Makaha Fiasco and Kaena Point

Friday
We slept in and had a relaxing morning before heading out for lunch. We tried to go to a sushi place because I wanted sushi while I was in Hawaii, but it was not meant to be. We walked into the restaurant and asked them about the possibility of cross-contamination between the shellfish and the fish-fish because of my shellfish allergy. They informed me that there was probably cross-contamination and I should not stay. Well okay... Never heard that one before. So leave we did. We ended up at Subway and I had a tuna sandwich. Not quite sushi, but at least it was in the fish family.

Afterwards we headed to Makaha. There is a turtle cleaning station out past one of the buoys. It is basically a big rock that turtles swim to and fish hang around and clean them off. Once the turtle is fresh and clean, it heads out. It sounded awesome so I had to see it!!! Thus, Tiffany, Courtney and I headed out to Makaha after lunch. We only had 2 pairs of fins because Courtney had packed hers (She is moving back to the mainland in a few weeks) but David graciously allowed her to borrow his mask so we were good to go. Courtney said she was a little scared to swim out without fins and I should have offered her my fins then and there... But I didn't. For those of you that blog stalk or don't know me well, I swam competitively for 10 years and am a strong swimmer.

We headed out towards the buoy, which was about 300 or 400 yards from shore. I started out a little ways ahead of the girls and took a few pictures. About 2 minutes into the snorkeling session it became apparent that I needed to give Courtney my fins so I stopped swimming and waited for them to catch up. I looked at a few more fish and took a few more pictures and then looked up, expecting them to have caught up. But when I looked up... nothing. No one. I could see the shore and the people there. I could see the buoy and the boat beside it but no Tiffany and no Courtney.

Oh no... My heart started beating fast. I looked around frantically for them but the waves were high and it was impossible to see anything. After a few minutes I decided to head back to shore. When you lose your party, you go back in... This I know.. My lifeguard training sprung to action. I swam quickly because I was honestly a little worried that Courtney went under. I got back to the shore and look around... Still nothing. I could not see either of them in the water. The buoy was quite a ways out and it was hard to see, but I couldn't see snorkelers. I also didn't see an ambulance so I was becoming less worried that something has happened (there were lifeguards on the beach after all).

I decided to go back in and look for them from the water. I made it about half way to the buoy and the waves were still high and I still could not see anything so I decided again to go in and wait for them. "They will come in... They know that you go in when you lose someone... I will just wait for them on shore." So I swam in again... And still could not see them. I began to cry (I do not cry often but when I get really freaked out/scared and am FULL of adrenaline it makes me cry. The last time it happened I was skiing on a double blue that was way past my pay grade... Cough... Mel... Cough...).

When the waves calmed a little and I saw two snorkelers out by the buoy. I put on my mask and swam out quickly (still crying... this time irrationally because I was afraid they didn't even care that I was missing). When I got to "the snorkelers," which were them, Tiffany and Court were both extremely relieved. We all took off our masks and expressed our relief at finding each other again. I immediately asked "Why didn't you come in?!?! You go in when someone is missing!!!" They said they didn't think I would know that and assumed I was still in front of them somewhere. They had gotten onto the boat that I had seen by the buoy and were looking for me from there. Tiffany had been swimming around looking frantically for me and ran into a jellyfish. It stung both of her hands and slid across her face. Luckily she was also pumping with adrenaline and it didn't hurt as much as it otherwise would have.

We begin telling one another what had happened and were all relieved! Courtney had two Charley horses from swimming without fins and decided to go in. Tiffany and I decided to head to the turtle cleaning station when Tiffany reached for her mask and found nothing. It had fallen off in the commotion and none of us had noticed. It was in the water somewhere. I swim quickly after Courtney to get David's mask so Tiffany and I could look for her mask. Courtney informed me that she could not make it to shore without a mask on account of her Charley horse and I should follow her to shore and get the mask. I was confident that the only hope we had of finding Tiffany's mask lied in us working quickly so I swam with Courtney to shore and then sprinted back out to Tiffany with the mask (making my ninth journey through the same bit of ocean).

We looked for about thirty minutes for the mask and found nothing. The whole time Tiffany's face and hands were throbbing on account of her jellyfish sting. We both accepted that her mask had been surrendered to the sea and I (a bit selfishly) asked if we could still swim out and see the turtle cleaning station... I really didn't want our whole trip and the catastrophe that ensued to be for nothing. Tiffany graciously respected her house guest's wishes and swam out with me to the turtle cleaning station. Tiffany was a little ways behind me and then I lost her again, I thought the whole process was about to begin again when all of a sudden she emerged and screamed "Jen, look!" She was holding her snorkel. She had found it on our trek to the turtle cleaning station. We were both ecstatic!!! We celebrated for a minute and then headed out to the station. She said it was a little hard to find but I managed to spot it rather quickly! It was pretty cool to see the turtles being cleaned. I have a video but it is to cloudy for you to really see what is going on. Hopefully the pictures will do it a little bit of justice.


Tiffany and I managed to swim back rather uneventfully and we heading out to Kaena Point. Thankfully by the time we made it back to shore Tiffany's jellyfish sting had started to subside.

Kaena Point is the westernmost point of the island and there is a 2.5 mile trail out to it. We hiked out and still managed to make it to the point before sunset (a minor miracle with the day's earlier events).


We had to walk back in the dark and I was a little worried (again see earlier story) but we made it to the car without a hitch. We were all exhausted and celebrated by getting KFC on the way home. I have not been to KFC in about ten years but I have to say their KFC Famous Bowls are not so bad when you are starving!