Na Wahine O Ke Kai

Okay, finally, here is my blog about paddling the Molokai Channel. Throughout the paddling season (including regatta) I heard over and over again that this is the race that all of your training is going for, that this is the race that it's all about. Last year I couldn't handle the time commitment that long distance paddling calls for. This year I decided just to suck it up, because I may never have the time or the ability again.
Most girls flew out to Molokai on Friday. I had to work on Friday, so I scheduled my flight for Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the cruising around on Molokai, checking out the beach and relaxing. More fortunately, I missed out on the cleaning of the house shutters (saved us a hundred bucks on our total lodging cost). Apparently there were 60 shutters which may have never been cleaned before. It took the girls over 3 hours, and although they say they bonded over the task, I was happy just to help with dinner later in the evening. I am not sad to have missed this event.

I arrived in Molokai after a terrifying flight on a propeller plane. I was sitting right behind the pilot, who didn't seem to be paying much attention. This worried me and made the turbulence seem a little more significant. However, I landed safe and sound on the island of Molokai. The airport is tiny, hopefully I will have a picture to show later. We then headed out to the grocery is store in bumping Kaunakakai. (Note the sarcasm, it was deserted.) Again, I took pictures of the goats at the store fronts, I hope to add those later. We then headed out to the house.

I had the opportunity to help everyone make the pasta dinner, we all had some part in putting together the meal. Ku`ulei made some incredible meatballs and Denby fried up some zucchini and eggplant for the vegetarians. She also made an incredible salad. We ate dinner and convened for the team meeting. Dan and Derek gave us a pep talk about conditions and told us how we were going to win (well, not really). We set a goal of beating 6 hours.

After dinner we all did our best to clean our systems by drinking coffee, taking fiber and hydrating. We chatted for a while about crock-pot recipes and then I headed to bed. By bed I mean a padded seat that went around the windows. I would have slept with Denby on the mattress on the floor, but she wouldn't let me cuddle with her. I'm still not sure why. Note the scary puppet that's hanging from the ceiling in the picture. That is just one of the weird, "eclectic" pieces of the owner's collection of "art." I slept pretty well except for the fact that my arms would fall asleep if I turned on my side and also that I woke up to pee ever two hours. That's okay, because we had to get up at 5:00am. The alarm went off and I grabbed some coffee and went outside to look at the stars that were incredibly clear.

For the next hour we all made breakfast and did our best to "drop the kids at the pool," or "take the browns to the superbowl" if you know what I mean. Some of us were more succesful than others. Then we were off to the race.

We got to the site, and of course we had a panic moment when we thought we had left Ku`ulei's med bag back at the house, which would mean she couldn't do the race. That got resolved and we headed to the porta-potties. Hydrating has it's drawbacks. We listened to the prayer, and hopped into the canoe.

The race start was pretty incredible, there were 86 teams in the race and we all started at 7:30am. There were boats everywhere. We had a quick run-in with another boat, we thought we might have broke the Ama, but we were good and we took off when we realized that everyone else was taking off. I never saw the flag.

The race itself was pretty incredible, you watch Molokai go, and hope that you're going to see Oahu a whole lot clearer soon. In the beginning there's such a rush of energy. Then it's just maintenance. I think we did changes every 35 minutes or so. I got back into the canoe with every change, which was cool, because I was changing in and out all the time. My changes towards the end were not very pretty, but I don't think anyone was all that graceful after 6 hours. We took a lot of pictures and rode some waves. Christie steered almost the whole thing, Shauna jumped in for 3 or for changes so Christie could pee. It got more exciting again when Diamond Head came closer and closer. We chased down several canoes during the race and that gave us some motivation to keep going hard. Waikiki seemed like it was close forever. At the very end, I was sitting in seat 5, Dan had the idea that he was going to leave the last crew in for an extended period of time to finish the race. Unfortunately I hurt my shoulder, and I'm not sure if that's the whole reason the boat slowed down, but we weren't going at our max. He did a change, and I sat out the end of the race. I'm pretty sure we won it, I wasn't there to see the finish though. I rode the escort boat in and we unpacked our goods. We were burnt, tired and ready for a beer. Of which there was plenty at the landing site.

Ananda's boyfriend Chris brought us Peanut Butter Cups and Beer, and I was very happy. We watched the announcement of the winners while we chowed down on an uninteresting buffet meal. Australia came in second, and Team Bradley won the whole thing. They missed the record by two seconds.

Overall, I think it was an incredible experience, and how cool to be able to say that I paddled from one island to another. We got great shirts out of the deal and everybody got a medal (We're all winners!). As of now, I don't think I can do it again next year. It takes so much time commitment. I was so excited to go for a run today because it was the first time I could do anything other than paddle in what seems like forever. Plus, apparently we had fantastic conditions, great surf, good wind, great tides... and it still took us six and a half hours. It makes me wonder what it would have been like in bad conditions. Anyway, I told my friends that I would write it down that I said I wouldn't do long-distance next year. Hopefully when the time to make the decision comes next year, I'll remember to look back at the blog.In the picture from left to right: Coach Derek, Sheila, Debby, Me, Denby, Ananda, Leyla, Shauna, and Cassie. Missing: Christie (I believe she's off chatting with other paddlers, hopefully also having a drink) and Ku`ulei (also socializing and hopefully enjoying a delicious brew).