3/10 - 3/19 Maui

[Sarah Ranes]

We arrived the 10th, maui vans, van picked us up at the airport, we were off in our newly rented ford focus mini station wagon. We then headed directly to Naish to pick up WS gear, then right to Kanaha. It was a bit unorganized, trying to find booties, harness etc. that waere packed in suit cases and such, and packed so tightly in the car, with our newly rented ws gear. It was amazing that it all fit inside the car, and you could even kind of see out the side mirror. It took us a while but we finally hit the water, wind, and sunshine. 4.7 sail and nice 72 ltr wave board. I have to say that I felt pretty rusty, but we managed to make a few turns, ride some swell. Its so much fun to feel like you are riding up hills of water, that go on and on. And best of all, we made it back to our original beach that we started from. it was a successful first ws day.

That 1st night was the tsunami evacuation. We were a bit slow in getting out, but eventually joined everyone else at higher ground, near the local elementary school. Everyone just sat there in their cars, listening to the radio, along the highway. When we thought it was safe to go back to the condo, the police would not let us and blocked the road for another hour or so. We finally got back to bed and slept for a few more hours.

All the beaches were closed the next day so we went sight seeing. The next day after that, we went down to Kanaha, to see what was happening, most of the road was blocked, and the lifeguard pretty much told us to leave the beach. There were a couple of ws'rs that packed their gear in to "outisde of the park" and went sailing anyway. The 4 wheeler equiped lifeguard seemed very upset about that. We did go sail at Kihei a bit, but it only lasted about 1.5 hrs. The next day the road to Kanaha was partially open and we were able to carry our gear in from the road, so at least we were finally sailing. Kanaha finally opened the next day, and the rest of the time was golden. Good 4.0 to 4.5 wind every day with some bigger than usual waves kicking up, on a couple of the days. Saw lot's of sea critters, and got a good look at a good sized shark on Sat. It kinda gets your heart racing, and I just kept saying, that he was hunting for tasty turtles, not me. At least we left for the airport, somewhat tired and sail happy. Now I'm sitting here at my desk looking at my picture on the wall of Kanaha, oh what a beautiful place it is.

[RickHeninger]

Thanks Sarah! Oh the beauty of vicarious living! I soaked it all up...

Pretty cool actually be there for the tsunami evacuation. But that is a bit scary. I work with a guy that was there at the same time in Ka'anapali. I guess they were in a high rise condo that didn't get evacuated. Did Kanaha get a little water in the parking lot? I guess all the northern facing beaches got hit with the biggest waves.

So a little Tiger? Yikes! Where was it? In the blue water toward the Kahalui port there? Glad you guys had fun though considering the circumstances.