|
Thanks to the efficiency and helpfulness of the US Consulate in Cape Town, I'm finally all systems go for Molokai... I was beginning to think that I wouldn't have travel documents...
Oh, and here's some more info on the race...!
Here's the race info first - anyone who's not interested in my rant about the useless UK consulate can just ignore the last few paragraphs.
** UPDATE 8th May **
Intellicast weather forecast for Honolulu
Click here for a ten-day forecast
And click on the day of the week to see the details. Right now, for Friday 16th, they're calling a 12kt NE wind - so it looks as though the Kona wind blows from Tuesday through to Thursday before switching back to the trades that we all want. Touch wood, cross fingers, pray, do whatever it takes...
Transport on Molokai Island
Geoff Graf sent this useful piece of information:
Once on Molokai you need to get to the hotel (Kaluakoi) and if you are not renting a car the best way is to use Molokai Off-Road Tours & Taxi, phone # 808-553-3369. The cost one way is $12.50 if they have a minimum of 5 passengers. This is especially helpful for anyone who is flying in that morning of the race.
Entries - the cut-off date is... Sunday 10th May!
Come guys - pull finger. The organizers are pleading for people to complete their entries (Herman?! Hank?!) - it helps with logistical planning, etc, etc. Do it!
Click here to enter
(The latest numbers are surfski: 60; OC-1: 18 - clearly a number of guys still haven't entered.)
Alternate Race Day - 17th May
NB: if the weather forecast is sub-optimal for 18th May i.e. no wind, the race may be run on 17th May.
Final Registration and Race Briefing
All paddlers are required to attend the briefing at 6pm, Thursday 15th May at the Kona Breweries in Hawaii Kai at the Koko Marina shopping center. Note that escort drivers are not required to attend this meeting.
GPS Tracking Units
The top seeded male and female paddlers will have GPS Tracking units attached to their skis for the race. The units are small, weigh only about 140g and will not affect the skis/paddling in any way. But they will allow viewers from around the world to watch the race positions real-time, adding hugely to the interest and excitement in the race. We'd like to ask for the co-operation of the paddlers in this regard. The process for attaching and activating the units will be explained at the race briefing next Thursday.
Race Finish
Here are some pics that show the location of the race finish.
"This year's finish reverts back to the ‘Cove' located just left of the bridge at Hawaii Kai," said the organizers. "This finish is more desirable as it allows ample parking and access."
 The approach to the finish along China Walls
 The race finishes at the cove to the left of the bridge
Cut-off date for the container to Molokai - TODAY!
Some escort boats are willing to take skis; some are unsuitable for this or the skippers don't want to take the risk of damaging skis. Find out from your skipper ahead of time!
Teo Clemens IS shipping a container to Molokai. The cost is $75.00. Contact him to reserve your spot before 7th May.
The container leaves Oahu on Tuesday, May 13th (load up at 09h30) and arrives on Molokai on Thursday, May 15th. A minimum of 40 skis is required to make this viable.
Teo's contact details are :
- Phone : (1) 808 306 6850
- Email :
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Katie Pocock
Here's some feedback from Katie Pocock (NZ) who has been in Hawaii for the last week:
Aloha from Waikiki!
I arrived here in Hawaii just under a week ago and I am settled into my accommodation for the next 5 days here in Waikiki, but what a journey it has been already!
Tracy and I flew into Honolulu on the island of Oahu on Wednesday, and stayed just the night before flying over (on a tiny eight passenger plane!) to Molokai Island. It was awesome for me to fly over the course that I am paddling over and have a good look at the Ka'iwi or as we know it, the Molokai channel.
Even though I have visited this much smaller and lesser populated island before I don't think that either of us were quite prepared for the quietness of this amazing Island, which looked absolutely desolate as we flew into the airport. Thankfully it didn't take us long to hire a car, get some supplies from town and sort out where we were staying on the "West End" of the island.
For those of you who haven't been to Hawaii, Molokai is a very baron and isolated island. Where we were, we had no internet connection, very limited mobile, radio and tv coverage and very few people to talk to.
