Thursday February 12

Thursday was the earliest day we'd had planned... up at 5:30 to get out the door with all the photography and snorkel gear by 6:15 to get to Port Allen by 7:15 check-in for our Captain Andy's catamran tour of the Na Pali Coast which started at 8 am. We had already rescheduled our trip from the previous Tuesday, which had looked to be rough seas (and we were right) but even with the wind dying down, we were advised that they would be unable to go north to Na Pali due to the high seas on that side of the island. 

 Safety first, right?

We'd anticipated this, and the company is great about offering refunds or reschedules, whatever makes the passenger happy.  We decided to go ahead with the trip since I was really excited about seeing the wildlife.  Our trip was to include breakfast and sight seeing from the water, the potential to find sea turtles, spinner dolphins, and humpback whales, then over to a good snorkeling spot. After all the water fun, we would have a bar-b-q lunch and enjoy the ride back to the harbor.

The ride started out great... though we traveled south with the land sight-seeing on the port side, I picked myself a spot on the starboard side to look out to the ocean for whales. We saw a lot of spouts way off the coast and a few breaks of a tale now and then, but nothing very close. Within the first hour of the ride we saw several sights along the shore, and a couple of small pods of spinner dolphins.

Allerton Gardens from the water

Spinner immediately below me

D caught this shot off the port side

The crew had a couple guys at the bow of the boat watching for wildlife – both for the passengers to observe and for the catamaran to avoid. At one point I saw the bow guy raise both hands in fists and turn them quickly – the signal to STOP NOW! - the captain powered down the engines immediately, but it was too late and we heard a clunk... a sea turtle had surfaced right in front of the boat too close to stop in time. There was an uneasy moment where we all looked at each other, hoping that the turtle just bounced off the hull uninjured. I have no idea how hard their shells are, but I'm hopeful that the little guy is tough.

The tour continued on, and we were able to spot some turtles a little way in front of us (this time the captain was able to slow and putter up to them from a safe distance)

The lighting was bad, but that is a little sea turtle head

We got a family shot during a break in the action

This was pretty much my spot for the whole ride.

We slowed for another pod of spinner dolphins, which bounced around in our wake as we passed. After a bit more sight-seeing along the coast, the captain turned the boat toward the ocean to head out to where the whales were spouting. They were still a great distance ahead of us, no sign of even a swirl directly in front of us. Then, just as the captain began to pick up speed, a 40 foot humpback began to surface directly in front of us. It was so close that I couldn't see the swirl ahead of the bow... the crewman up front had just started to raise his hands, the whale hadn't even surfaced but then came the sickening sound of impact, the entire catamaran jolted port and nearly came to a standstill. It felt as though a building came up and slammed into the bow. Some people were wondering if we'd hit a reef or a log, but as shocked as I was, and as much as I didn't want to believe it, I knew nothing could have made that sound other than a whale.

The whale had begun to rise just in front of the catamaran... the crewman up front just started to see the water displacement between the two hulls, then the back of the whale hit the interior bow side of the port hull. Most of the passengers raced to the port side to see the whale come up sideways, take a breath, and dive back down.

Unfortunately nobody saw the whale surface again, and we fear that the impact might have broken the whale's back.

I had been leaning on the starboard rail, camera out and scoping the spouts off in the distance. Thankfully the sides are wires that give. When the whale hit, I was jolted to the left, but immediately braced myself and pushed myself back into the wires which stretched to catch me. D was just behind me, leaning against a support for the railing which bruised his hip when he bounced into it. G had been sitting in the center on top of the life rafts and was shaken, but didn't move.

I knew the hull was breached, and I immediately gathered with D and G on the starboard side in case we had to abandon ship. Logically I knew that one of the reasons we chose a catamaran tour was because of the dual hulls, but I still couldn't help but picture scenes from Titanic after that impact. One passenger had been leaning on a railing and was thrown into it, bruising and probably cracking her lower ribs. Some of the crew rushed to help her, another checked other passengers for injuries, and another leaned over the rail to check the damage. In the commotion, I saw him signal to the captain “We've gotta go back... big hole”. A crewman dove off the front of the boat to check the damage... there was an indentation in the hull which was at least 2 feet across, and a breach a bit smaller than the dent. The crew had everyone shift to the starboard side (even days later I'm still awestruck that most everyone ran TOWARDS the damaged side... oy...) the sails came down, and the captain turned the boat back to the port.

I did not take any photos for the rest of the boat trip, I can't explain why, but it just felt wrong.

I'm still so heartbroken about the whole experience... not because our tour was cut short, but I feel terrible about the whale, I feel so bad for the crew, and for the woman who was injured. We came away relatively unscathed (bruises aside) which I'm eternally grateful for, but it is just such a tragic accident.

We spoke to the captain on our return trip... in 25 years he has never had any sort of accident, nobody has ever heard of any boat hitting a whale off Kauai. He's never hit ANY wildlife, and that day he hit a turtle and a whale. Back at the office, the employees of the company were incredibly apologetic and offered a full refund or a reschedule. D and I talked about our options on the ride back... I'd really wanted to do the whale watching, but I did not want to get up at 5:30 in the morning and have to race to the other side of the island again. The weather was supposed to turn windy again, so we wouldn't be able to see the Na Pali coast on this tour anyway. And hell, we live by Puget Sound, it's not as if we can't see whales there! So I opted for the full refund.

It took me a while to stop crying over the tragedy of the morning... we wandered a little aimlessly for a while and decided to pull into a shopping center near Poipu to find lunch. After some meandering through shops we settled into a place called Tortilla Republic and had some excellent Mexican food. And drinks.

The waves were still a little rough off the coast, but I'd heard about a little protected cove nearby at Lawa'i Beach that was supposed to be good for snorkeling. The beach itself was a little small, and rocky, but the amount of snorkels in the water indicated that it was a pretty good spot, so we gave it a shot.

Pretty amazing stuff for just a tiny swim off shore!

I can't remember how to embed a video on blogger, and I'm too tired to look it up, so here is a link to a short video of the fishies 

In the end we got half our boat ride, and found our lunch and snorkeling adventures on our own.

From there we headed back to the room, driving through the tree tunnel road on our way.

I got this by sticking the point-and-shoot out the sun roof.  D sped up and slowed down all the way up the road so we could time the shot with no traffic.

 G and I got into the pool while I hit the hot tub for a bit, then we went back to the room to clean up for dinner. We'd made reservations for Oasis on the Beach right in front of our complex. 

It was a day that called for a mai tai

Our table right by the ocean

Amazing beet and arugula salad, with macadamia nuts

Seared ono on a pumpkin puree with wing beans.  The beans actually look like X-wing fighters.

Our waiter was fantastic, and through our conversation we learned that he used to live in San Francisco so we chatted for quite a while about the California coast, from Carmel through the bay and up to the city. It was a lovely and relaxing end to an otherwise rough day.