Honolulu is a big sprawling city lying between Pearl Harbour in the west and Waikiki in the east. We are moored up in Ala Wai small boat harbour which is right at the west end of Waikiki Beach, a narrow strip of sand with a necklace of high-rise hotels backed by high-end boutiques in Kalakaua Avenue. It’s absolutely chokka-block full of tourists (especially in March with schoolies week and Easter) – no room to swing a cat on the pavement, or space for a towel on the beach – but it is quite a spectacle. On Easter Saturday we decided to brave the throngs and hired a couple big old Hawai’ian “ironing” boards and went for a surf. It was great fun although there was virtually no swell, but Neil caught a couple of waves and I managed to stand up for more than five seconds!
We are tied Tahiti-style stern in and have no gang-plank, so climbing aboard can be a bit of a scramble. Nonetheless it’s much simpler to get things on and off the boat in a marina and we’ve been getting some boat jobs done. Neil did some repairs on the dinghy and the outboard, and I did some repairs on the dodger. The headsail is off having new sun-screen put on and my dive tank has gone off, very belatedly, for hydrostatic testing. We started a new project re-varnishing the woodwork in the aft head. Very messy during the sanding process but it needed to be done while we have access to a shower on shore, otherwise there would be two more very grotty yachties hanging around!
Getting the bikes on and off the boat is still a bit of a palava as we use them several times a day. So we ended up chaining them to the lamp posts on the pontoon behind the boat. The pontoon is 300m long but that still was not enough of a deterrent for the thief, armed with bolt-cutters, who stole Neil’s bike on Sunday night. That’s two bikes and a rear wheel stolen in the last eight months, not to mention the effort Neil spent nurturing that bike to keep it in good shape! Once again we are really saddened, it feels very personal and it’s also mighty inconvenient, in our lifestyle, not to have a bike each.
On a more cheerful note, we had a terrific time at Pearl Harbour the other day. It was a long haul on the bus but it was another beautiful day and we weren’t in a hurry. The harbour is a flooded estuary and is quite expansive. There are four historic sites open to visitors: the submarine USS Bowfin was great. They always amaze me how so many people can fit into such a small amount of space. Apparently, when it came to prioritizing water use, showers didn’t even get a mention, so you can imagine how it must have smelt on board.
The other three sites are on Ford Island which you can get to on a shuttle bus across the causeway. A viewing platform and memorial site have been built above the wreck of the USS Arizona. We didn’t visit it due to transportation confusion, but it is said to be very moving. We did go on board the USS Missouri, nick-named Mighty Mo, which was the vessel on board which the Japanese surrender document was signed. It was fascinating to see the “citadel”, a fortified steel tower hidden in the centre of the ship, where the bridge, the navigation room and other vital functions of the ship were carried out. The bridge looked like a pill box! The guns were pretty impressive and so were the huge anchor chains but we were disappointed, having spent $27 for a ticket to visit the ship, they wanted another $25 to visit the engine room.
We’ve had a very social time while we’ve been in Honolulu. Four boats of friends from French Polynesia are in Ala Wai marina. We’ve had a few good Pot Lucks and celebrated St. Patricks Day and Easter, it’s been great fun catching up with old friends. We’ve met some new ones too. We have joined the Hawaii Yacht Club whose clubhouse is about ten minutes’ walk (three minutes by bike, ggrrrr!) from the boat. They have a decent bar and restaurant and luckily good showers (our current bathroom facilities). We’ve been invited over to the pizza night at the Waikiki Yacht Club a couple of times. We also caught up with some far-flung relatives Bill and Rich Martin, we worked out we were third cousins on my step-mother’s side, or something like that.
On Wednesday the most amazing thing happened! We got a phone call at about 8am from Brian, a friend on a boat in the next basin west from here. He had been out for a morning run and thought he had spotted Neil’s bike in a park about 3km away. Neil hopped on my bike and headed off to investigate and, sure enough, his bike was propped up against a post beside a homeless guy who was fast asleep. So Neil leaned over and grabbed his bike and rode home! What an incredible stroke of luck and a huge “thank you” to Brian for keeping his eyes peeled.
After such a great start to the day we decided to put the bikes on the bus and head up to the North Shore for a bit of a day off! The bus climbed over the backbone of Oahu and dropped down to Kaneohe Bay on the east side of the island. We had a great tour up the coast, stopping at every little settlement. There’s very little development on this side but even so it was fairly well populated. We rounded the north end and got off the bus at Sunset Beach. After a lazy lunch we cycled westwards along the north shore, following a network of quiet roads and cycle paths and stopping now and then to check out the surf. There was a big swell but, with the onshore wind, the waves weren’t really standing up, just crashing down into a mass of white water. We cycled as far as Haleiwa where we stopped for a couple of beers then jumped on the bus home.
After four weeks in the big city we are just about ready to get back to the islands. So early next week we will head back to the Maui Triangle and try to make it to Molokai this time!
Suzy