Maui to Molokai OC1 Race
Aloha Paddlers
Katy Arnold and I landed last Thursday at Kahalui Airport. We were picked up by our host for the weekend, Lauren Bartlett. Lauren and husband Kai live in Kula, upcountry. They have a beautiful home located at the end of the road on a five acre lot dotted with three or four houses for personal use, guests and rentals. The view from their living room is a panoramic scene of Kihei on one side and Kahalui on the other, framed by coastline and ocean. High ceilings and wood floors give the place an expansive feeling.
In the mornings, I especially liked getting up before sunrise and sitting in front the picture window. With my feet up, coffee in hand, I’d watch beautiful wild ring necked pheasants strut about the yard. In the trees, doves softly cooed while family dogs and goats did what they normally do. Thick with morning dew, OC1s lay scattered on top of trucks. I am merely a cog in the wheel of life.
In the evenings we’d sit around and listen to stories from Aussies, Mike Mills-Thon, Jesse (daughter), Sam Williams and Peter Dorries. Listening intently Danny Ching, Larry Felix and I would understand most of the stories, but were completely lost at words like, arland, eideen and others I can’t even spell. Their Aussie accents were funny and confusing. But after a few evenings we were finally beginning to understand, “English,” as they put it. Mike who used to be a mechanic and race car driver, talked about the Aborigines and their bush mechanics. Lacking money, they were ingenious to the point of making a car run on three wheels. The missing fourth wheel had a log attached to the frame dragging at an angle to hold up the car.
Kai is a relentless worker. Most of our time was spent either at Hawaiian Canoe Club loading canoes, on the road transporting them or at Kai’s Scorpius OC1 shop. He is meticulous at building his boats. If a boat didn’t turn out just right he’ll ask the workers to make another one. Deciding where to eat was another important part of our day. We burned so much energy that we were constantly hungry all the time. Kai on the other hand did twice as much work as the rest of us. He even drove his boat from Maui to Molokai to pick up OC1s. On the way back he caught two nice Mahimahi’s for dinner. On race day, he entered the 27 mile race and drove paddlers back with his boat afterward.
Lauren said her dad used to take her on a 3 man canoe when she was very young and remembers flipping and watching a camera and other stuff sinking. At age 14 they paddled all night guided only by a light in the distance. She remembers staring at the light for hours, while paddling. It seemed as though the light was bouncing in her head and driving her crazy. Later when she began her Olympic kayak training, her coach told her that they would start with base training or long distance workouts. She thought, “No problem. I can do that.” Unfortunately her Olympic coach could not grasp the gold mine he had in Lauren as an OC1 paddler and frowned upon outrigger racing. So she had to hide the fact that she won the Molokai race during her off weekend from Olympic training. Funny thing is the coaches disengage us from our sport for fear of forming bad habits. In their European way of thinking they admire our talent, but not our sport. Good athletes in either sport are able learn good habits and drop bad habits, simply because they know that is how they get faster. Paddlers are driven to be good no matter the sport. Each sport has some contribution to the other.
I ran into a couple of old friends mainly Nappy and Nona, Gaylord, Afa and Ilima Kalama. Glad to see you guys still setting an example for the young ones. At the start I lined up behind Mael Carey and Lauren. We kept paddling until we wore down the starter. He finally gave up trying to stop everyone and started the race. Of course that was the last I saw of Mael and Lauren as they disappeared over the waves. The Bumps came at us slow and small at first but soon picked up faster and windier. Since this was my first Maui to Molokai race, I just followed the advice of everyone who said, “Stay away from Molokai until the last part when you can cut in. The current will take you into land… Right.” I know now I should have crabbed closer to Molokai right away while I had the good water, but hindsight is always better than foresight. As Jay Griffin said, “I paid my dues early and went toward Molokai. I made out with a good course, but still I could have gone even more toward Molokai and would have finished on a better line.” After the race, everyone said the wind, waves and current were running unusually fast and kept many away from Molokai.
However, I really enjoyed surfing the bumps and actually had fun, despite the fact that I only had a general idea where the finish line was. I got caught up in surfing so much that almost passed the finish. An escort boat came up and said, “Eh. You see that small green roof? That’s the finish.” I said, “Shit I’m almost past it already.” He said, “No worry it’s only about two miles.” Two miles…I think he was being nice to me. Heck it might as well have been 10. Cutting backward across the wind and waves took at least 40 minutes, “So much for staying away from the island.” Still I had a the best downwind run and enjoyed the total experience.
Mahalo Kai and Lauren Bartlett or taking care of us.
Mahalo Al
