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This is Wednesday of our second week in Kauai, and we must drive to the Bali Hai lobby in Princeville to board a motor coach there that will take us to the Kauai Beach Resort in Lihue. It’s about an hours drive. It could not pick us up at the Ka’Eo Kai lobby because there was not enough room for the motor coach to maneuver. That’s ok because it gave us the opportunity to see the Bali Hai lobby, which was much more impressive than ours.

The outrigger canoe was a work of art. Not exactly something I’d like to take onto the open ocean, but then I’m probably not as adventurous as the Polynesians. I’d require something a little more seaworthy than an open canoe, something on the order of the Enterprise Class Aircraft Carrier. ;o) Many years ago, I did cross the Pacific from Long Beach, California to Yokohama, Japan on an AK, which was a U.S. Navy Supply Ship. That was the sum total of my sea duty, since I was in Naval Aviation, not the “black shoe” Navy.

I didn’t take any photos at the Kauai Beach Resort. There wasn’t much of any interest. It is quite appropriate that there should be a live theatre performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s unforgettable South Pacific performed here on Kauai. The 1958 film version of the Broadway play was filmed here, and it put Kauai forever on the map as a major Hollywood film location. The dinner was buffet style, and the theatre was so huge, I estimate that it seated at least a couple a hundred people. This particular play has been performed here for the past eleven years, and there is no sign that it will end any time soon. It’s quite a tourist attraction, and obviously a money maker. The music and acting was quite good, but let’s face it, the singing was not quit on a par with the voices of Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor, nor John Kerr and Juanita Hall (Bloody Mary).

But still, the cast did a very passable job. The experience was worth doing, once.

On Thursday we had signed up for the Na Pali Coast Adventure. It’s a catamaran where we go from Port Allen, all the way aroung the west side of the island, and along the Na Pale Coast to Haena, which was very nearly back to Princeville. We had arrived at Port Allen early because we were not sure how difficult it would be to find it. So, we had some time to kill. And guess what, there was a brewpub directly across the street. What better way to kill some time.

The beer was really tasty, and we only had time for one.

This is a list of their various beers, along with a brief description of each. For those of you who do your own brewing, you might get some ideas from these descriptions.

This map shows the various places we visited, and how much driving we did. From Princeville to Lihue Airport was about an hour, and to Port Allen was another 45 minutes. To the Waimea Canyon lookouts was about another hour because it was a curvy mountain road.

We walk from the Kauai Sea Tours office to the dock, and board the boat. I find a comfortable seat with a hand rail near by so I can hang on when it gets rough, which it definitely did. Since the catamaran is a sail boat I was hoping we would be doing some sailing.

As it turned out, we motored the whole trip. That’s probably because there were only 3 crew; the captain and two deck hands.

We race along the coast towards Haena. I’m amazed by how much power the two engines have. We create quite a wake.

The trip to Haena was into the wind, and the boat was bucking like a bronco on some fairly good size swells. This was a 5+ hour round trip, and several times on the outbound trip I had to really hang onto the railings. The captain seemed to enjoy driving the boat head on into the biggest swells so the bow would drive up towards the sky and then come crashing down. The girls that were sunning on the bow trampoline (hove) eventually managed to break one of the cables on the left hand trampoline. When the captain saw he made everyone get off that trampoline for the rest of the trip. A person could easily fall through the broken side and end up in the ocean.

The captain slowed down at this spot to see what the water was like. It is apparently his favorite spot for snorkeling. We spotted a couple of sea turtles here.

We were not alone. Another catamaran came up on us, and they eventually cut their engines to make ready for their passengers to snorkel. Our captain decided that we would continue on to Haena and do our snorkeling on the return trip. That strange round spot on the cliff face is pretty unusual. Remember it, because you’ll see it again in our snorkeling photos.

We saw a black hole in the rock ahead and the captain said he was going to sail into that cave. Yeah, RIGHT! He had a definite sense of humor. As we got closer we not only saw that there was no water in the cave, but it was not even tall enough to accommodate our mast. The pali is beautiful, very green and very rugged.

I pretty much stayed on the lower deck. Topside there was too much sun and much more movement as the boat bucked its way over the swells. Besides, the galley was on the lower deck. I didn’t even have to get up. Pete would bring me crackers with cheese and salami, and grapes.

Millions of years of erosion carved those beautifully jagged peaks.

We really had a beautiful day for this trip. There is something magical about being on the open ocean in a small boat.

We’ve arrived back at the snorkeling spot. We spent over an hour here. You can see that strange round spot on the cliff face.

Pete really enjoyed the water. It wasn’t as cold as he had expected. He said there were not a lot of fish though. The best place we’ve seen for snorkeling is Hanama Bay, on Oahu. I didn’t go in this trip. I’ve snorkeled before, and was content to stay on board.

I think Pete stayed in the water the longest, but the sun was getting low on the horizon, and we had a long way back to Port Allen.

We were loving this trip, and even though I didn’t go in for snorkeling, I was happy just being alive. The deck hand was kept busy taking photographs for couples with their cameras. This was a most unusual sunset. Just when you thought it was all over, it changed and became more beautiful.

The captain said that he hasn’t seen a sunset like this one before. Even he was in awe. My camera couldn’t really do it justice. I can still see it in my mind’s eye though. It was after dark when we arrived back at Port Allen, and we had a long drive ahead of us to get back to the Ka’Eo Kai.

On our way back to Port Allen, we enjoyed a nice dinner on board the boat, and the bar tender made a very passable Mai-Tai. We were very satisfied with the trip, and would happily do it again.

This seems like a reasonable place to take a break. The next chapter will begin with our helicopter tour of the beautiful island of Kauai, with Sunshine Helicopters.