8/5/2014: Tunnels, Kauai – At Sea
Well, looks like that hurricane isn’t letting up! We were hoping it would dissipate and allow us to spend more time on Kauai, but no such luck. So I guess we’ll just spend the day here in Tunnels, kite, snorkel and relax, then depart back to Oahu after only a day and a half on Kauai. Suck.
Genevieve and I had more fish for breakfast on the boat and waited for Nat and Mike. They showed up around 11 am with bad food poisoning. Diarrhea and vomiting all night, weak and nauseous this morning. Not good. Especially right before sailing the hard way upwind all the way back to Oahu racing a hurricane. Whether we head to Nawiliwili or Oahu, we HAVE to leave this afternoon. No choice.
Chris showed up around noon for kite surfing but the wind was off-shore and gusty, not ideal. I decided to conserve my strength, sleep on the beach and basically prepare for a single-handed expedition across the channel back to Oahu. So Natalie slept and tried to recover on the boat, Genevieve snorkeled a bit, and Mike and I dinghied in to meet Chris on the beach. Mike did some snorkeling alone while Chris, Chris’ visitor from New Zealand and I lazed under a tree watching the ocean and sky and basically did absolutely nothing.
Finally, we decided to go for it and try for Oahu! Well, except Chris and Genevieve. We could have used as much help as possible with Natalie being so weak and Mike not feeling in top shape, but Genevieve had to get back to work and Chris had already planned on house sitting and entertaining his NZ guest. So off we went, up anchor and motored out to raise a double-reefed main and partial jib to beat our way up past Hanalei and beyond!
It took two hours to make it past Hanalei, passing a mega-yacht anchored just off the point. Chris had mentioned a Russian billionaire had his yacht in Hanalei and we saw him cruising the Napali Coast earlier. That thing must have been 300 feet long! Humungus! So we left the yacht, Hanalei and the sun behind us, tacking our way close in to the red-lit cliffs of Princeville attempting to clear Kilauea for a straight shot to Oahu.