Return to Kauai, plus two videos for your review

As planned, the crossing to Kauai from Oahu did take but one day, a gentle ride overall. On approach to the island wind moderated such that we ran under full sail for the first time since arriving in the Hawaiian chain last September.  Murre ghosted along on a blue ocean under a blue sky without cloud and entered Nawiliwili mid afternoon as the northeasterly faded to barely a breath.  Here my father in-law, Peter, met us to hand dock lines as we eased into the slip.

This return to Kauai completed a two month cruise of all Hawaii’s inhabited islands except Ni’ihau.

Joanna flew in that weekend but has now departed.  Peter and Nansy have also left to pursue their own adventure in Europe.  So Murre and I are in familiar territory but alone, which is for the better.  All energy is now being focused on a long list of projects whose completion is necessary before our passage north.  For me, this upcoming leg is fraught with uncertainty and fear, but we can discuss that later…

Murre dressed down in Nawiliwili: cockpit taped for varnish; propane box and cockpit hatchboards off for painting, main boom down for repair. Etc.

For now you must be satisfied with two short, poor quality videos of two channel crossings, one from Lanai to Molokai via the Kalohi Channel and the other from Molokai to Oahu via the Kaiwi Channel.  Both of these are one-take experiments on low-tech devices–an iPhone in the first instance and a Flip camera in the second. Neither camera is able to adjust to boat motion, especially as I struggle to hold onto the camera and the boat without falling off my perch.  And neither seems to focus worth a damn or modulate for wind “noise”, so watch your volume as the view steps outside.

What’s with all the movies?  I have been toying with the idea of shooting periodic video logs of the passage to the Pacific Northwest, but I am unphotogenic and not extemporaneously inclined.  A keyboard is a friend, a camera, foe to a man of my temperament.  So beyond the need for some practice with the device, there’s the psychological preparedness that attends being “on stage”.  Thus these rudimentary experiments.

The question is this.  Is it worth the bother? Are these videos interesting?  Remember, I could not post them while at sea as I have no uplink capacity aboard Murre.  If they have value at all, it will be historical.

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Molokai to Oahu via the Kaiwi Channel

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Photographs of uninhabited, western Molokai.  Beautiful, barren, and littered with No Tresspassing signs.