Our Queen Lili'uokalani Canoe Race

The Lili'uokalani Canoe Race as seen from Kona Makai  SKG

   Yesterday, in the late morning, just as the day was really heating up, Sandra suggested that we take our lunch down to the beach and watch the waves splash against the rocks.  This seemed like a wonderful idea and soon we were sitting in the shade at our favorite beach access condo.  We settled in, munching on scrumptious chicken salad sandwiches, listening to the waves crash against the rocks and enjoying the latest Michael Connelly novel,  The Late Show.  Its an excellent read, if you enjoy that sort of thing,  featuring a new character,  Detective Renée Ballard, who is as down on her employer, the LAPD, as Michael's former alter ego, Heironymous Bosch. 

   Renée was up to her ass in alligators, fighting off an internal affairs investigation after defeating an assault by a masochistic sex predator, when I looked up to see an odd craft heading towards us.  It was a tiny pontoon catamaran with a blue bimini top and something streaming back from a pole.  As it turns out, that streamer was a flag declaring that this unusual vessel  was the race committee boat for the largest

Chillin' at the Finish Line   Photo by SKG

outrigger canoe race in the world, the Queen Lili'uokalani Canoe Races, held here in Kailua Kona over the Labor Day weekend each year.

     Sandra and I were aware that the races were taking place, but this weekend one thing had led to another and we hadn't made it down to watch, although, with the assistance of our trusty binoculars, we were able to see some of the boats go by from our lanai.  Our little belvedere is roughly a mile away from the coast and one really couldn't say that they attended the races when viewed from that distance.

    But now here came the boats.  There were sixteen in all, spread out over about 100 yards.  With six paddlers in each canoe, they were heading into the clubhouse turn, having completed three 1.25 mile legs.  This distance is of some interest to us Kailuans, as the buoy around which these paddlers were racing was just a bit further away from the finish line that the the buoy around which the Ironman racers swim.    Most any of us can imagine paddling a canoe five miles.  Swimming  2.4 miles in an hour is a totally different 

The Canoes Come Ashore in front of the King Kamehameha Hotel

smoke. Suffice it to say, the Ironman 2.4 mile swim is an awesome feat.

    To be fair, this was the last day of the races and the premier event had taken place the day before, with women sixes paddling to Honaunau, nine miles distant, and the men paddling from Honaunau to the Kailua Pier.  We had a glimpse of the men during a commercial, while we devoted the bulk of our attention to the plight of the Florida State Seminoles. Who you callin' a couch potato?

     As the last of the canoes was rounding the buoy, I had a brilliant idea.  "Let's hop in the car and race them back to town!" I exclaimed.  So we threw our books and the remainder of our lunch in the beach bag and walked briskly (this canoe racing can be exhausting) up hill to the car, in which we then headed north.  We caught the last of the boats around the Kona Tiki Hotel, but by the time we got to Honl's Beach we were still trailing the leaders.

A Post Race Pow Wow on the Pier

    At this point, realizing that we would be slowed by the stop sign at the market, I changed strategy.  I would drop Sandra off in front of the Fish Hopper and she would dash across Alii Drive to catch a picture of the winning canoe.  I would continue on, turn around at the King Kam Hotel and pick her up going south.  This worked fairly well, except that the lead canoe was faster than I was, so sweetie was able to catch the second and third place boats as they crossed the finish line.  Wow,what a race!  I can't decide if we came in second or fourth.  The race committee, on the other hand, did not list the Blue 2009 Honda Accord among the finishers.  Go figure.

   Following the exciting race, we parked the car and made our way to the pier.  This had been the final race of the meet, and everyone was packing up to go.  The food vendors were cleaning their grills and the concessionaires were putting away their T-shirts and trinkets.  Several of the canoes were being hauled up onto the pier and loaded onto trailers.  Naturally, I was in the

Girls With Paddles   Photo SKG

way, but the athletes were kind enough to tell me to move, as opposed to crushing me with a canoe.  Over by the sea wall, I spotted a lady a few years younger than myself wearing an OHSU T-shirt.  Having just finished paddling, she was sitting on the rail and alternately drinking bottled water and pouring it on her feet.  Having completed a course of study at the Oregon Health Sciences University and, later in life, serving as an assistant adjunct professor (can you imagine a more demeaning category of academic distinction?) at the same institution, I felt empowered to engage her in conversation.

    She was a proud mother and I was soon introduced to her son, Kent, who will be  full fledged dentist in a
few months (hence the OHSU T-shirt) In short order, Kent introduced me to his vivacious  fiancée, Katie.  From the look of things, both Kent and Katy had competed in the same boat with mom.  Being a couple decades younger, they were full of smiles and did not feel the need to sit on the rail and pour water on their feet.  I asked Kent how often he trains as a paddler in Portland and he allowed that he never paddles.  A vacancy had opened up in the canoe and he

Kent and Katy.  Looking Good After a Five Mile Paddle.

was pressed into action.  One has to suppose that, this being the last race, participation was wide open, men, women, boys girls, paddlers and non-paddlers alike.  By the way, when I said earlier that it might be relatively easy for any of us to complete a five mile paddle, I was speaking from a  hypothetical perspective.  Or to put it the Australian way (there were, in fact, two Aussie crews paddling in that race) Good on ya, Kent!

   I was just happy that I hadn't been hanging around the pier a couple hours earlier.  Who knows where I would have needed to pour the bottled water!

jeff