The scant remains of this shipwreck lie on the rocks of Kahuway Bay, just north of the Hualalai Beach Resort on the Kona coast. The keel is still clearly visible along with several keel bolts and the bottom part of the hull. I don’t know which wreck this is, but it’s been there a long time and will probably survive for many years to come.
Last week, I went down to Hualalai Resort while the 2020 Mitsubishi Electric Championship, the first event on this year’s PGA Tour Champions, was going on. I was going to spend time at the event but, on arrival, found that the PGA doesn’t allow cameras. Since I was mostly going to take photos I wasn’t sure how much time I wanted to spend watching golf without it.
Instead, I went for walk along the waterfront, which is public access. This path also happens to go by the 17th hole of the golf course, so I took some photos and returned later when the players reached that point.
The top photo shows the 17th green with Hualalai volcano in the background. The tee for this par 3 hole is on the slightly elevated area to the right of the photo. This was taken in the morning, before the tournament started. In the middle photo, staff rake the 17th hole bunker before the event. Below, Ken Tanigawa puts on the 17th green. He missed, though got close enough to make par. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to take this photo, so if this blog suddenly stops it’s probably because the PGA’s lawyers have bludgeoned me with five irons (the preferred club for that kind of activity) and buried me in a bunker on the 13th hole.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Yin-Yang.’ (See more offerings here.) I had no idea what I’d post for this, but ended up with a couple of posts.
The first is a simple take on light and dark, or light and shadow. On a recent walk along the shoreline, the shadow of a palm tree imposed on a sunny beach, deserted except for empty chairs.
Tomorrow’s post will be another on this theme.
Kohanaiki Beach Park, north of Kailua Kona, is a favorite spot for surfers. But at the south end of the park, the focus switches to history.
There’s a hālau, Ka Hale Waʽa, which is used for teaching Hawaiian crafts and culture. There’s a garden which grows the same kind of plants brought over by the first Polynesian settlers. And there’s a Hawaiian star compass, a 17-foot diameter recreation showing how the Polynesians used to navigate the vast open spaces of the Pacific Ocean.
The top photo show shows the compass. The middle photo shows a plaque, which explains the basics of how it works, using the points of the compass, the sun, nighttime celestial bodies and the ocean swells. I won’t go into detail here, but more information can be found here, here, and here. Below, the setting of the compass, with a Pacific golden plover walking on it. I like this shot because the plover is said to be the reason Polynesians discovered Hawaii. Each year, plovers summer in Alaska and then fly south as far as New Zealand. It is said that the Polynesians noted this small bird’s annual journey back and forth and figured there must be land somewhere to the north, so they set out in their canoes to find it.
Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Round.’ See more offerings here.
This is the molted shell of an a’ama crab, seen on the North Kohala shore. A’ama crabs are numerous around the Big Island and they scuttle away when disturbed. But while these crabs are black, their molted shells turn red in the sun, as this one has.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘December Chill.’ (See more offerings here.)
Since I haven’t been to the chilly areas of the island recently, up on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, I’ve gone for a scene that at least looks chilly. Low, scudding clouds and high surf, driven by brisk trade winds make for a chilly scene, though the truth is I was almost certainly wearing shorts and a t-shirt when I took the photo.
This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Future.’ (See more responses here.) Since this is Snow’s last time hosting the Friendly Friday challenge I thought I’d offer a personal interpretation of the theme.
Here is one of the beaches at Kekaha Kai Park. What does this have to do with ‘future?’ Well I hope such blue-green water, white sand, palm trees and sun are somewhere in your none-too-distant future, Snow. Thanks for hosting the challenge.
The Big Island’s newest black sand beach, at Pohoiki, was formed during last year’s eruption of Kilauea Volcano. Soon after its formation, offerings appeared at the beach and coconuts were planted.
For coconut planting, all that’s required is to plunk an unhusked coconut on the beach and wait. The coconut will sprout, as in these photos, but it can still be moved after it has sprouted as its roots are mostly fairly shallow. It’s tolerant of salinity, but likes regular rainfall, both of which are features of this location.
In several years, this somewhat stark black sand beach will become another scenic palm-lined tropical beach. That’s assuming the volcano doesn’t send another flow in this direction, in which case it might look more like the background of the bottom two photos.
Graham's Island 