I saw this little outrigger sailing canoe off the North Kohala coast. The two men had obviously been fishing, possibly still were, but though the canoe wasn’t too far out, I couldn’t figure out which way they were headed. I guess they must have made it safely to shore since I didn’t see anything in the news about missing mariners.
Another post on the WordPress photo challenge theme of ‘serene.’
The hike up Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a is a steady climb, but there are several benches along the way for a quiet break. This bench looks north, toward the South Kohala coastline and North Kohala hills.
The trail isn’t crowded at any time of day, but in the early morning, it’s positively serene.
For more information about Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a and its trails, go to puuwaawaa.org.
Another post on the WordPress photo challenge theme of ‘serene.’
Hawaii’s weather is largely influenced by the northeast trade winds and some places on the Big Island are renowned for being windy. North Kohala is one of those places. Strong winds can blow for days on end and, off the coast, the ocean is often a flurry of whitecaps and spray.
But when the wind relents, the ocean calms and can produce a serene scene such as this sunset below Upolu Airport.
Recent high winds from the north kicked up large swells pounding the northern coast and lots of white water.
A week or so ago, I posted (here) about a temporary electrical substation that sprang up on the edge of Hawi to facilitate a change in the local distribution network. A few days ago, the specifics of that change made itself felt here when the house was without power for four hours or so. This outage was planned and communicated so it wasn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise was that I hadn’t anticipated the road to the house being blocked by electic company trucks for a couple of hours. What that meant was that the plan to be away for most of the power outage got off to a rocky start.
The work they were doing was replacing the small transformers on local poles with ones that operate on a new voltage, a transformer transformation if you will. At least that’s my understanding of what I was told. When it comes to electicity, I push a plug into a socket and the light goes on. If it doesn’t, I whack the lamp a couple of times and that often helps.
This little arrangement sprouted up in a cow pasture, beside the road to Upolu Airport, over the course of a week of so. It’s quite substantial with three new poles, fencing, and a gate having been put in, but the equipment itself is on wheels.
I was curious as to its purpose and finally happened by while workmen were there. As the title says, it’s a temporary substation. It’s been installed so that changes in the local distribution network can be achieved without power shutdowns. Supposedly, it will be in operation for two or three weeks, then the poles, fences, and equipment will be removed and the cows will get their pasture back.
The weather here is governed by the northeast trade winds. These bring abundant moisture to the windward side of Big Island, but the western side, in the lee of the volcanoes, is mostly hot and dry. There are local variations, and different times of the year can bring different winds. During the summer, Kona winds, blowing from the south or southwest, reverse the usual pattern.
Then there are weather systems which upset all the norms. Hurricanes are the most obvious. This year, in dramatic contrast to the Atlantic and Caribbean areas, there has been virtually no action in the Central Pacific. Only a couple of storms headed in this general direction and both petered out well before they reached the islands.
From time to time, an unstable air mass will pass over the state bringing with it unsettled weather and thunderstorms. One of the biggest dangers with such systems is when a storm cell settles over an area, dumping many inches of water, and sometimes generating flash floods. It’s interesting to follow these on the weather radar. The storm cells show up red, orange, and yellow. Sometimes they’re big enough to blanket an entire island.
One such system passed through the islands recently. Thunder had rumbled through the night, with distant lightning illuminating the sky. Next morning, I checked the radar and saw large areas of red and orange slowly working their way southeast, toward the Big Island. Then I noticed a little ball of orange appear and start to grow close to where I live. That online apparition was matched by an increase in the thunder’s volume and by the lightning becoming distinct strikes.
Very quickly, a cell built up that hung over this area for a couple of hours. It was quite the show. Three times the disturbance was so close overhead that I heard the crack of the lightning followed instantly by a clap of thunder that shook the house. Through it all, the rain hammered down, which I tried to capture in these photos.
Eventually, the large cell moving down from the northwest arrived, but instead of making things worse, it absorbed our local fireworks show and carried on to inundate areas to the southeast. An hour later, the sun broke through and our temporary weather maelstrom was over.
Another post on the theme of ‘Glow,’ this week’s WordPress photo challenge.
Early morning light illuminates the Wo On Store at Halawa. This was one of many shops in North Kohala back in the sugar plantation days. A lot of these businesses were run by immigrants. The name ‘Wo On’ means ‘harmony and peace.’ The building now houses the Rankin Gallery.
Graham's Island 