So much to do, so little time

 

Now that I have your attention, let me just say that we had to pay money to go out, and then TRY to see sharks to find them.  I know people get scared about them being in the water, but for the most part, they don't care about you.  Unlike what Rob Schneider says in 50 First Dates, sharks are not like dogs. sharks are like cats.  I feel like dolphins are the golden retrievers of the sea, and sharks are the cats, they kind of prowl around, take care of themselves, and will even curl up if you pet them right.  They are apex predators, but unless they are bigger than you, it would seem to be a calorie deficient activity to attack a human when there are so many more bite sized fish around. .  When the engines on this tour boat were revved, the sharks frenzied around playing in the bubbles.  As soon as we got in the water with them: crickets.  The sharks were 50-60 feet down.  It was amazing and we want to go back. The experience was a little disappointing, but at the same time it really helped Kenzie's apprehension about having our babies in the water.  They love to adventure, and we love to share with them.

One thing we love to do is paddleboard.  Kenzie found a good deal on inflatable paddleboards in Wisconsin at Costco, and we've had them ever since.  We have bought this brand for 3 generations of board now.  There's a new model out, but we don't need more.  We bought a total of five inflatable stand up paddle boards so I can run tours as a side gig.  It works out well when I have a set schedule, but lately my schedule has been fluctuating so much, and Kenzie has had so many extracurricular activities, that I don't get to do many tours anymore.  When we were first getting started on Airbnb, we brought friends along to see what they thought.  We go up a peaceful river, and swing from a rope into the cool fresh water.  When we go as a family (and not for a tour) I will usually have Fjord on my front or back, and Finn on the board.  He's got some pretty good balance now.

I love taking people out to share a bit of the history and the culture of the area.  I'm always surprised by who will choose to do the rope swing, and who will skip it because they're chicken.

Kawela Bay (In Hawai'i, the "W" letter is pronounced with a "V" sound.  Haleiwa is pronounced hall-ay-ee-vah.  Kawela Bay is pronounced Kah-vell-ah), is one of our all time favorite hidden gems on the North Shore.  The sunsets here are the best by far.  Kenzie does a tour here where I take people paddle boarding, then she teaches them how to paint the sunset, and they conclude with a little yoga session.  Since she has been officially certified as a yoga instructor, we try and sprinkle it in wherever we can.

At first I didn't even know this place existed, but when I was in school I did a mini-internship here and they took us on a property tour in golf carts so we could see the 1300 acres Turtle Bay has to offer.  It was amazing, and this spot was particularly pristine.  They filmed some episodes of LOST here, a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and even the fancy water circle cornucopia scene from Hunger Games 2.  

Turtle Bay has changed a lot since my mini-internship, and now I actually work here.  It was a goal I had when were first starting out on the North Shore.  You tend to get used to the beauty of a place if you visit it enough, but every now and then I walk in to my place of work, and see the sun rising over the infinity pools, and see the palm trees swaying in the wind and I think, 'man, I am one lucky son of a gun!'

Kawela Bay is a go-to spot for seeing turtles.  We never fail to see at least 3 of them popping their heads up as they munch on the seagrass that grows on the coral heads.  The water is fairly murky because of the shallow depth and sandy bottom.  It's not the best for snorkeling, but once when paddleboarding I saw turtles 18 times!  Twice I even saw a big one pull up on the shore next to one of the beach houses.  Ahh how lucky to have those homes.  I guess the bar is always raised as to what would be nice.  (oh to live in Hawaii, oh to live in Hawaii and have a job, oh to live in Hawaii and have a job and a house...etc.)

