Splash of Kauai

Leilani Rivera Bond and Halau Hula o Leilani have their annual Hoike on the first Saturday of February.

It starts off with Joy playing the part of Pele. Mele "Aia La O Pele I Hawaii".

Special guests this year were Kumu Kaui and Miss Aloha Hula 2010 of Hula Halau·O Kamuela.

Miss Aloha Hula, Mahealani Mika Hirao Solem dances Auana to "Mokihana Lullaby ". 

Here Mika dances Kahiko. Mele "Ua Nani Haena I Ka Ehu Kai".

Here Mika and Kumu Kaui Kamanao dance together to "Po Lailai".

Of course this is Halau Hula O Leilani and here the Kaikamahine dances to "Hanohano Hanalei" and "Hoola Lahui Hawaii".

Here the Kaikamahine dance with their poi balls to a New Zealand song.

Leilani leads the Wahine in a New Zealand dance with the short poi balls. Unfortunately Auntie Val was not able to dance this night.

Next we go to the Tahitian dance "Manu Rere Hau".

Bernard Carvalho (Kauai's Mayor) also sang "These Islands for the girls.

Naia a new member of the Halau was also dancing.

Naia with Kumu Kaui Back Stage.

Here is Naia with the Mayor.

This morning there was a large earthquake about 125 miles Southwest of Samoa. It had a magnitude of about 8.0. It created a tsunami that hit Samoa soon afterward with much damage and loss of life.

There was a tsunami watch for Hawaii. After a few hours it was cancelled. There was still an advisory for unusual currents and sea changes. Most people never noticed any changes.

One thing about tsunamis is that the height of the waves vary a lot locally. On Kauai Nawiliwili harbor usually has big changes in sea level.

Here are some pictures showing two of the highs that I observed and the lowest that I observed. I missed the largest waves by over an hour. I heard that the whole dock was about 6 inches underwater during the largest waves.

I have put a couple of pictures together to show the difference in height.

There has been talk for about a week about an impending storm.
Today the weather service had posted high wind warnings for the Island of Kauai. Schools were closed people were warned to take precautions. The wind although blowing Kona never lived up to the hype.

Strong Kona winds do cause the water on the East side of Kauai to become unusually clear. It had been blowing Kona now for a few days. I finally decided to take another look at the Andrea F. Luckenbach. It is one of the better known shipwrecks on Kauai. Its location close to shore in shallow water on the windward side does a good job of keeping people away.

In March of 1951 the Andrea F. Luckenbach was bound for Yokohama Japan from San Francisco. She made a stop in Honolulu due to the Master becoming ill. He was put in the hospital and the voyage continued under the command of Frederick P. Dietrich, a hastily promoted Second mate.

She made it around Barbers Point and set her course through the Kauai Channel. There were some squalls that reduced visibility but no severe weather. At about 2005 hours on March 11th she struck bottom. There is some disagreement about where. The crew maintained that she hit a yet undiscovered pinnacle about 3.5 miles off shore. The Coast Guard investigates think that she probably hit a reef North of Papaa Bay. Mr. Deitrich's license was suspended for a year on account of the incident.

She floated free and finally came to rest near the location of the current Kauai Hilton. She was sticking out of the water for about 20 years before she finally slipped below the surface. During that time I am sure that quite a few people must have noticed. She is still there on the bottom slowly blending in to her surroundings.

The wreck of the Andrea F. Luckenbach is not the intact wreck full off gold that I would like to explore. She is in my backyard so I thought that i would put up some pictures before her name has finally faded away.