Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a forty-four, no Les, no Moore! More or less! The vessle's name is " Wierd"! As in whiskey-indian-echo-romeo-delta. Owner Mike, was bringing her home from Thailand, where he had had her built. This teak-decked fiberglass hull, 40' sloop with an American Samoan registry , needed crew to deliver her to San Diego from the Ala Wai, Oahu, Hawaii. I answered the ad and signed on as first mate and navigator. I met Mike and his wife at "The Chart House". For those who aren't familiar with this resturante/bar, it has great pupus ( hawaiian for finger foods) that are free with drinks during Happy Hour. My first clue that things might go south is when Mike told me he and his wife would buy one drink and were living off the excellant food offered by " The Chart House" ! Less is more. No money, fully fed! Mike picked up other crewmembers which he charged to sail to the Mainland. Paying crew. The four-cylindyer, volkswagen deisel blew off Lanai! Of course we were in a tropical downpour at the time. You needed a hardhat to avoid blackeyes or braindamage! We limp back to Oahu under sail and run agound at Keihei lagoon! Needless to say that when the Coast Guard towed us to their dock our crew vanished without even asking for a refund. Captain scores! Less is more. Mike can't afford the price he was quoted for the engine repair. When he didn't listen to me and ran us aground at the entrance to Kehei I could have left him to his own devices. I like sailing. So when he asked me if I would consider sailing without a motor from Hawaii to San Diego in Febuary, I had to think about it!!! So I thought about it for a long time! It actually became a fork in, not just my life but in Jack's also! He decided to sail with me and the owner, three people, leaving Hawaii to San Diego in February without a motor.!!! Oh! What fun!
Surfing Kauai defined me! Sailing the South Seas measured me. Commercial fishing fed me. The U. S. Merchant Marine showed me! Diving everywhere I have traveled allowed me to become something more and yet something less than the bird pile/fish feeding frenzy I have witnessed. What is above meets what is below, a paradox! No-balance.
About Me
- Robbin
- Sacramento, California, United States
- so salty pieces of coral from surfing Hawaii in the 60's and 70's getting reef pounded living in my body fall through my skin from time to time!
sailing to Oahu
Jimi Hendrix was playing on Oahu. I had never sailed. Surfed Mexico, California, Hawaii! Aw, how hard could it be to sail 90-110 miles from Kauai to Oahu? Piece of cake, right? Remember it was the 60's! This is so bad. We thought we were looking at Kaiena Point,Ohau, knowing we weren't going to make the concert! But at least we were in site of Oahu-wrong! Coy, who had never sailed before, me,who had never sailed before, jeff and Abbott etc. We were looking at the sleeping giant on Kauai! We had done three-sixty's in the night! We sailed on the only tri-marran I've ever sailed on ( except later ) in my life, missed the concert! It was at the Waikiki Shell Ampitheater ( Moon eclipsed . We finally made Nawilwili Harbor! The Skipper tried to give us his boat saying, " It's trying to kill me"! We watched him go stark raving mad not even realising that had we got caught in the channel current we were on our way to Japan! Remember it was the 60's and we were going to see Hendrix. I left out some of the good stuff but I will make up for it later!
No comments:
Post a Comment