4. O'ahu Island.

O'ahu Island.
The sail over to O'ahu from Molokai'i was similar to the others. Having to hand steer over heavy swells and in winds up to 45 knots. This was becoming rather the norm. I was looking forward to the day when we collected our new auto pilot on Kauai Island, but that was still a sail away.

Heading towards the point.

We neared the island and realised that around the point was a HUGE city. I don't know why but I had just not thought about it. Maybe because the last island was so undeveloped. Of course we'd all watched movies such as Hawaii 5 O but in reality I hadn't really expected the city to be the way it was. The huge multi-story buildings soared up right up from the waters edge of the Marina. To say it was quite a sight is an understatement of note. I expected there to be a lot of noise at night from such a large mass of humanity but we were pleasantly surprised to be able to sleep undisturbed and deeply every night we were there.

Sky Scrapers right at he waters edge.

The same buildings...at night.

We stayed in Waikiki Marina, due to our membership with Parkstone yacht club in the UK, we got reciprocle membership at other yacht clubs around the world, this being one of them. We'd found from previous experience on these islands that often the best food was to be found in the club, so we didn't hesitate to make use of that particular amenity. We also had full run of the place, allowing us the use of the pool, showers and laundry.

Some exotic trees...

On the left, a Baobab and on the right A Young Banyan.

Behind the yacht club stands a large park scattered with exotic trees from all over the world, one of which was the Baobab. It took me a while to recognise it. First the trunk looked familiar and then I recognised the fruit, but I was still sceptical because of all the leaves. In Africa a baobab tree has hardly any and I have never seen one with this many even after good rains, but eventually I had to succumb to logic and admit that these were in fact Baobabs. A thrill went through me, I wanted to hug them. A small piece of home, a lump rose in my throat and I felt teary eyed....damn I miss Africa a lot.

So lovely, calm and serene.

Along the waters edge of the park is a long beach, littered with palms, just like in the movies. Very romantic especially at sunset. We would sit in the yacht watching the sun go down and if we looked to our starboard side we'd see skyscrapers starting to light up, and to our port side we'd see palms and beach and people sculling back to the marina from practice. Either view was totally alien from the other and yet they were next door neighbours. We chose to sit facing the Port side of the boat so as to get what we considered the best view. :-)


Just ahead of us on the dock was a large Fountaine Pajot Catamaran. It intrigued both David and I as we'd not seen that make before..a Salina, I think it was..it's 48 ft but it looked bigger...so, being who we are, we knocked on the hull, introduced ourselves and were soon aboard being shown around. The owners name, Mr Pajot himself, an interesting man. The yacht was even bigger inside than it looked, loads of space and as usual, nicely finished off. I wasn't sure if I liked it for me, but as a charter cat is was just perfect.

The next day we took off, after raiding the local nearby supermarket, to a bay called Poka'i Bay where we were looking forward to a quiet lonely anchorage with good snorkeling. I nearly forgot, we reefed our sails and still managed to travel at a good speed.

Reefed Sails.

Judging by this roosters tail we're doing about 10 knots.

Trying to figure out just where the anchorage is..

Poka'i Bay somewhere in the distance..reefed sails..

Almost there...

Arriving at Poka'i bay we found ourselves to be the only boat there...wonderful. After anchoring a sundowner was all we felt like doing, so we sat on the boat and enjoyed a G 'n T and a great sunset. While we were watching it another little boat dropped it's anchor out in the bay...we wondered who they were...

Another great sunset.

The next morning we woke up and went for a snorkel. It was the usual stuff..not many fish, but we did see turtles.

Can you see the turtle?

Weird Coral...

When we came back another boat was anchored near us...whooo hooo it was Elvin on Omache, whom we'd last seen motoring out of Honakahau Harbour on Big Island, leaving us attached to a dock for goodness how much longer.

Omache...whoohoo..and water on my lens.. :-(

He was the one who had arrived last evening but anchored too far away for us to work out if we knew him. We spent some time together, chatting and catching up. Fun! Later that afternoon we all went for a walk on the shore. There wasn't much to see but we had a great walk.

Beautiful Bird.

A Play ground near the beach.

Omache and Puddytat in a safe little anchorage.

Next day we weighed anchor and set of for Kauai Island...This was the place we were to do our "jump off" the start of our North Pacific Crossing to The Juan De Fuca Straight, Seattle and Canada. Also where we were going to be getting our new auto pilot YAY! I don't know which is more exciting. :-D