Baldwin Monument

Today we get up early again, 5:30am as we have to be a the wharf for 6:40. We met folks on the way to Kalalau trail that said they had a great day on a Kodiak raft. We signed up as we were still in the shuttle to the Napali coast 😉.

We get there, sign the you may die waver and meet our crew. Captain Shawn and Mate BJ are going to take us out on our adventure.

The captain explains the rules of the boat and how to be safe. We need to hold on for this ride as we are sitting on the inflatable sides of the boat while holding two different ropes. We even have a third rope for our feet that we also need to use in case we let go of the other two.

We start the adventure going out to the ocean. The waves are pretty big already. The captain had warned us that this is the warmup part. We will see bigger stronger waves on the way back as the day progresses and the winds pick up waves 🌊.

We ride for a while until we see a pod of dolphins. They are still sleeping; they swim in their sleep turning off half of their brain at a time. There are little cute baby dolphins as well. We see a couple of the roll out of the water.

We keep going. I am glad we have the ropes, without them we would be flying of the Kodak. The waves are bigger than I imagined. I am however enjoying every moment. I am in front and have the best view. The downside is that I also have the most bumps but it’s not that bad.

The captain brings us in caves which only the kodiaks are small enough to fit. This is so cool, the captain is pretty good at keeping us away from the rocks while allowing us to get some good photos.

After the caves, we head to the Napali coast. This is we just finished hiking. We get to see where we were from a different perspective. The view is quite impressive. Now we are the tourists looking at the hikers on the beach. Sorry guys.

We turn back from here and head to a beach for some snorkeling and some lunch. The water is pretty murky so we see some fish but only when pretty close. After our lunch, BJ takes us on a walk explaining that this beach was a sacred place for Hawaiians at the time. They had rituals of dance and chanting. The shape of the rock cliff made good reverberation for singing.

We head back to port, on the way back we catch different types of waves. The most pleasant ones were the large rolling ones where we feel like we are on a roller coaster. The small choppy ones are harder on the back as the boat keeps hitting them hard slapping them. At one point the wind picks up so much that I’m sure we are all going to fly off the boat. “Hold on tight“ is what the captain tells us. I oblige.

We make it all to the wharf, no one lost to sea. We thank our crew and head back to our resort. We get some things for a dinner on our patio. I got some Ahi poke style. It was really good.Read more