The Paddling Thread

[daniel1948]

Yesterday I paddled with HOCVS, as I do every Saturday, since Saturdays are members-only day there. With the Paddle Around Molokini in conjunction with the Gathering of the Voyagers coming up in a couple of weeks, everyone at HOCVS yesterday who was signed up for that was put in Auntie Franny's boat.

"Auntie" and "uncle" are honorifics applied to old people here in Hawai'i. Occasionally someone will call me "uncle."

Auntie Franny is about my age and has been paddling forever. She's one of the most respected ho'okele (captain, steersman) on Maui. She's also a slave-driver as ho'okele. A paddle with Auntie Franny is a hard-core racing workout. I don't race and I don't need a training paddle to participate in a casual 10-mile paddle, which is two miles less than we regularly do in my two-man canoe. Some crews will do the Paddle Around Molokini as though it were a race, but it's supposed to be just a casual, fun mini-voyage.

Ever since I started jogging, some four decades ago, I've learned that hard training leads to injuries. Exercise at a moderate pace leads to fitness. But I didn't want to refuse to paddle in Franny's boat, and I didn't want to slack off. So I did what she told us to do, which was LONG stretches of nearly-maximum effort, interspersed with short segments at a normal pace. I've never been able to do interval training without injuring myself.

We were out for close to an hour and a half, and we never stopped the boat. Every other ho'okele lets us take a break and we can swim if we want. Three of us desperately wanted a swimming break, and the other two wanted a rest. The only rest we got was that at the half-way point Franny had the paddler in seat 1 paddle by herself for two changes (a bit under a minute), then I paddled by myself for two changes, and so on all the way back to seat 5. So we each got about a 3-minute break. But no swimming. When our stroker (seat 1) asked for a swimming break at the end just before we landed, Franny said "No."

So I should not be surprised that this morning my right hip hurts. I've had trouble with my left hip for a long time. But the right hip was mostly okay until now. It's too early to tell whether this is transitory, or whether I did serious damage by pushing myself too hard. Next time I need to ask to go in a boat that's not doing race training.

[daniel1948]

It's surprisingly uncommon that I walk down to the beach and then don't get to paddle for reasons not related to weather or surf. Yesterday it happened. I went to HOCVS and there were only two other people there. I waited too long to bug out, so by the time I ran up to MCC they were just about to launch a full boat. No available seats. And KCC is a ten-to-twelve minute walk back down the beach, so they launch long before I'd have been able to get back there. It probably only happens once or twice a year that I'm unable to paddle just because there's not a seat available for me. I was very disappointed.

For reasons that are unknown to me, there have been very few people showing up at HOCVS for 7:00 a.m. paddle. There's one couple who are always there, and until recently there was another couple that were usually there. There are people who paddle at 5:30, but that's a hard-core training paddle for races and voyaging. But there used to be more people at 7:00. I'm going to quit going there for the time being, except for Saturdays, which is members-only day, and so far at least, there are always enough people to take out a boat.

Yesterday was actually the second time this week, and IIRC the third or fourth time in a month, that I've had to run up to MCC at the last minute because there weren't enough people at HOCVS to take out a boat. One problem is that people often show up at HOCVS at the last minute, so there's no way of knowing if anybody will show until it's too late to check in at MCC.

Weather doesn't stop us from paddling very often, but it does happen. Occasionally the surf is too big to be safe. Or it's okay for launching but we cannot count on it being safe to land. More often than that, but still uncommon, rain, wind, or a full-on storm can prevent us from paddling. Last winter there were several storms that prevented us from paddling for days at a time. But that was the worst winter since I've been here.

The area known as South Maui, (North Kihei to La Perouse) which is actually west-facing, but is south of the area known as West Maui, is ideal for paddling as it usually has little surf, and has light winds in the early morning. That's why I chose to live here. We can paddle most days of the year.

[daniel1948]

Today was amazingly, marvelously, FABULOUS!!!

In connection with the Gathering of the Voyagers, a joint project of the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society (HOCVS) and the Fairmont Kea Lani resort in Wailea, Maui, some 8 or 10 outrigger canoes (I didn't get a clear count) paddled from the Fairmont or the Four Seasons, around the back side of Molokini, and back. My canoe and several others started and ended at the Four Seasons, a round trip of about 11 miles. Those that started and ended at the Fairmont paddled around 10 miles.

In my boat we had four experienced paddlers and a couple who had never been in an outrigger canoe before. I was the stroker. A regular steersman from HOCVS was our ho'okele (captain & steersman).

