Hawaii Day Three - Sailing Adventure

Today (Tuesday, Nov 4th) was our Napali Coast Sail & Snorkle adventure. We left the hotel at 6am while it was still dark and took a bus a bus about 45 minutes away to the pier where our 55 foot catamaran awaited. According to the skipper "Rock" it was one of the calmest days that he'd seen in a while, which was good. We saw lots of small flying fish on the way to the northwest coast of Kaua'i, which has very steep cliffs and is one of the most beautiful (and frequently filmed) parts of the Hawaiian Island chain. The area we saw was where a lot of the Jurassic Park and King Kong (both) were filmed. We sailed for about a hour before getting to the Napoli coast region, and then the boat slowed down and we got a kind of tour. When we got almost to the most northern part of the island, we turned around for about 20 minutes and anchored so we could snorkle. The water felt chilly although the skipper said it was 80 degrees. Jane was a real trooper and while she had a little panic attack at first because of the cold water, once she got used it it really enjoyed floating around and we were the very last people back on the boat. We saw lots of fish and took some (hopefully) good pictures with the under water cameras. We had cake and bread to feed the fish and got some really good pictures of them eating as well. At one point on the way back we found a small group of bottle-nosed porpoises that joined us for a bit and we got some really up-close pictures of those. On the way back the skipper stepped on the gas and we had a crazy, bouncy ride back. Jane and I sat on one of the forward trampolines and had an hour roller coaster ride that had us laughing but left us utterly soaked. After we got back we had an early dinner at a local restaurant and came home and crashed. What a great day!!!

Sunrise over the deck of our boat

Goofing off with the camera

First glimpse of the Napali cliffs

Video pan of the Napali coast

This arch was used in the most recent King Kong movie

Jane and Randy on the way back after snorkling


Porpoises keep us company for a bit



On the way back to the hotel...