The day started quite calmly. Charmian and I had a bit of a sleep in, and a leisurely breakfast, knowing that the race started at noon. We had checked out all the viewpoints yesterday, noting all the tricky parts and deciding the best line to take and so the only thing that was making us anxious was the 25-30kt winds howling outside, sounding not dissimilar to noise at the lighthouse yesterday that had turned out to be emanating from the Shearwaters.
We had decided to leave at 10am to give us ample time to cover the 45 minute drive up north with a stop at the light house to check out the conditions on the way, whilst also giving us an hour to set up the boats, register and prepare. Gene was to meet us up there with both canoes, so everything seemed in control.
As we came into phone reception our phone began to tinkle. 2 missed calls. The first was from Gene. I couldn't quite make out what he said. Something about race cancelled. South start. Then something about the canoes. It was a long message. The second was from Dylon, the Fenn dealer who we had run into yesterday, and who had offered to take us canoe surfing later in the week. His message was a bit clearer, but kept cutting out too.
A few frantic calls later, we figured out that the race had been moved from the north of the island to the south of the island as a large northerly swell had come through, making landings on the northerly course perilous. We were going to run the fourth leg of the race, from Poi'pu to Salt Ponds. Gene also gave us the unfortunate news that he wouldn't be able to drive his boat all the way down for us.
So 90min out from the start of our race we had no canoes and no idea where we were going.
Gene, in aloha spirit, managed to sort things out for us. We needed to drop by Kalapaki Beach, which was on our way south, where we would meet Peter and pick up the Hurricane. He then suggested we ring Tom Bartlet and borrow a second canoe from him. Charms got straight on the phone and rapidly started writing down directions of how to get to Peter's canoe club and I started sorting out the soft racks. We did a u-turn and hurtled south.
At 11am we forged through a series of muddied ponds on the dirt track to the canoe club. Peter helped us with his canoe (orange - yay!) and I rolled around under the car to find suitable attachment points. Canoe secured, Peter very kindly offered to show us the back street way to Poi'pu.
Incredibly thankful, we followed him through the taro fields of rural Kauai. One eye on the back of his pick-up, the other on the canoe perched on top of the car, with glances at the clock. At 11:55am we turned into the car park at Poi'pu just as Tom Bartlett was ringing us to say, "where are you guys?"
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| A very brief moment of contemplation |
We had no time to think. No time to look at the conditions and determine whether we really were up to this blustery paddle. In a flash we had put together the Hurricane, sorted out Charmian's Scorpious and were following the others down to the beach. I had no idea where we were going, but did get a moment to ask, "so how far is it?" 10 miles (16kms) was the response.
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| Heading out |
We followed Tom and the others through a curtain of waves, a couple curling over us as we made our way through the surf break. Charmian thought immediately of Tom's final words, "don't damage my boat". I stopped worrying about where I was going, and became much more focussed on what I was doing at that immediate point in time.
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| Yikes! Even getting out was tricky |
Charms had not heard how the "start" was going to work and was talking to one of the senior paddlers about what to look for - a red buoy to pass well on the right. She became obsessed with finding the red buoy.
I decided to try my mightiest to keep Tom in sight for as long as possible. We flew down the waves like the albatrosses we had seen gliding on the thermals yesterday, sometimes with the ama held aloft in the air, true Hawaiian style. This was rather alarming, but also rather wonderful. Why couldn't every wave be caught like this! It was like weaving through a maze. Sometimes connecting a few good turns and at other times arriving at a blank wall and having to regroup and start again.
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| Wheee! We're off (although not quite flying the ama like a relaxed Hawaiian) |
I looked up at one point to marvel at the enormous troughs of water rolling ahead of me...then realised that I had just been through that trough, and back up the other side...and promptly went back to thinking about the bit of water just in front of my canoe. The realisation of what we were actually doing was a little extreme.
It's incredible how much you can learn on a 2hr massive downwind paddle. My previous downwind philosophy had been to just go the way the wave took you and make corrections in between waves. This sometimes meant I hurtled in the right direction. Other times it meant I deviated off my path. And othertimes meant I was thrown about every which way (including upside down). Sick of being skewed off course when the rudder of the Hurricane came out of the water, a comment from Amanda from a previous paddle came to mind, "try poking with the blade". Figuring it was about time I gave this a shot, on my next big wave I resolutely stuck the blade in by the side of the canoe when I felt the rudder lift out. Amazingly, instead of skewing off to the side, it went in the direction I had poked. Hurrah! With this new level of control I was much happier and continued to practice. Sometimes using the technique too much, and over correcting, or slowing the boat down too much. But other times, it let me follow the trough into the next wave and longer suuuuurrrrrrrrffffffffing... yippee.
I glanced at my watch, we'd clocked up 16kms, and I started to wonder where the landing point was. All I could see was shorebreak. Charmian was still paranoid because she hadn't seen a red buoy.
Luckily, a couple of kms later, Tom had come out to round us up like a sheep dog, looking after his flock. He led us towards what looked like a solid wall of churning water, which only after paddling in towards, were you able to discern a safe pathway through the centre. Out of the corner of her eye, Charmian saw an OC1 fly horizontally through the air as the paddler was frantically swimming out to avoid being crushed by the tube of water. Luckily he and his boat were safe, but he had just chanced the reef a little too closely.
We had made it! 19.5kms of fun - the best downwind paddle ever. 25-30kt winds survived!
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| Tom leading us through the break to Salt Ponds |
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| Handbrake turn into the beach |
Confidence lifted, and retelling moments of glory we returned to Kalapaki Beach to meet with Peter to return the Hurricane. As it turns out, Peter has raced in the Kauai Challenge every year it has run, and offered to take us to some vantage points for early on in the race so we could get our bearings and pick landmarks to look for. We piled into the dodgy Dodge and went off piste down some dirt tracks along the coastline.
Wow! If we thought what we had just achieved was big, the view we were given took our breath away. An 8-10ft harbour wall was being smashed with the waves spraying over the top. This was our "safe" harbour entry at the end of leg 1 and start of leg 2. If you were to chose the line right, you would shoot as fast as bullet from a gun to the shore. If you missed it, you'd end up shattered on the rocks.
Your partner then has to reverse the process, into the wind, swell, breaking waves and spray, whilst not being tempted to hang a right too soon for fear of sommersaulting onto the rocks as Nappy Napolean and another top female paddler did in a previous year when the conditions were similar to today.
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| The 'safe' harbour entry at the end of leg 1... even our Hawaiian friend admitted it looked a little rough! (But he was smiling) |
The peaks and troughs of the day had been reflected in the peaks and troughs of our emotional stability. I feel like I need to be taking my sea-sickness pills continually. Having heard that the forecast will be slightly smaller for Saturday, we're on the way up again.
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