A while back, I went to take photos of a barge arriving in Kawaihae and saw these buoys on the beach. I don’t know what the net pen was for, but it was quite large, and looked similar to those I’ve seen used for farming fish out in the ocean. I presumed it was ashore here for some repairs
Regardless, the large yellow buoys caught my eye and made a good foreground for the barge being docked.
I was running early to work recently, so I decided to stop in Kawaihae, as I often do. With more time, I’d have gone for a walk along the coast, but I had only 15 minutes so I plumped for a visit to the south end of the harbor to see if there were any herons around.
I found two there, but one quickly disappeared. The other stood on a rock in shallow water, a popular fishing spot for them. I took a few photos and noticed the heron leaning forward. It had spotted something. An instant later, it plunged into the water and then emerged with a fish on its beak. It returned to the rock and paused. The fish appeared to be impaled on the heron’s beak, but extracting the beak risked losing the fish before it could be eaten.
A moment later, the heron hopped over to the small beach where I was. There, it popped the fish into the air and swallowed it in one slick movement. This whole sequence took less than three minutes. The heron stayed on the beach and I returned to my car and headed off to work, very glad that I’d stopped by.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Colorful Murals.’ See more responses here.
I was going to take a photo of a now completed mural-in-progess I used in a previous challenge (here), but it was rather obscured by a food wagon and some other items being stored in the corner of an open square. Instead, I took this photo, of one of the several other murals surrounding that square, which is the site of a former restaurant that burned down a few years ago.
Recently, I had to take the bus home from work. I got down to the pick-up spot in plenty of time and soon a bus appeared, heading my way. I quickly realized I had a problem. Not only did this bus have no sign on it saying where it was going, but it also didn’t turn in to the resort it was supposed to visit, at least according to the schedule. Instead it drove past me and turned into a different resort which should have been its second stop in this area.
I had no idea what was going on, but I knew the bus had to come out of the resort the same way it went in, so I walked up the road to the security gate and waited for the bus to return. When it did, I stopped it and asked the driver where it was going. It turned out it was the bus I wanted.
The driver was quite friendly and said he’d look out for me in the future. I realized this bus was scheduled for the morning commute to work and the evening return home. It probably rarely picked up anyone other than regular commuters. I didn’t have the heart to tell him my journey was a one off.
The trip itself was fine. In the confines of the bus, it was hard to know whether we were going fast or slow. A strong crosswind was blowing and we swayed back and forth as we passed through cuttings, and also when the driver rummaged around for a pastry, then consumed it.
When we got to Hawi, the driver dropped me at the end of my driveway and I stood to there as 15 or 20 vehicles, caught in the bus’s wake, rumbled by. It wasn’t a bad way to get home, but probably a one-off since my work schedule is variable and a one-a-day bus doesn’t work for me.
I took the photo between the two seats in front of me because I liked the the shapes and lines and angles.
An early morning view of Hualalai Volcano from the beach below Pu’ukohala Heiau at Kawaihae.
This view of Mauna Kea is interesting for a couple of reasons, neither of which have to do with Mauna Kea itself.
The first is that it shows the dry side of Waimea, which is to say some of the western part of the town. The dry side gets considerably less rain and more blue skies than the wet side though the separation is only a few miles.
The second point of interest is that this view looks nothing like this today. The area between the dark line of trees and the base of the clouds is where the recent brushfire went through. So it’s not currently green and pastoral. It’s more black and brown and apocalyptic.
The good news is the land will recover, assuming there are no more fires for a while.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Afloat.’ See more responses here.
I had a different canoeing post lined up for this, but a couple of days ago I happened on this scene at Kawaihae harbor early in the morning. I noticed an outrigger canoe heading in and thought it might provide a photo opportunity, so I readied myself for the canoe’s arrival. While I waited, I heard voices. I looked around but didn’t see anyone. Then I realized the voices were coming from the water and there were three people not far from shore, only their heads visible above the water. They can just about be seen in the top photo, to the far right.
At first I thought they were taking an early morning dip, but when the canoe zipped into the small harbor, I thought they were probably there to help bring the canoe to shore. Sure enough, the canoe curled around to where they were and I snapped photos. But where I expected the canoe to slow to a halt, it didn’t. Instead it curved back out toward the harbor entrance and I was left wondering what just happened.
It wasn’t until I looked at my photos that I realized what I’d seen. What the canoeists were practicing was changing crew while still in motion. In the second photo, the moving boat comes alongside the three people in the water. The third photo shows three of the boat’s crew toppling into the water on the other side of the boat. Photo four shows the trio in the water climbing aboard to take the now empty seats. Finally, the bottom photo shows the canoe heading back out into open water with barely a break in speed.
The purpose of this exercise was practice for long-distance canoe racing. During a race, a support boat takes fresh crew ahead and drops them in the ocean. At a certain point the crew change will be made in the way I’d seen. According to Wikipedia, “Longer races involving the OC6 (Six-person outrigger canoes) often involve paddler replacements, which involve exit and entry to the canoe directly from the water while the canoe is underway (this is called a water change). Typically, nine paddlers form a crew, with six paddling the OC6 and the other three resting, drinking, and/or eating on an escort boat. Replacement typically occurs at 20 to 30 minute intervals; the escort boat drops the relief paddlers into the water ahead of the OC6, which is steered toward them. The relief paddlers climb in on the ama side as those they are replacing roll out into the water on the opposite side. The escort boat then picks up the paddlers in the water so that they can rest, drink, and/or eat before they, in turn, relieve some of the paddlers in the OC6.” Wikipedia has more information about outrigger canoes and canoe racing here.
I knew about this practice, but hadn’t seen it before. I think it says something about how smooth this crew had the exchange down, that I didn’t even notice it at the time!
I was amused by this sign on the beach in front of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. Spiny urchins in the rocks are like white lines on the highway. But of course, a visitor is not necessarily aware of this and the Four Seasons wouldn’t want any of its guests impaling themselves on spiky marine life, especially if they were likely to complain about it later.
This sign wasn’t far from another one that basically said you’d die if you set foot on the beach (here). Perhaps this was why the very lovely beach was deserted when I was there.