When we first got here, we had to move out of our apartment for 4 days before moving 100% in.  We decided to go camping with our 2-month old Finn.  It was so fun, and we got to check out two new campsites.  Malaekahana (close to home now on the North Shore), and Aiaia (one of the hardest words to pronounce just by looking at it).  We camped on the ground and put in an air mattress to stay comfy.  The mattress was great but it took up a lot of vertical real estate, and now that we have two boys, we need a bigger tent.  One of my favorite purchases was this tree tent by tentsile.  I've had my eye on these for years, but I always thought they were too expensive.  Kenzie found on on craigslist for cheap and it was very very used, but still functional.  It is so fun to sleep up in the trees and not worry about roots and mud in your back.  I started renting it out on Airbnb, but it was a lot of work to set up, and I had to hike all these people to the free site that I know of in the backcountry.  I would wash the stuff after it got used, and I think I washed the waterproofing off of the rain fly.  We had one pair who put me through the ringer.  They got rained on, and left their stuff and my stuff up in the middle of the night.  I had to go up and clean up their rubbish and then hike down with almost 100 Lb of gear.  It was crazy.  The next couple broke the tent poles, so I decided, NO MORE rentals from me.  I want to fix the poles because I love this tent.  I want to try camping in it over the river some day.  Finn loves it too, it's like a trampoline, slack line, and hammock all in one.

Someday I'll have my own catamaran anchored in a tropical bay. 

We love coming to Waimea Bay in the summer.  The water is flat and clear.  You can usually dive right off the beach.  There is a great big rock for cliff diving, and some great spots to anchor.  I miss sailing so much. I put an ad out on the interwebs to see if someone had a sailboat to share.  Lo and behold I found someone willing to share the boat for half the dock fee.  At the time I was a poor student and I couldn't afford even that, so I offered to do some chores on the boat.  Anyway, we took it out sailing a couple of times.  The first time we went out and the owner zipped by with his family on his other boat to go see the sharks (see video 1).  After we were all back in and tied up to the dock, they asked, "Did you guys see those whales?!"  It was whale season, but we didn't see any, and we assumed they must have seen them way out where they could get to on their much faster speed boat.  "There were about six of them following you guys." They said.  I couldn't believe we missed it!  I can't wait to get out there on my own boat so we can go as far as we want.

The second time we took it out, I brought a buddy along with us.  Kenzie swears that the swells were like mountains and she thought the waves were too big.  My buddy got seasick and threw up.  *Side note* if wondering which side of the boat to puke off of, it's the side where you're not vomiting into the wind...that's the correct side.  

We sailed about an hour from Haleiwa to Waimea Bay.  I dropped anchor, and dropped the sails.  It was then that I started to feel queasy.  I went below to check the bilge since the boat had an annoying habit of leaking like a sieve whenever the engine was running.  I did have to run the engine to get out of the harbor, and then to speed up our progress when we were about 10 minutes out of Waimea.  As such, the sea was sloshing over the floorboards.  That was an uncomfortable feeling.  I prefer the water to be on the outside of the boat.  When I was down below, I got my first bout of seasickness ever.  It was not fun.  I did end up feeling better after throwing up, but in the end I just had to try and take my mind off of it by working.  I hopped in with a scraper and went about cleaning the hull.  Where I anticipated a month or so of slime buildup, I was greeted by 3 inches of coral growing on the keel!  I had never seen anything like it.  This boat hadn't had the bottom scrubbed in so long, it had become a reef.  Scraping and chipping was made more difficult by my seasickness, and by the fact that the boat kept lolling and bobbing on top of me with each swell.  Kenzie had made the suggestion to anchor further in to shore, closer to the cliffs.  Since it wasn't my boat, and I wasn't sure of the depth all around the bay, I didn't want to risk running into the rocks.  Now that I know the area better, I will definitely pull closer in for more protection.  The boat rocked and rolled while I chipped, and the bilge pump worked happily away draining the cabin.