Those first few days on Molokai provided an enormous amount of QT (quality time) for Tracy and myself, as it was, at times quite literally "just the two us!" The extreme change in place was such a treat and in hindsight the perfect place to chill out, rest up and prepare for our big race.
Tracy and I were disturbingly relaxed on the Sunday morning as we got ready for our 8am start for the 66km relay race back across the channel to Oahu.
This particular relay race has traditionally been an outrigger or waka race, so it was very unusual for surf ski to complete it. A few people (us included) were not sure how we would handle the deep water changes and wondered why would even choose to race when there wasn't any other surf skis competition, but for me it was the perfect opportunity to spend some time specifically on the course two weeks out from my solo crossing and paddle some technical pieces of the channel in a slightly fresher state - well that was the plan anyway!
By all accounts it was what the locals would call a "moderate" crossing in terms of wind, swell size and chop, which was still larger than any seas either of us have ever paddled in back home, with swell size 6-10 foot, chop 1-2 foot and winds of 15-20 knots in very messy exposed water.
Thankfully we were prepared for that, Tracy expected to be outside of her comfort zone (she was not disappointed!) for the bulk of the race and our main objective was to finish the race and to be smiling and laughing most of the way there. I was very happy paddling my V10 and took some good drops on the way over, I think that my GPS got up to 18km/hr at stages so I took some confidence from the crossing.
I'm not 100% sure where we finished in the end, I suspect we were in the top 5 finishes, but as were had no other surf ski competition I don't think the race organiser even recorded our time. Not that we cared, when our escort boat dropped us off outside the Hawaii Yacht club with all our gear minutes after we finished. Somehow we made our way here to the Park View hotel (ski as well!) on Waikiki where we have set up camp ever since.
The team at Epic have been absolutely awesome the whole time I have been here, organising us a boat to use in the weekend and allocating me a super light one for the big race in two weeks. Today Mark (the agent here in Hawaii) took me over the finish at Port Lock, for me this was such a valuable paddle, when I did the crossing in 2005 had a very bad experience at the finish, so to go over it with a local and have such clear landmarks so early on in my preparation is heartening!
Well that's it for now, need to get back to reading my book, wasting T-Bag (that's one of Tracy's many nicknames) at last card and mentally preparing for tomorrows downwind paddle, the infamous "Makupu Run!"
Just wanted to let everyone know that things are swell (hehe) here in Hawaii!
Fill you in again soon.
Smiles
Katie
Windguru Forecast for Oahu
Conditions look fantastic in Hawaii right now... but wait, what's that, aaaaargh - look at next Tuesday/Wednesday - what's happening there? The wind dies and turns South.... Oh man, I hope that's a very temporary blip on the forecast...
 Windguru forecast 7 May 2008
Click here for the current forecast on Windguru for Oahu
Rant: The UK Consulate in Pretoria is useless
My problem was: both my SA and UK passports expired this month. I needed the SA passport to leave the country and I wanted to use the UK passport to enter the USA - because UK citizens get a visa waiver (and a consequent $130 saving).
I knew I'd have a problem getting the SA passport because our Home Affairs department is notoriously slow - but the UK consulate's website says that it takes (only!) 25 working days to process passport applications. I applied over two months ago (i.e. around 45 working days).
I started calling the UK consulate about three weeks ago. To cut a long story short, you'd have to go far to find a group of more apathetic, stolid intellects than the crew that mans the passport section. No reply to emails; none of the promised return phone calls; no established escalation process; no reply to my letter of motivation for an accelerated process. Absolutely useless.
The US Consulate - a breath of fresh air
When it became clear that the UK consulate had zero interest in my problems, it was time for plan B. I collected a temporary SA passport from Home Affairs on Monday (i.e. two days ago) and immediately applied for a visa interview with the US Consulate. By Monday evening I had an "emergency" visa appointment for this morning. The interview was swift and efficient. The normal turn-around for a visa is 5 days - but again they have a process for accelerating the application and I'll have my visa by this evening or tomorrow at the latest in time for my flight on Friday.
Now that's service!
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
