Molokini Ho!

I arrive on the beach in Wailea Saturday morning at 6:30.  It's a beautiful, clear, calm Maui day.  I and 17 other members of the Maui Canoe Club prepare for our adventure.  The three canoes are unlocked and one by one dragged down the 30 feet of powdery beach to the water line.  Captains assign seats to their crew and confirm radio frequencies.  Oean conditions are assessed.  We are a go for Molokini.

All photos in this posting are courtesy of an MCC member. 
No, I'm not in this one.

Approximately 7:00 AM we launch from the beach, one boat at a time.  I am on "Ku Kohola" (means Whale Watcher) with Captain Marty  and fellow paddlers Keoki, Valerie, Betty and Claire.  We are the second boat off the beach.

The paddle over was amazing.  Initially, very easy, flat, calm seas.  No wind to speak of.  As we near the open ocean in the crossing, the sea swells grow.  Big rolling waves.  We're paddling into them sort of cross-wise.  They will be more help to us on the return trip.  Meanwhile, they are a little like a sideways (kiddie) roller coaster.  I wish I could tell you how high they were... but I'm really bad at that.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 3-4 feet?  With big troughs in between.  Nothing scary, nothing troublesome.  Just a big, rolling ocean that we are cutting through in our outrigger.  We see dolphins (for which we take a little detour) and a manta ray (for which we take another detour). 

(Side note on the manta ray:  We weren't close enough for me to really see well.  It looked a bit like a big roundish black oil slick.)

We take 2 rolling stops on the way out - that means that 1 crew member at a time takes a break while the rest of the crew continues to paddle.  When seat 1 comes back in, seat 2 goes out, etc.  Very efficient!

Large island in the distance is Kaho'olawe. 
Molokini is smal brown crater just over Claire's left shoulder. 

Five miles and 53 minutes later, we are the first boat to reach the crater of Molokini.  Several minutes after we arrive, the other two boats follow.  I am told that 53 minutes is VERY good time.  (And this after 2 detours....) We rock!

Then we float around in the crater for a while - several paddlers going overboard for a dip and/or a snorkel.  A big octopus was reported (alas, no picture).  The water out there is a nearly indescribable blue - Caribean hued, jewel-like turqoise.  I now call it Molokini Blue.  There are numerous, huge frigate birds circling effortlessly above us.  So graceful to watch.

Molokini Blues. 

After a lazy 1/2 hour, we leave the excursion boats and their clusterclump of snorkelers, and paddle around the back side of Molokini.  This is a wilder side - both of the crater and the ocean.  Wooooo Hoooo!

Yes, that's me, second from left (seat 5).

After rounding the crater we're back to the swelling, rolling seas.  Still no real wind to fight, which is remarkable. Skipper Marty manages to artfully "surf" several of the swells on our return leg.  You can feel us slide down the face, making good forward momentum.  And then there are the washes that aren't as friendly, and it feels as tho we are paddling through molasses.  Once again we somehow cut our way well out ahead of the other two boats.  (Unbeknownst to us at the time, one boat huli's just after coming around the crater.  Whoops!)  We actually take a couple of full "lava's" (everyone gets to rest at the same time and we just float).  We let the other boats catch up and head back more or less together.

It's now closer to 9:30 in the morning and the beach is considerably more crowded than when we left.  Our captains have to dodge standup paddlers, swimmers, kids with innertubes, snorkelers and random people standing in the water.  It's like a pinball game!  We all succeed with no casualties.

We have paddled 11 miles.  11 spectacular miles over a 2-1/2 hour morning.  What fun!  A bit tiring, too.  But wait... we still have to get the boats back up the stretch of (now hotter) beach with our now slightly fatigued arms and backs.  Ugh.  This is hands down the worst part of the day!

I take a quick dip to cool off and head home.  Tired but exhilarated.  And proceed to take a nap.  Ahhhhh.