When it was time to pull the anchor and head home, I turned the key in the ignition and *click*.  Dead battery.  The bilge pump had sucked the floor, and the battery completely dry.  Looking back at it, I don't think I isolated the batteries correctly.  Typically you will have an engine battery for starting the motor, and a house battery for running lights and pumps and such.  You rotate a selector switch to make sure you are on the right battery.  Left for the engine, right for the house, and center for both.  I think I left it in the center position.  Either way, I called the owner, Paul, and told him of the predicament.  He said he had a spare battery on his other boat back in Haleiwa.  We were worried for a bit, then I kind of shook myself and thought, 'what the heck am I worried about, this is a sailboat after all.  I put up the main, unfurled the jib, and headed back the way we came.  The going was much easier, not pounding into the waves.  Once we got close to the harbor I furled in the jib to scrub off some speed.  When we were in the harbor I had my buddy, McKay, get on the bow with the anchor ready to drop.  The wind was still blowing pretty good, but I did not want to try and make it into the cramped slip at the back of the marina at full speed.  I spotted an empty dock right where I needed it to be.  I quickly threw the tiller to the side, pulling off a tidy U-turn, and pointed straight into the wind.  Once we had stopped, I gave the order to drop the anchor.  We were held fast for a moment, but we were right in the middle of the channel.  I did not want to block traffic.  We eased out the anchor line, and slowly (using the wind on our nose) backed into the empty dock.  In the end it worked like a charm.  I had to grab the spare battery, and then use jumper cables from my van and about 30 minutes of time to charge it up enough to start the diesel engine, but then I chugged over to the proper slip and put it all away as if nothing had happened.  

Night Snorkeling

 One of my favorite things about being in Hawaii is that I can swim anytime I want, all year round.  The water is definitely saltier than I grew up with on Lake Michigan, but it's a small trade off for the variation of life that you get to see here.  The water is clear, and warm (usually).  The sights are unbelievable.  As soon as we moved here we got snorkel kits, and have used them extensively.  I got SCUBA certified in my second semester of school, but sadly have not gotten a tank on my back since the final certification dive. 

What I love with the ocean is that the life beneath the waves doesn't follow the same rules that it does out here in the air.  Here everything has it's head, mouth, eyes, brain, and all that pretty much in the same spot.  Underwater, the line between plant and animal is blurred so much that I often don't know what I'm looking at.  Tiny creatures make up the largest structures around.  The reefs are plentiful, and house myriad fishes, snails, cucumbers, and other life.  Sadly, with all this beauty, I do see a lot of trash.  We live on the windward side of the island, and the tradewinds blow pretty steadily all year.  With the wind comes the trash.  Mostly it's all beautiful, but I feel saddened when I see a beach covered with broken milk crates, fishing lures, and other rubbish. We are so proud of Finn though.  WHenever he sees ANY trash, he picks it up and announces, "Just saved a sea turtle!".  

I have a buddy who is always out hunting and spearfishing.  He's the consummate outdoorsman.  I have always loved the look of spearfishing.  I used to follow Kimi Swimmy on Insta back in the day when I was hip and on all the social medias.  Anyway, he took me spearfishing once.  It was quite the experience.  You have to go beyond the reef to get to the big fish.  Now, between the reef and the beach, it's pretty calm because the energy of the waves is dissipated on the coral before it hits shore.  Beyond the reef it is also pretty calm because the waves are just swells of energy with nothing to stop them, so you just bob around a bit.  It's that tricky part right ON the reef that things get dicey.  All the swells trying to get to shore pile up on top of the reef and make the large, surfable, waves you see on TV.  They're great if you want to surf on top of the water, but if you are trying to make your way under the water, it's a bit more difficult.  

I marveled at my friend's ability to stay down on the bottom waiting for a fish.  Spearfishing is the most sustainable form of fishing.  I feel like you are hunting the fish on their own territory.  You get to select just the right fish, and there's not accidental bycatch.  Fishing with a single line is not as, but you might hurt the wrong animal you're not going for, and I can't tell you how many lead weights and stray fishing lines I have found in the ocean.  Commercial fishing nets destroy whole fishing zones and all the habitats around.  Anyway, even though it looks amazing, and is the most eco-friendly way to fish, it was still too sad for me to be down there, seeing these beautiful, colorful, graceful fish, and then shooting one.  After getting a fish, he handed it to me while he got it strung up to his float.  I'm pretty sure it stared at me as it died.  

After a while of swimming around, we started to head back in.  Surprise surprise, the fish was no longer there.  To which my friend said, "I thought I felt something tugging on the line.  A shark must have eaten it."  I will definitely think twice before accepting a freshly killed fish while I am still in the water, and I will probably not go spearfishing again.

This same buddy also leads night snorkeling tours.  He goes to a popular snorkel spot that I've been to many times.  It feel like swimming in an aquarium because of all the colorful reef fish, and the clear water.  At night time it's a whole different ballgame.  All of the slower moving -and in many ways, more exotic- animals hide during the day, and come out to do their business at night. 

