Visiting the Garden Isle: Day 3, Part 1 – Sailing the Na Pali Coast
Day 3 started out early with the alarm going off before
sunrise. We had an appointment to keep
at 7:15 on the southwestern side of the island; it would take us a good
1.25 hours to make it there, and we didn’t want to be late. We were catching a boat!
Time to go sailing
with Captain Andy’s!
We’d packed everything up the night before, so after a quick
shower to wake up and a few granola bars, we hopped in the car and started the
drive around the island.
The Roach Coach
greeting us
with illuminated door lights.
Redonk.
At the entrance to the Port Allen area, we stopped for
coffee for Chris at Grinds, more of a true breakfast restaurant than coffee stand,
but it was still pretty good. Since we’d
allowed ourselves plenty of time, we arrived before the sailing office even
opened, so we killed the wait wandering around and chicken-watching. Eventually, the doors opened and we checked
ourselves in as present and ready to go!
We have a card!
That means we’re official!
At the appointed time, Captain Claire, our commander for the
voyage, gathered us all around and shepherded us down to the dock where our
vessel for the voyage, the Northern Star (a 60 foot luxury catamaran), was
waiting.
The herd of tourists wanders down to the boat
Captain Claire,
welcoming us aboard
After a short safety briefing and the stowing of gear in the
inner cabin, we grabbed some pastries, fruit, and juice for second breakfast
while we cast off ("we" - as if we did anything other than shove food in our faces).
Noms!
Shots of the Northern Star
Heading out to the
open sea
The sailing essentially offered three major items on the
itinerary: 1) snorkeling, 2) sailing along the Na Pali Coast, and 3)
lunch. Apparently, the order of these
things varies according to the conditions on the day you go and the seas
themselves, and on our morning, snorkeling was up first, about 30 minutes into
the voyage. I generally don’t enjoy
snorkeling very much, so I made a game time decision to stay on the boat and
take pictures while Chris paddled around in the ocean like a happy little turtle
(well, a happy 6’2” turtle) with the rest of the tourists.
Getting suited up
Hopping in
We’d recently purchased a cheapo “sport” camera (we took to calling it the “SchmoPro”) with “activity” attachments, so Chris was able to grab some underwater pictures of fish while he was swimming along.
Me, back on the boat
Fish!
More fish!
The snorkeling lasted for around 30-40 minutes and
eventually, everyone headed back aboard to continue the tour. We skirted the coast, seeing Waimea town
(which we’ll visit in the next blog post – spoiler alert) and the Navy’s nuclear
testing facility right on the point of the island.
Chris, getting changed
Waimea
The Southern Star, our
sister ship,
sailing past the Navy facility
As we sailed along, we ran smack into a decent sized pod of
Spinner dolphins; our pod was somewhere in the 30 dolphin count, but
apparently, pods of Spinners can get super big.
Either way, we had a great time taking a million pictures of them
as they played in our slipstream (do you have slipstreams on boats or just planes?).
They call them Spinners, Spinners,
Faster than our boat,
No-one you see,
Is cuter than thee
(sorry, had to rhyme).
Eventually, they thanked us for the fish, and we moved
along, ready to start some serious sightseeing.
As I’m sure you remember from our hiking commentary a few blog posts ago
(how could you forget?), our time spent on the Kalalau Trail the morning before
was also along the Na Pali Coast, albeit starting from the other
direction. What we saw then was
absolutely stunning, and the view from the sea also didn’t disappoint; we witnessed amazing valleys, waterfalls, sea caves, and gorgeous, unspoiled beaches, all while listening to the enlightening commentary from Captain Claire
and the rest of the crew.
Since the sea was calm on our cruising day (thankfully – we
took Dramamine that morning anyway, just in case), the crew mentioned that we
actually made it further than most sailings do.
According to our admittedly casual calculations, from where we were on
the trail the morning prior to where we sailed, we only had a gap of 2-3 miles;
thus, we almost saw the entire Na Pali Coast between the two excursions. Not too shabby!
At this juncture, lunch was served, which was most
appreciated, as I was starting to get hungry from taking all those
pictures. Captain Andy’s runs two tours
each morning up the coast, and one features cold cut sandwiches and sides for lunch; for another few dollars for each of us, we picked the BBQ cruise,
which actually had hot food cooked on a grill mounted on the back of the
boat. While there were your typical
burgers and cheeseburgers, Chris picked the teriyaki chicken option, while I
wrote ahead to request the vegan meal.
In reading the description of the food, the veggie skewers with
marinated portabella mushroom sounded more interesting to me than yet another burger or chicken sandwich. Both of our meals were completed with
coleslaw and cookies, and at lunch, the bar on board opened, too; we each
partook in a few cans of Maui Blonde, which is a great brew and well suited for
sailing (we’d been motoring before, but at this point, the crew raised the
sail, so we were moving under wind power).
Hoisting the sail
Hooray for casual veganism!
Cheers!
After we finished lunch and the plates were cleared (and I
took a short nap – yes, really), Captain Claire picked up the pace, and we sped
back to the harbor. Due to the speed and
wind, things got a little choppy, and since we were sitting near the bow, we
got pretty wet. However, the crew gave
us ample forewarning, and we secured our valuables, having a great time sitting
inside the splash zone. We arrived back
in port around 1:30pm, right on schedule, and we disembarked after having
experienced a wonderful time.
On the next blog, the rest of the day, including another
brewery visit, a trip to the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and dinner!
Later!
Amy
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