We paddled from the Four Seasons to just off the Fairmont, where the other boats were gathering, and we waited there for 10 or 15 minutes while everybody gathered. Then we paddled for 45 minutes without a break to Molokini. We were not supposed to enter the crater (apparently the authorities feared we might crowd the fucking tourist boats that ruin the coral by dumping hundreds of tourists there every day). We stopped just outside the crater for a rest and a short swimming break, but then we were told we were too close and we had to proceed. So we paddled around Molokini and another 15 or 20 minutes before taking another break. We took our last swimming break when we were perhaps 15 minutes out from our landing spot at the Four Seasons.

I think there were still one or two canoes behind us toward the end, but since they were landing at the fairmont I'm not certain if we were the last boat to land. I think we were paddling for about two hours, maybe a little more. I was too tired to remember to look at my watch. If they post pictures I will post a link to them. There were some people in the support boats taking pictures.

I was paddling as hard as I could the whole way and I am dead-tired now. It was a great workout. The Fairmont gave us sack lunches, which were actually pretty good. And now just typing is hurting my arm so I'm going to stop now and take a nap.

[daniel1948]

There have been reports from a week or two ago of a whale sighted at Kauai. Reliability unknown. There was a report by one person, which some friends believe but which I doubt, of a whale off Maui a week ago. This morning we paddled straight out for 20 or 30 minutes and our ho'okele put a hydrophone in the water to listen for singing. Nothing was heard, other than one freediver known to readers of this thread, making fake whale noise into the hydrophone.    The hydrophone can pick up whalesong much farther away than what I can hear with my naked ears under water.

Conditions were beautiful this morning: Flat and calm and sunny.

[Desert Fox]

It has been too cold for me to go paddling. Suppose to get down to 48 f, for example, tonight.

[daniel1948]

It has been too cold for me to go paddling. Suppose to get down to 48 f, for example, tonight.

Low of 36 F tonight where I used to live, in North Dakota; high of 59. 74.7 F on my outdoor thermometer right now at my place, 3:30 a.m. I expect it to drop a couple of degrees before sunrise. High is forecast to be 88 F.

Back in N.D. it will probably get down to 30 below occasionally, with highs in the single digits below zero F during the winter. I will have to wear a long-sleeve t-shirt with my paddling shorts for walking to the beach before sunrise in a month or two.

North Dakota was beautiful after a snowfall. But I prefer Maui.

Normally I'd paddle my OC2 today, being a Sunday, but my paddling buddy is off-island so I'll be paddling with KCC, the only one of my three canoe clubs that has regularly-scheduled paddling on Sundays. (The others may have ad hoc paddling, but I'm not dialed into the ad hoc paddling because I have so many options for regular paddling.)

[Shibboleth]

The biggest thing that I miss about living in the Dakotas were the massive skies. I miss being able to see forever.

[daniel1948]

I heard another third-hand report of someone seeing a pod of three whales: Mom, calf, and escort. And another friend of mine heard the same report. And another says that he heard tail-slapping when he was out paddling in the dark before sunrise. This makes it seem more likely that there really are some whales here now.

Humpback whales in their winter breeding grounds are frequently seen in threes: Mom, calf, and a male escort. I presume the male is there to help protect the baby from predators. Some folks think he's there to try to get some nookie from the female. But I don't think they breed the same season they give birth, so I suspect that hypothesis is wrong.

If you see three or more adults together it's likely to be a competition pod, and if you see more than that it's definitely a competition pod: Several males chase a female, trying to get into position to breed with her. They don't breach entirely out of the water, but they lunge part way out over and over again, trying to land on each other. They're trying to keep each other under water so they cannot breathe. It's very raucous and fun to watch. When we used to go out in kayaks we could never get close, but the OC2 is faster and we can catch up and keep up with competition pods for ten or fifteen minutes, until I get too tired. We stay the legally-required 100 yards away, which is still close for animals that big. The canoe clubs I belong to won't even try to get near a competition pod.

[daniel1948]

It's official: There's at least one whale at Maui. A friend of mine, who is reliable, saw one. It's no longer a third-hand rumor. It will be a couple of months before we're seeing them frequently.

[Desert Fox]

Went kayaking today. Did 6 miles. Went to the launching point close to downtown Gloucester. Likely my last trip for the year. Really high tide today that was covering areas that are normally dry. I wanted to kayak somewhere that was not filled with houses and Ware River does not have many houses near it. Saw a bald eagle flying overhead. Also saw what I think was a Great Egret. Could not get a picture of the eagle at all and the picture of the Great Egret has grasses between me and it, so not very good. Not many people when I launched but when I came back, it seemed like everyone was there.

