a total loss to me. Poor baby though. It took about a week for her to heal. We boarded our plane as the sunset at the awesome tiny Kona airport. Another fabulous ohana trip!

Joshua Tree Exploring

Vacation Races strikes again! This is the company that, with their amazing video advertisement, had us running ultramarathons in Arizona back in March. Mike saw a cool video of a night time run in Joshua Tree National Park. We decided, sure, let's do it.

Eight months later, we flew into San Diego. We met my friend Melissa for breakfast then headed east to Joshua Tree. Mel and her husband were supposed to go with us to Joshua Tree, but had both come down with nasty colds. Rather than share those with us, they opted to stay behind and we planned dinner on our way back to Hawaii.

Since we had a spare bedroom in the Airbnb, I called my mom to see if she and my stepdad were free for the weekend since it's only a 3.5 hour drive to Joshua Tree from Las Vegas. They were! Yay! We beat them into Joshua Tree by a few hours. So, we went into the park to see what we could see.

The park is GORGEOUS! If you haven't noticed in my past posts, I love the subtle beauty of the desert. I enjoy all the different colors and creatures that go unnoticed at first glance. Having spent the past three years in the super-saturated landscape of Hawaii, it's really nice to go back to my desert roots occasionally.

A two lane road navigates park goers through groves of prickly joshua trees. Apparently these trees only grow about an inch per year. There are cool bouldery rock formations everywhere. The park is known for its exceptional rock climbing. However, after scrambling around on that rock for a few days, I'm not sure I'm ready to shred my skin on the rock faces. We'll have to come back and try someday.

We ended up at Hall of Horrors, which is a climbing spot. Mike took one look at the rocks and immediately decided the trail through them was boring. An hour later, we'd ditched our shoes and climbed all around the big boulders looking for views and just enjoying ourselves. The sun was starting to set, lighting all of the rocks and flora up in the most beautiful golden light.

We arrived at the Airbnb just as mom and Wayne were coming into town. We had dinner, played games and caught up. It was so nice!

The next morning we threw all of us into the rental car and drove through the park to the cholla garden. Cholla (choy-ya) are these cool cactus that grow super tall and prickly, but their bases die beneath them. The plant spreads when the base collapses and it builds up from all the points around it. There were warnings not to touch it since the barbs were near impossible to remove.

Afterward we visited the Ocotillo Patch, which is more of just a few of these woody brush trees here and there. It looks like several have died fairly recently.

Skull Rock is apparently one of the popular areas for boulder scrambling. It's named as such for the obvious reason that one of the rocks looks like a giant human skull. It also has some beautiful trails on the opposite side of the road.

Because I heard it was awesome, we took a short detour up to Keys View Overlook which has fantastic views of Coachella, Palm Springs and the Little San Bernadillo Mountains.

We tried to stop at Boulder Dam to see the petroglyphs, but there was absolutely nowhere to park. So many people. I gave up and it was well past lunch time anyway. Mike and I took off for the race expo to pick up bibs, shirts and a headlamp. Mom and Wayne ended up going back there for sunset and had no trouble finding parking.

The race was... maybe not what I expected. Yes, you run in Joshua Tree, but it's the town and a ways away from the park. It's on super sandy dirt roads. If you've ever run in loose sand, you know it's brutal. That's definitely not my favorite thing. However, the worst part about it was the dust kicked up by 2300 stampeding humans. I could not breathe. It hurt to breathe. I hadn't planned ahead and brought a bandana to wear around my mouth because I honestly didn't think about it. For this reason, the run was very hard. Mike was a dreamboat and stayed with me the entire run, which, of course he did in his sandals. Weirdo. We started the race at the tail end of a gorgeous sunset and finished with a sea of stars overhead. We finished the race only 4 minutes slower than my goal time. So, not bad considering.


The next morning we packed up the house and hiked the Fourty-nine Palms Oasis trail. This is a way cool three mile out and back that starts in stark dry desert and ends at an honest-to-goodness desert oasis. We loved it! The shade of the oasis was wonderful! The hike was low-key enough that our tight legs didn't bother us. They weren't really the issue anyway. My lungs felt burnt. It was like someone was sitting on my chest. On the way back, we found a desert tortise walking down the trail toward the oasis. I wonder how long it will take him to get there.


