Mar 27

RAINBOW BAY SAILING

Despite growing up surrounded by water in the lovely state of Florida, I know nothing about sailing. However, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a nice day on the bay sailing around. As long as I am not responsible for any aspect of the actual safety of the vessel, we should be fine. So when my hiking partner Peter said he was interested in putzing around Rainbow Bay Marina, I was on board.

You have to have some sort of military affiliation to rent from Rainbow Bay, but man it's a great deal. It's cheap and the guys who work there are super aloha. You can tell I really helped out Peter and Alan rigging the vessel.

Rigging the mainsail. I really wanted to yell "Rig the jib!" but I was told that we wouldn't be riding with a jib today because it was so windy. I was mildly disappointed.

And we're off! I quickly realized that these little vessels list pretty significantly. I was told we were on a type of boat that couldn't capsize. I wasn't sure if I believed this, but I guess we would find out.

There's the bridge to Ford Island, one of the many military installations around Oahu. To the right, you can see the top of the USS Missouri Memorial. Despite living here for a year, I have yet so see this or the USS Arizona Memorial. I have been told from those who have gone that they are both incredible and sobering experiences.

The Captain of our little ship today was Peter, my main hiking partner. He had only recently been sailing certified, so if anyone could prove this vessel could be capsized, I'm sure it was him ;)

The views in this bay are awesome. Here you can see Pearl City with the Ko'olau Mountain Range in the background. There are some great views of the Waianae Range as well.

It probably took us about 5 minutes before we started making mimosas. I mean if you didn't have drinks, did you even go sailing?

Drinking did prove a little bit more difficult than expected. The strong winds caused the boat to list pretty hard depending on the direction we were headed.

And we always had to be alert when the sail would shift directions sharply as we turned (I believe it's called a Jibe... Or maybe a Tack?).

As long as nobody spilled their drinks or got concussed, I think it's all good.

Besides, with serious Captain Peter at the helm, how could you not feel safe?

And of course right after that picture, I took some water to the face. Karma I suppose.

As we made a turn for another loop around the bay, we all saw the thing that makes your stomach drop, the flashing lights of a police boat. Despite all of us being in our mid and upper 20's, we all reverted back to our paranoid 18 year old selves and hid the booze, thinking that was the reason they were pulling alongside us. After a short exchange, we found out that they were closing the entire harbor for naval activities. I guess that would explain why we were the only ones out there that day.