S/V Sequoia

July 10, 2011
At sea, 31 degrees, 53 minutes north, 159 degrees, 46minutes west (about 600 miles north of Kauai)

This will just be a brief update to let you know that we left Kauai, despite the many charms of Hanalei Bay, and we're well on our way home.   The first couple of days were fairly rugged, with strong winds, high seas and a bit of seasickness.  Now the wind has dropped a bit, the ocean has smoothed out, and we could be in a film advertisement for the joys of sailing.  For lunch we had delicious smoothies, made with the ripening-too-fast fruit.  In a few days we'll be more heavily into the canned and dried goods, but for now we have an over-abundance.

In Kauai, we rented a car and did some tourist things, including a trip to see Waimea Canyon.  But the highlights of Kauai happened right there in Hanalei Bay.  We had a visit from Craig's cousin, Andy, who brought along his two charming step-grandchildren to be.  (His fiancee's grandchildren).  We visited an organic farmers market on Hawaiian native lands, and acquired some very green bananas and papayas for the trip. 

The market is so popular that they have a start time, and there were probably 300 people lined up at the gate for the twenty or so vendors.  I acquired some fresh turmeric root, and we have yet to try it in a curry.  (I didn't even know turmeric WAS a root!)  But curries are for later in the voyage when stomachs are for-sure settled.

Probably the highlight of all occurred on our day of departure, July 6.  We found out that the Pacific Voyagers were coming in that day to land in Hanalei Bay -- these are the 7 Polynesian sailing canoes that have sailed across the South Pacific from New Zealand.  Every owner of a small watercraft was out to welcome them, including surfers, paddle-boarders, canoes, Hobie-cats and other small catamarans.  The big Polynesian sailing canoes coming into the bay were very dramatic,  Some with red-dyed sails, and some with tapa-cloth designs across the sails.  Some of the boats had drummers and conch-shell players, and there were other musicians on shore. 

Unfortunately we'd already deflated and stowed our dinghy, or I think we might have gone ashore and joined the party.  As it was, we left Hanalei Bay to the sound of Tahitian drums -- what a send-off for us!