Shortly after, we parted ways with mom and Wayne and headed back to the city. As we checked into the hotel, the power went out. So, we had a room number, but no keys. We waited half an hour and finally just left for dinner. We met Mel and Ryan for Mexican food in Old Town on Dia de los Muertos weekend. It was not calm or quiet. The people watching was fabulous! Lots of sugar skulls and floral headbands. Three hours later, we finally said goodnight and went our own way. The hotel power had only been back on for 15 minutes when we returned.

Joshua Tree was amazing! There's so much there that I didn't have time to do. I would've liked to hike Ryan Mountain, Mastodon Peak, Hidden Valley, the Boy Scout Trail, and Boulder Dam. I would like to do some actual rock climbing. I highly recommend coming this time of year. The days were mid-70s with cool nights. This area is known for its incredibly hot days in the summer. Joshua Tree, we'll be back.

Disclaimer: Despite not loving the dusty night run, I still want to do every single one of Vacation Races half marathons.

National Park 15/61.

Sailing the Sea of Cortez

Mike and I met our friends Sean, Caroline, Angie and Duane in Mexico for a little Baja sailing adventure. While we had some fun land days too, I'm going to focus on the sailing days in this post.

Just before noon we pulled out of the harbor with Capitan Sean at the helm. They'd said we could have the boat at 10 as opposed to 5 because it was in port, but it wasn't quite ready. Oh well, five hours early is still way better! Since the winds in La Paz seem to die at noon and pick up at 6pm every day, we spent the first day motoring, which was TOTALLY ok, because on the way we saw ALL THE THINGS! The water was absolutely silky smooth. Our first sighting was a pod of humpback whales. This is super significant since it's not whale season. Even the guy who runs the charter company was surprised when we said we saw them. They were spouting and surfacing far away, but before long they were closer and we could see them arcing through the water. There were a bunch of them. A short time later a pod of dolphins surrounded the boat. Sean cut the motor, but I told him they like to play in the bow wake and to keep going. They were right under our boat for a while.

To cap off all of that, we saw manta rays swimming with their little wing tips on the surface. Then they started jumping into the air and belly flopping on the water. This was fabulous! As we passed the sea lion colony on Isla Partida, we saw a few of the animals out hunting for dinner. Can you say perfect day?

Sean pulled the boat into the bay of Isla San Francisco where we anchored for the night with two other boats. Duane and I used the grill on the back of the boat to make fajitas for dinner. The winds picked up at 6 pm causing a lot of movement and a ton of noise on the boat. We all sat outside and watched the amazing stars before bed. I played with the bioluminescence in the water. No one slept very well the first night. Sean was unsure of the anchor, and the rest of us struggled with the noise.

We took the dinghy out for a little hike in the hills above the bay. The dinghy had a little struggle starting which meant half the crew looked to be stranded on land while Sean and I waited on the boat for Mike to figure out a balance between starting it and paddling out away from the waves. The hike itself wasn't long, but it was pretty!

We set sail since we actually had winds. The weather was gorgeous! Captain Sean sailed us north to Isla San Jose where we stopped at beautiful Punta Salinas where there is an abandoned salt mine. As we walked down the beach, we picked up cool shells. I found a paper nautilus shell. It's so pretty and delicate.

What remains of the salt mine are cinderblock structures (one bizarrely full of old shoes), the cab of a truck, and the mechanics of a bulldozer (we think). The salt fields spread out behind looking so wild with their bright orange color and white edges. The super saturation of color in that spot was surreal. Turquoise ocean, white sand beach, bright green plants, white, red, and orange of the salt ponds, backed by cactus and scrub covered reddish hills and all framed by a rich azure sky. Sensory overload! The picture really doesn't do it justice. There was dried salt water on the case.
Since we lost our wind, we motored back to Coleta el Embudo on Isla Partida for the night. On the way, we caught a big pod of whales and cut the motor so we could just sit and marvel in their beauty. Mike jumped in to see if he could hear or see them but the vis is not good in the Sea of Cortez. One whale swam beneath us and surfaced on the other side close enough to actually see its blowhole. We were surrounded, but they kept a distance. There were also mantas jumping out of the water all around us. I've never seen this anywhere else and I absolutely love it!

