About Me

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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!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Kauai, Hawaii....New Century

      I guess I could be disappointed if I landed at Lihue today?  Maybe in a short period of time a lot has changed!!  To the people who lived through the two hurricanes, tourism overtaking agriculture as the #1 industry,  the developement of a new Hanalei and the ramifications of what all this means- it was gradual.  I'm laughing inside as I am writing this because.....  I am afraid !  I believe it was Stienbeck who wrote, " When one tries to recapture the fires of the past, one often returns to find ashes"!  It could have been Hemingway!  I moved to Kalaheo, Kauai from Waimea, Oahu in 1968.  Kaneshiro Camp.  Red clay, cold mossy showers, $ 15 a/month rent, Tommy and Johnnie, two local brothers beating each other up each night and making up the next morning only, to repeat the same scenario again and again!  Across from them lived Tom ( guitar ) and Sheily with Stan ( the harmonica man ) playing deep southern blues  The camp is gone.  Ralph Young lived there.  So did Larry Byfield.  Larry died this year. Damn it! Ralph lives on and has managed to combine the southernmost island of polynesia with the northernmost! (another story)..  Imagine this picture.  I land at Lihue X.  I don't recognize anything!  I have a nice 6'8' tri-fin Brewer in a shoulder- over/ board bag!  My back pack in tow, my thumb is out!  I called no-one and of course he answered!!.  What am I going to see when I get a ride?  So!  Is it memory row or is it time to make some new ones?  Time will tell!  One thing about Kauai-- I know I won't be disappointed!!  Valdez is coming!!!!

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