One of the perks of living in one of the most beautiful places in the world is that
on any given day there is an adventure waiting to happen.
On our check list of “things we must do while living on Kauai” has been to kayak up the Napali coast.
Last year we swam a teeny tiny portion of it {you can read about it here}
and even though the swim was something i never really wanted to do……
i did it.
I probably won’t do it again
{call me chicken sheet if you want}
i’m not a swimmer but there are things in life that you just can’t pass up on doing
because it gives you a notch on that tree of life that just proves you can conquer .
When and if that day comes that we leave our life here……..
i want to look back at it and smile that those were the days of our lives.
Like sands through the hourglass….
{raise of hands people on who watches that soap???}
I’m more of a Young and the Restless sort of groupie……if you must know.
Anyhoo
tap tap tap
This year on our list of things to do was to kayak 17 miles up the Napali coast
two arms
open ocean
17 miles
OMG
{up above is Bryan’s super secret hand sign for get me out of here…asap}
do people actually WANT to do things like this???
We’ve seen the coast by boat……numerous times…..but to kayak it…..
holy sheet people….holy sheet.
The shop i work at a few nights a week shares it’s space with two guys who own Napali Kayak
a kayak company that will take the fool people who actually wants to kayak the 17 miles up the coast.
I’m there working when the van pulls back in around 730 pm bringing back all the kayakers and their gear.
The people get off and high-five each other……showing off their blistered hands and proving that they could do it……
so why couldn’t i do it?
I like blistered hands
I like high fiving people.
This last June my aunt, uncle and grown cousins came to Kauai to spend 2 weeks with us.
We did some amazing hiking….showed off the island and even talked them into doing the kayak trip with us.
The day before we were supposed to head out a northeastern swell came in and the wind picked up.
The guys cancelled two days of kayaking……and we were one of the cancellations.
oh thank you god
i prayed that day because deep down i really didn’t want to commit.
did i mention 17 miles
blistered hands
chapped lips
no vodka?
Fast forward to this last monday when i show up at work and all i could hear was how
EPIC
the water conditions were going to be on wednesday.
EPIC EPIC EPIC
My boss said it was going to be EPIC
The kayak guys said it was going to be EPIC
so i called bryan at home and asked him if he was feeling
EPIC
and he said yeah.
I asked if he felt epic enough to want to kayak the coast the day after tomorrow and he said hell ya.
so i walked out and asked the guys what are the chances that us two could get in on that
EPIC wednesday kayak trip.
We were the last two openings they had…..it was meant to be.
so i went home and cried because i’m a sissy inside and needed to prepare my mind that we were really going to
do this and there was no backing out now.
my biggest fear really wasn’t that we were going to be lost at sea
or that there would be sharks
and i was really ok knowing that i would be so blistered that i would need a hand transplant one day
no….none of that really bothered me.
what really scared me was that i was going to do something that i wouldn’t be able to finish
that i would set myself up for failure.
What bothered me also was that we were going to be gone for 13 hours and i needed a crew of people
to take over the home front so that me and the mister could do something like this.
We had to be at the Kayak shop by 6 in the morning…which meant my kids were going to have to get up themselves
feed themselves
clothe themselves
maybe brush their teeth and god forbid should they possibly make their beds
but to get out the door and onto the bus without me there.
that is freaky
because we were going to be out in the ocean with no communication for 12 hours.
but i had friends in place to cover all the checking in and making sure no one was lost
or never made it on a bus.
It took a village….seriously……
it took 4 different friends and one babysitter to make sure all my kids
made it to where they had to be and so on and so forth.
good lordy
I had to have a cocktail just to figure out all the arranging.
but guess what
no one cried and no one got lost or left on a bus or anything.
{except for Fin who called a little after 630 to tell us he wanted us to come home…..
but i told him where the chocolate chips were and all was good in the world}
after we checked in at 6 am….we loaded up in the van with all the kayaks and headed up to Haena
where we went over safety rules and all that good stuff.
There were 5 Kayaks all together……and that included one of the kayaks which had Annie who was our
fearless leader for the day.
One kayak had 2 locals who had done this before…….and the other two kayaks had tourists.
Each kayak had 2 people in it.
There is no way we could have done it solo
no way
no how
but that’s not to say it can’t be done.
When i tell you that the day was going to be EPIC …..the guys were right.
There are only a handful of days over the summer that the water is like glass and the wind is so light
you aren’t fighting it…..nor were there any swells…..which meant we were able to go into
every
single
sea cave
and explore to our hearts delight.
About 12 miles into the adventure and right when you really think you might die
and your lips are getting chapped
we pulled into Miloli’i beach for a picnic lunch.
We had a whole hour and a half to explore
or sleep
or sleep
or drink a cold beer that bryan stuck in our pack at the last minute
then sleep
before we had to load back up and finish the last 5 miles
two arms
open ocean
only 5 more miles to go.
we pushed off after lunch and about a mile into the last five….
we saw a little boat up ahead of us and the people were waving at us…
so of course i was all like
waving back at them
let’s go high five everyone a bit early but i’m down with it blistered hands and all
when we realized they weren’t waving at us for the hell of it….
they were waving at us to let us know there were 2 monk seals in the water playing
{wink wink}
very rarely does one ever see two of them…..
mostly they are alone and lying on the beach in the warm sand all happy
with no blisters or chapped lips.
it was one of the highlights of the entire trip……
after that little display we knew we had to forge on…..
just a few more miles to go…..
and as you can see in the next photo…..some people started to poop out.
note to self: next time sit in the back so no one knows you aren’t paddling
and just as we were thinking we really couldn’t make that last two miles….
we rounded the corner ……the winds picked up
and i mean picked up so much so that the winds brought us right into view of our landing beach.
oh happy day
we all lined up and took turns coming in for the landing…..
and i would like to happily announce that we did not flip the kayak over once….
nope…..
zilch…..
nada….
not climbing in and out while we were in the ocean
not coming in for the beach landing at Miloli’i
and not coming in for our final landing at Polihale beach.
We did it.
17 miles of open sea kayaking up the Napali coast.
all 17 miles were so worth the blistered hands….
the chapped lips….
the shoulders that felt like a semi truck ran over them…..
the no vodka.
This was one of those times that we can look back on and know we did it together….as a team….
and we lived to talk about it.
We got out of the van after the 2.5 hour drive home and we all high fived each other….
like i knew we would…..
blisters and all.