The sea was ours all day. Not a single other boat after we left San Francisco until we were anchoring for the night. We set anchor having to share our cove with another boat that beat us in because we were marveling at the whales and finished the night with a game of Taboo. This was the loudest night of all. The winds were coming from the front of the boat while the current caused a huge amount of wave slap on the back of the boat. I wore ear plugs, which actually helped, thank goodness.

The wind was perfect the next morning so we went for a sail. There were mantas jumping all around us in the cove as we left. Caroline and I wrapped up in our Mexican blankets and we all enjoyed the wind on our skin, even if it was almost just a bit chilly. Before we lost the wind, we headed back to Isla Partida and anchored in Ensanada Grande which is a super gorgeous cove with white sand beaches, interesting cliffs and apparently tourist groups. We took the dinghy out for a snorkel and saw trumpet fish, starfish, crown of thorns starfish, clams, a ton of sergeant majors and some king angelfish. Cool, but not great vis. There were a couple of little swim throughs to play in. We decided to check out the other side of the cove which was also listed as a snorkel site. The vis was better, but there didn't seem to be much there. It was fun to explore anyway. The rocks were almost perfect blocks as opposed to the interesting sandstone of the other side.

A quick late lunch on the boat had us fueled for a little hike up to a saddle between peaks. This hike was super duper fun because it was so much rock hopping along a stream bed. There were cool tall cactus the whole way. It was straight out of a movie set. The top had views of the east side cliffs which were shear and abrupt. Absolutely lovely!


Duane, Sean and I jumped in the water when we got back to the boat "to get the moist off" as Duane put it. It felt amazing and was totally worth it. We cooked up some food, played more Taboo and actually slept well thanks to the fact that there was no wind overnight. That was far more wonderful than I would've thought. Girl needs her sleep.

We started the day by moroting over to the next tiny and gorgeous cove to see if we could spot any blue footed boobies, but the colony looked abandoned. Bummer. We had breakfast there anyway since the views were unparalleled. Deep turquoise water surrounded by pinkish cave-pocked cliffs.

From there we used the winds to sail south to Isla Espiritu Santo. On the way we saw one whale and FINALLY saw a tail fluke. It was our last whale sighting and we were so excited about it. We anchored at a lovely cove called Playa Gallena. We took the dinghy out for some snorkeling at Isla Gallo. There were tons of seagulls and vis was bad. When we dove deep, there were some really cool big fish down there. Sean found a huge octopus which was the big find for the day. Duane, Mike and I would have spent more time there, but the girls were cold. So we headed back and had lunch.

Mike and Duane went out on the dinghy to fish while Caroline and I drank rum and sat out on our pool floaties in the amazing water of the bay. We found ourselves invaded by a swarm of bees driving Angie off the deck to hide in her stateroom while Sean attempted to battle them with Off! spray. We finally convinced him to come play in the water with us instead.

We spent the night anchored just past Balandra in Playa Pichilingue. There were two other boats moored there. Being so close to the city made me a whole lot more edgy overnight. Yes I'm super paranoid. Suuuuper paranoid. It was loud on the boat again, so that didn't help.

We finished off the food and played a ton of rounds of act it out on Heads Up. It was hilarious and atrocious. I laughed until I cried multiple times. Duane was all in usually using a napkin shaped different ways as a prop. Sean and Mike waltzed together. Angie was trapped at the table and laughed at the rest of us. It was a great end to the sailing adventure.

The boat had to be back by 10 am. So we packed up by 8 and drove the boat back. Sean let me drive for all but pulling into the cove. It was fun. I looked like a salty old sea dog. Extra salty. We all needed showers at that point. Don't judge.

Fueling and returning the boat took almost no time. Angie and Duane went into town and picked up a minvan to take us all back. What a fabulous trip! Everyone got along well and had a great time! There was never a single cloud in the sky and we saw whales four days in a row! We spent the next few days in La Paz, but that's a story for another day.