Yesterday was our Sunset Sailing Adventure with Capt'n Andy, so after the men folk made us breakfast 
, we all headed down south to see how the other half lives. It was hot and dry, so apparently not as good as we have it. Anyway, while down there we went to the Po'ipu Beach area to check out the "Alien" landscape. This is just where the lava met the ocean a million years ago and is still very lava-like.
Here I am at the "alien"landscape
Then I was so ridiculously hungry that I was going to start gnawing on Chris' leg, but instead decided to go to the Brick Oven pizza in Kalaheo. This place is highly rated, so just had to go see what all the fuss is about. C and I got the soup and salad special, and Danika got a piece of pizza bread. She gave us a bite and we instantly decided that we would be coming back for a full-on pizza on our next visit to see Waimea Canyon.
Next, we headed over to Hanapepe for our cruise. It turns out that we didn't get Captain Andy. However, we felt that Captain Dave was just as good. Our boat was a beautiful 65' sailing Catamaran. They hijacked our shoes. At first our shipmates seemed stuffy and not too much fun.... but that was just at first. Here I am with the wind whipping through my hair.
We had a lot of sea to cover to get to the NaPali coast, so we motored for a while. 800 hp of pure diesel madness. The wind was ~20 knots and the waves 7 ft. So we caught plenty of air and kicked up lots of spray. Almost as soon as we got out of the harbor, we saw a pod of Spinner dolphins. They were really cool, and they had a baby with them!
As soon as we got underway again, the sea started claiming victims in the form of seasickness. First it was a lady in a white dress, then an older lady, then a little boy, a dude, and another lady from the valley of the sun. Danika was almost overcome, but she managed to pull through. The seas were high and the views magnificent! I was pretty impressed to see so many kayaks in the big waves. They looked pretty tiny.
Big, graceful sea turtles were drifting lazily by the boat and were juxtaposed by sea birds whipping down to the surface of the ocean in tight arcs. A goat munched grass way up on the side slope of a 4000 ft peak. A young couple from the islands were being thrown about like rag dolls on the front trampoline of the catamaran.
Another couple, who had just married two weeks prior after an 8 year grapple were blocking the sea spray for C. That didn't last long (the spray blocking) and they retreated below deck. They reminded me of the couple from "King of Queens."
Below deck, big thumps were heard as waves pounded the bottom of the boat. Occasionally water would blast up through the drain holes with the force of a gusher and paint the ceiling with sea foam. Here is a not too exciting pic of me and Danika watching people get pasted with waves from the relative comfort of the cabin.
Once we got past the spires, we turned around and put up the sails. The spires were, well, awe-inspiring. The best view on a stretch with a multitude of spectacular views. This is where I started to get a little scared. I'm not cool with the boat listing heavily to one side, and since the wind was so strong, I thought for sure we could capsize easily. But, thanks to the beauty of the double hull design and Chris obliging me to act as ballast on the windward side, the boat didn't tip over. I didn't make Chris stand out there the whole trip. As soon as I had a few "sneaky tiki's" all of my worries melted away. We moved around the boat with abandon and our friendly bar staff kept our glasses full.
Here is another representative pic of the coast.
Below deck, a young couple became engaged as he managed to get down on his knees and propose with the ship heaving crazily in the swells. The whole boat cheered and drinks were on the house (they were already on the house but it sounds more festive).
Above deck, a young lad tossed his cookies, driving Matt and Danika from their spot on the stern. Chumming for sharks.
Dinner was both ono and plentiful. We danced and sang and drank until we finished sailing down the NaPali coast. It seemed to go too fast. I should also add, that the lady in the white dress started feeling really good at this point while the others sick ones just kept going downhill. C thinks this is due mostly to her alcohol consumption. Once we got past the coastline, we went back under motor. Now we would be heading into the wind, so Capt'n Dave warned us that it would be "turbulent". C and I decided to sit on top of the cabin for this. It was fun for about 15-20 minutes. After that we were soaked and felt like we had been doing crunches for 2 hours. We went down to the party room with our 20 new friends. As a group, we drank 2 bottles of dark rum and almost finished off the sneaky tiki mix. mmmmm.
The sunset was a little anti-climactic because of cloud cover but still very fair. Captain Dave chose the "the Love Boat" as our final song. We recovered our kidnapped shoes and headed ashore weaving about in the darkness. Sea legs...maybe.