[daniel1948]

I cut myself pretty badly this morning while assembling the OC2. The iakos slide into holes and are held in place by little spring-loaded buttons. Once you start the iako into the hole, you have to depress the button and hold it down while pushing the iako in until the button enters the hole. When the iako is far enough in, the button snaps back out into a hole so it stays in place.

The tricky part is holding the button in and sliding it into the hole without catching your thumb that's holding the button in. I've been doing this for about 3 years, since I bought my first OC2.

Today the damn thing caught the flesh of my thumb and tore a flap of skin half off. It was bleeding freely until I pressed a towel against it.

I bummed two bandaids from a woman on the beach and put one on my thumb (saving the other for after paddling). The pain subsided after we'd been paddling just a few minutes, but after 40 minutes or so the bandaid came loose. I put pressure on the thumb for a while, and it seemed okay. We had paddled about three miles straight out and then a mile or so south. With the bandaid gone I decided I didn't want to continue getting farther and farther from our launch point, so after another rest and swim we turned around. I'm guessing we paddled 8 miles, rather than our usual 12. It was a beautiful day out on the water. Less paddling than normal meant more time sitting on the boat enjoying the sea and the sun.

The cut has remained closed, but I'm concerned that the skin flap will come loose and open it again.

On Wednesday I saw my doctor for a routine checkup, and got a tetanus booster since I could not remember when my last one was. This cut was probably not deep enough for tetanus to be a concern, but it's a comfort anyway.

[Desert Fox]

Sorry about your thumb. Had similar situations in the past although not with kayaking that I can recall.

[daniel1948]

Sorry about your thumb. Had similar situations in the past although not with kayaking that I can recall.

Thanks.

The problem is that the canoe has to be assembled for every use and disassembled for transportation. Kayaks, at least the ones I've used, don't. (Though I've seen fishing kayaks with outriggers, and those have to be assembled and disassembled.)

Even the one- and two-man canoes kept at the canoe club beaches get disassembled for storage.

Only the big sixes and twelves don't get disassembled for storage on the beach, though they do have to be de-rigged if they're going to be transported. They also get de-rigged and re-rigged from time to time when the rigging gets loose or frayed, or when they want to make a twelve into two sixes, or make two sixes into a twelve.

[daniel1948]

We're getting more and more people turning up to paddle at the canoe clubs now that the part-time residents are returning for winter, and whale season is approaching. (A whale was sighted a couple of weeks ago, but nothing since. It's not unusual for one whale to turn up a couple of months before any others.)

At KCC, where people have to sign up on-line the day before, the signup is full several days ahead. If there are enough captains, members can show up and paddle without being signed in, but that can be chancy.

At MCC, where the sign-up is on the beach when we arrive there, people need to get there well ahead to be certain of getting a seat, because there are so many people showing up. A couple of years ago, if I arrived at 6:30 for the 7:00 a.m. cut-off time, there would be only one to three people there before me. The other day I was there just before 6:30 and there were already something like 15 or 18 people signed in. And since it's first-come first-served, if you want to be sure of your choice of captains you now have to get there by 6:00 a.m. Which for me this time of year means walking there in the dark. At least I can walk, which is really nice, because parking is limited and becoming a real problem there.

At HOCVS there's no sign-up. We can get there any time before the canoes are launched and the captains will assign us to a boat. But the 7:00 a.m. paddle doesn't always happen, because there might not be enough people. The hard-core voyagers mostly go out at 5:15 or 5:30 in the dark. They do a solid one-hour hard-core training paddle, which is not my thing at all.

I still paddle almost every morning that weather permits. But it's getting overcrowded. Much more so than in previous years. On the positive side, we'll be able to take out the OC2 three days a week now, weather permitting, because my paddling buddy's schedule has changed from last year, when he only had one morning a week available. We typically stay out three hours, twice as long as the clubs stay out, and when the whales arrive we'll be staying out for four hours. Weather permitting, of course.

There's a wind warning for today, and it's very windy now. So I'll be staying in and using the elliptical exerciser instead.

[daniel1948]

Today was the Paddle for Hunger, put on by the Kihei Canoe Club (KCC) and Hawaiian Paddle Sports, to raise money for the Maui food bank. It's a race that's not a race. OC12s, OC6s, OC2s, and OC1's, plus kayaks, surf skis, paddle boards, and anything that uses a paddle is welcome to enter. There are no rules other than the aloha spirit. There's no time-keeping or record of winners. The course is about 4 miles, and paddlers/teams can turn around at any time, and the paddle boarders always do because they're so much slower than the canoes and kayaks. If you donate $35 or more to the food bank via the event, you get a t-shirt.

It's always a fun event and today was no exception.

To my surprise, my bad back, that's been bothering me for the past week or two, didn't bother me hardly at all, in spite of a faster stroke rate than I like.