Giant cowrie shells clung to the underside of jagged rocks.  Holes of varying size and sharpness opened up to a hidden underworld.  Crustaceans of all sorts crawled out to feed.  They are some of the most easily spotted nocturnal animals since their eyes glow like bright LEDs when hit by a flashlight.

Creatures I took to be mainly stationary actually crawled around during the late-night hours.  There were several types of urchins.  Black spine urchins (hurt to step on, happened twice), Hawaiian banded urchins (poisonous, avoid), and boring urchins (so-named for their ability to bore into solid rock, and not so much for their lack of witty conversation) were all out in abundance.  

Sea stars were oddly rare on the nights I have been out night snorkeling.  I went a few times with my buddy, but then he had his appendix out and needed some help to carry things while he recovered.  This was a great way to have fun and make a few bucks.  I suppose I did well enough that he let me take over the tours while he was on vacation.  I am not as good of a photographer, but it was still great to share this underwater world with others, and feel more a part of it myself.

Who would have thought that snails and slugs were some of the most beautiful and mysterious creatures of the night?

There are two types of octopus that I have been able to interact with on these night tours.  They are so intelligent and aware that I have completely sworn off of calamari.  It was never one of my favorite dishes, but I still felt like I had to try some when I went to Chinese buffets.  The only way to stop animals from being hunted, is to stop ordering them on the menu.  I don't know why I don't feel this way about all animals yet, but perhaps someday I'll either get over it, or become vegetarian. 

Anyway, they have complete control over each individual sucker on each of their eight limbs.  This poor guy is down to six tentacles and two stubs.  I hope that it is due to fights with other sea creatures, and not due to mishandling by humans.  Perhaps someday I will be ok with just looking and not touching.  With the octopus, I always try to respect them.  I reach out to see if they want to be held, or to play, but they are very descriptive with their body language.  If he changes color, tries to squirt away, or just reached out and slaps my hand away, then I back off and give him his space.  Their bodies and tentacles feel like a mix between Jello and Velcro.

That there ladies and gents is a cone snail with his harpoon out

"All cone snails are venomous and capable of "stinging" humans; if live ones are handled their venomous sting will occur without warning and can be fatal. The species most dangerous to humans are the larger cones, which prey on small bottom-dwelling fish; the smaller species mostly hunt and eat marine worms. Cone snails use a hypodermic needle-like modified radula tooth and a venom gland to attack and paralyze their prey before engulfing it. The tooth, which is sometimes likened to a dart or a harpoon, is barbed and can be extended some distance out from the head of the snail, at the end of the proboscis.

Cone snail venoms are mainly peptides. The venoms contain many different toxins that vary in their effects; some are extremely toxic. The sting of small cones is no worse than a bee sting, but the sting of a few of the larger species of tropical cone snails can be serious, occasionally even fatal to humans. Cone snail venom is showing great promise as a source of new, medically important substances"  -Wikipedia

Who can tell me what this is?

The patterns and shapes that life under the sea takes is really awe-inspiring

I wish I had picture of all that I saw.  These are just a few of the species I noticed while out at night.  For some reason, it just felt more adventurous.  The water may have been clear, but it was still eerie to only have a field of vision as far and wide as my small flashlight could penetrate.  Sometimes surprises loomed around the next rock.  We once came upon a 6-foot long brown moray eel!  It's not their fault they look so mean, they are just breathing; but still, I wouldn't want one to lunge and make off with my finger.

These are Toby fish.  They are so cute, and they puff up and squeak if you try to hold them.  They are part of the boxfish/puffer fish family, but they have no spines.

Here is our friend from earlier.  The jeweled anemone hermit crab.  Apparently hermit crabs really do like to stack things on their shells to be all Shiny!  In this case, they put anemones on their backs.  The anemones get a free ride to better food, and the hermit crab gets protection in the form of stinging anemones in case someone tries to eat them.  

Well there you have it, a tiny glimpse into the underwater world of Hawaii.  I hope to keep sharing these adventures with you as time goes by.  I have a lot of catching up to do!