"Time is not wasted, when you enjoyed wasting it."
I wake up in an apartment on the 11th floor of Marina Tower Waikiki, prepare some breakfast.
What a change compared to the days before...
I take the bus line 42 down to Kewalo Basin Harbour and find the pier
where Julia and Brad live on their sailboat. We meet on a different boat on the same pier, the Kuu Huapala, owned by Marty, a friend of them.
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| This boat has a lot of space. Shower, toilet, kitchen, fridges. Perfect stay. Mahalo! |
Julia arranged with the owner, that I can stay on the boat for some days, since her own boat is far to small to acommodate a third person.
She presents me to Deidre and Gillian, two girls working on the Kuu Huapala every day.
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| Deidre and Gilian. Brad in the background |
I love it, being on a boat again, in a port, between sailboats, aluminium masts, fishing vessels and dive boats. Dan and Jeff (we dived with them in Ni'ihau) also operate their businesses from this harbour.
Marty's boat is a spacious former fishing boat, being transformed into an Air B'n'B, eventually ;-)
The girls are doing a great job here every day.
We hang out at the stern, neighbours come by, we have some beers, I watch the sun go down over Honolulu with Deidre and Gilian, and Julia cooks us a five star barbecue. Didn't have such tasty food for long time.
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| Deidre |
Brad picks me up around 11 with my bags and I move in on the boat. I have no idea how long I will stay here, only thing that is certain is I have a flight from L.A. to Cancun, Mexico on the 10th of June.
I activate my AT&T Sim card and have a highspeed internet connection now. I use the next days to finish some blogposts, starting with Raja Ampat Part 2, which is already so far away by now...
One of the boats in the harbour is the "Blue Water" of the danish NGO PlasticChange.org.
They are researching plastic pollution of the oceans, you can read here, what they do, they deserve support, IMHO.
Days pass by, I learn about the neighbour on the pier, will not mention his name, "There is a law in the books on Hawaii, that you can get busted for lack of Aloha" says Brad, I try not to be in the way of Gilian and Deirde, who come for work on the boat every morning with their dog Zapper,
I edit photos, write posts, do the groceries at Marukai,
an asian supermarket close to the marina. Mostly beer, fruit, cookies and milk.
The first time on my way to Marukai I run into Dan, who gives me a lift and drives me to the Supermarket in his Ford Mustang. Great neighborhood.
Marukai and the Ward Center on Ala Moana Boulevard will be closed by end of September. All buildings, one and two stories high, will be torn down, and a row of skyscrapers will be constructed, behind Ala Moana, almost on the waterfront. "They want it to look like fucking Fort Lauderdale." is a comment one evening...
One day Julia invites me for a Dinner Cruise on the boat, where she works as a cook. It's just a two hours cruise out of the harbour, passing the surfers at the left of the channel, along the skyline of Waikiki until nightfall, complete with rainbow, Hula Girl Dance and a Fireshow, performed by "The Dragonman"
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| Big oil tanker on the right |
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| Surfers to the left |
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| I swear: five minutes before that, we had "Somewhere over the rainbow" playing on board. No kidding... |
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| The Diamond Head in the evening sun |
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| Noi performs two Hula dances |
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| On our way back, night falls over Waikiki |
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| The "Dragonman" |
Another afternoon Brad spontaneously asks if I want to join him on a dive, I finish my beer, pull one more time on that funny cigarette, and join him. It turns out to be a group of two certified divers and five DSD (Discover Scuba Diving). Eric, who operates this trip, has everything for the divers in his van: wetsuits, fins, masks, BCDs, tanks and regulators. It's like a tiny dive center on wheels. The five get their instructions in the shade of a tree by the parking lot and later on the boat as we cruise out to a small reef just off of Waikiki Beach. The boat is the Musashi, and the Captain to that boat is...Dan!
So we go down to not more than 12 meters, with 7 liter tanks, the DSDs with snorkeling fins to keep them slow, but they fin like crazy seahorses, for like 40 minutes. Brad's helping Eric to keep the herd together...
I enjoy being underwater one more time, but shorten my second dive, this water is actually too cold for my 3 mm wetsuit ;-)
Brad works as a divemaster on this trip, I give him a hand carrying tanks and buckets of masks and fins.
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| Cpt. Danielson on the Musashi, I know him as Dan |
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| No post without a Nudi, this time at Waikiki Beach |
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| Waikiki Shark |
Later that week we move Julia's and Brad's boat to another pier on the opposite side of the basin, their new "adress" is now E215... Their old slip was broken, so you always had to enter the boat over the bow, now you can simply step on it from the side, as it should be. "I am on the boat, now I am off the boat. I am on the boat, now I am off..." ;-)
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| Prepare for takeoff |
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| Julia goes ahead in the Dinghi |
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| You gotta move it, move it... I like to move it, move it... |
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| Concentration now, Captain |
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| Julia and Bob waiting at the new slip |
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| "I am on the boat, now I am off the boat. I am on the boat, now I am off..." |
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| new home, pier E |
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| the Pirate Ship |
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| Weird underwater vehicles |
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| turtle among the boats |
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| Sportfishing |
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| Back on the old pier, we see two Buddhist monks coming in, probably from a ash spreading ceremony |
That same day I make up my mind how to continue, book a flight to San Francisco for Saturday, June 3rd, plus a Motel room in Marina District, San Francisco for two nights, and a rental car from SF to L.A., June 3 til June 9, pickup at SFO, dropoff at LAX. Even a hotel room for the first three nights in Tulum is on my list of things I get done that day.
Brad gives me a contact in Tulum, a friend who works in a dive center there.
On the last day, Brad, Gillian and Deidre take me on a roadtrip to North Shore, the famous surfing coast.
We grab some beers from the boat, fill the Chill Buddy from Kau'ai, and leave Honolulu. After not even half an hour we are out of the city in lush green hills and mountains. We stop at Nu'Uanu Pali Viewpoint with wind that can carry you off the platform.
Have some Mexic Foo at the Guadalajara Grill,
and shrimps for dessert at Fumi's Shrimp.
Rinse with Longboard Lager from the Chill Buddy :-) , Gilian behind the wheel taking us all along the coast and back to the city.
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| Them so cute |
and further into the city
Big wave surfing season is already over, there are still some kids in the water with their boards. Brad just wanted to make sure I see Oahu is not only skyscrapers, and I get a better picture of it. And I sure do.
I don't move out of Waikiki except for that last day, I don't go to Maui or Big Island, but I am sure I've seen more of Hawai'i during this week at Kewalo Basin Harbour and North Shore than many people who take the day trips.
I have experienced Aloha in full swing, I am deeply grateful. Boat people are simply different, and more my kin.
This post is of course utterly incomplete and can only scratch the surface of that week. Too much to see, to experience and to enjoy.
As mentioned above: "Time is not wasted, when you enjoyed wasting it.", and I enjoyed every minute.
(Final editing in Santa Cruz, CA, and Monterey, CA, on June 6)
See you under water
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