Na Wahine O Ke Kai

These are pictures from Na Wahine O Ke Kai – the race from Molokai to Oahu crossing the Kaiwi channel. I am really lucky to have been chosen to be on this crew as there is only one that raced for my club this year and I am a first year paddler. They normally don’t let new paddlers race it because the channel is so challenging and anything can happen. This is the last race of the distance season and took us just under 7 hours to complete. I think so far it has been the hardest thing I have ever done. It is the ironman of canoe racing. We went over to Molokai on Saturday AM in a 6 seater plane and rigged the boats (tied the outrigger to the canoe using rope). It was incredibly hot. We then went to where we were staying at Molokai ranch where we stayed in tentalos (pictured). Molokai is very much like Texas hill country. I felt like I was on a ranch back home with a really pretty beach and ocean. There were about 140 women there from all over the world including Canada, Tahiti, Samoa, Australia and US mainland all there to do the race. We had lunch (I ate a burger, hot dog and beef stew along with salad and fruit), dinner (prime rib, spaghetti with meat sauce and baked potatoes), and breakfast this AM.
This morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to have breakfast and catch the 5:30 bus down to Hale O Lono Harbor where the race started. We finished waxing and taping the boat and made a ho’o’kupu (offering). This is made of ti leaves, fish, Hawaiian salt, poi, and coral. It is an offering we give to the ocean and in turn we ask the ocean to take care of us. Everything in Hawaii is spiritual, but this race is especially so. After we did this we all had to go down to the pre-race pule (prayer) and songs. Then we got into the canoe and paddled out to the race. I was on the starting crew, which is a big honor. The race started and we had an incredible start. We were up with some of the top crews. The race consists of water changes – there are 6 people in the boat at a time and 10 people on the team. The extra 4 ride in the escort boat with the coaches and every 20 minutes we have a water change where we switch out half the crew for a rest. Basically the escort boat drops in 3 people into the water and the people in the boat race up to the people in the water. When we get right up next to them, three people jump out one side of the boat as the other three jump into their spots. Theoretically we should do this without the boat slowing down, but it is very difficult to do that.
The first change was fine as I was getting out of the boat. 20 minutes later I was getting back into the canoe and the water was really really choppy. Apparently the conditions were some of the worst that they have paddled in. When the canoe was coming up to us, it caught a wave and slammed into one of the girls in the water, busting her lip. After that we were ok. We were doing really well passing boats along the way until we hulied (flipped over). My whole team is pretty much short people and it was very difficult to get us flipped back over so we lost a lot of time. Not only that we had so much water in the boat that we were half way under water until we bailed it all out. It was completely demoralizing since everyone we had passed came back and passed us while we were trying to flip the boat back over. The rest of the race was good, but very mentally and physically challenging. We ended up catching some of the crews that passed us at the end so that was a nice finish for us. The only other thing of note is that one of my crew members got seasick right after I changed off the canoe. Thankfully my coach saw her in time and blocked me from view, but it was a difficult next change to keep me away from seeing it. When we finished the guy’s team had a big party and leis for all of us – their race is in two weeks.
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