Friday, February 08, 2002
Not a whole lot to report from my end, check out Corran's Site for some pictures and more travel notes.
posted by Preston Holmes 8:54 AM
Thursday, February 07, 2002
The first post is a bit behind, just starting up this new page for the trip.
posted by Preston Holmes 8:51 AM
The trip to Maui so far has been pretty well jam packed. Two days before leaving San Diego I came down with a bug which luckily I'm already shaking off, but I arrive on the first night feeling pretty crappy. Corran and Arnd pick me up at the airport in an old van borrowed from Erik who owns the bed and breakfast where we are staying. This van would become the star of the evening. We were destined to see a local artist at a club somewhat near the airport - but with the way I was feeling I opted just to sleep in the van. When everyone was ready to roll we pile in the van and head up to Hale Kokomo (the BandB).
The van was developing a noticeable shimmy as we drove away from the concert. This shimmy was followed by the sound of part of the exhaust falling down and dragging under the rig. All of this was only a prelude though to the entire drive shaft dropping away from the transmission about three miles from the house. I immediately broke out my sleeping bag and crashed on the grass as we knew we were going to be waiting for a while until our friends drove by. Sometime around 3am, the cops called the owner saying that the van had to be moved immediately.
The next morning (the 5th) we diddled around most of the morning, then finnaly go rolling in search of some surf. The wind had really not let up over the previous 24 hours, so we weren't really expecting perfect conditions. We went into the town of Paia where Corran picked himself up a nice spankin new surfboard. We checked out a number of the spots around, and ended up going out at Hookipa. My mini epic came when my skirt blew when I was in the outside break zone. After trying to swim my boat in I realized I was in unfamiliar currents and bailed on the boat. Soon after I gave up on the paddle as well and just focused on getting to shore. The water was warm, and I felt strong, but it still seemed like a very long swim. I was quite glad when I made it to the inside breakers and could start body surfing in, even if they did toss me a bunch and there were rocks nearby to my left. Several windsurfers also had equipment break and had even longer swims than I.
I was of course bummed about losing all the gear. I had once before abandoned a boat after an ocean swim a couple years ago, but there I was in cold pacific water and had no PFD - some surfers eventually had come out then and assisted me in getting back in the boat, but here the boat seemed lost. However as we watched it out far off the beach among the windsurfers, it gradually drifted across the small bay and eventually started working its way toward the beach. I was essentially able to wade out and get it. Soon after I spotted my sponge along a section of beach and was hopefull that my paddle might show up. Sure enough after a number of minutes a windsurfer had seen it out there not far from shore and brought it in. An amazing recover of equipment compared to what I was expecting, and a good thing since this is the first day of the trip!
The rest of the day we spent at Paia bay where Arnd and Corran thrashed themselves attempting board surfing. Following this we all returned to the house for a grand pasta feast.
posted by Preston Holmes 8:34 AM
