Hawaii Channel Swims, Part II

Chris swims the Pailolo Channel

Penny has completed her huge swim across the Alenuihaha Channel From the big island of Hawaii to Maui. And now it is my turn to get wet. But first, a bit on the lead up. We arrived in Maui on March 8^th, 2009 and we had no idea that Penny would swim so soon after we arrived. The neap tides were around March 18^th. Linda Kaiser from Oahu (Hawaii swimming hall of Fame inductee) had warned us about the strong currents close to the islands. So we thought one of us would swim around March 12-13^th and the other around the 16-18^th, subject to weather, of course. Getting Penny’s swim out of the way so soon after we arrived was totally unexpected, but also opened the possibility of us actually having some free time for a holiday. Wouldn’t that be nice.

I have been on the boat as Penny’s handler/crew for a few swims and I think I suffer as much as her. I don’t sleep too well leading up to a big swim. And many hours flying and in airport lounges doesn’t help. In the 72 hours leading up to when Penny finished her historic swim at the La Perouse light, I figure we only got eight hours sleep. And sure enough, in my run down state, I started feeling the beginnings of a head cold as we motored to the start of Penny’s swim. I have been her partner/husband for 14 years and she is still able to amaze me with her strength, endurance and mental toughness.

Back to my crossing. I wanted to use Hawaii to get a long crossing under my belt (albeit in warmer water) in preparation for my Manhattan and Catalina swims later this year. The plan was to start from Maui, swim across to Molokai and then continue down to Lanai, a total distance of around 33 klms. The prevailing NE tradewind would be a cross wind for the first leg, and a tailwind for the second. Perfect. And the other reason for choosing a multiple crossing (apart from that it was the distance I was looking for) was that only one person has ever done a multiple crossing in the Hawaii channels. That was Harry Huffaker back in August 1989. We also found out from Carl Kawachi, who ratifies and records all successful crossings, that only one person has ever done a two way crossing of any of the Hawaii channels.

I thought my plan sounded good in theory. The trouble is mother nature has the final say. We needed a few days break after Penny’s swim (on Tuesday) as we were both exhausted. Sure enough, Wednesday and Thursday were glorious. Having caught up on sleep, I told Jim Dickson (our skipper) that I was good to go on Friday. He phoned at 4.50am, just as we were walking out the door, car packed and sunscreen applied. The wind had shifted to northerly, which was bad for a Maui to Molokai swim. Oh well, since we were awake, we thought we would drive up Mt. Haleakala and see the sunrise. Atop the mount, it was blowing a gale, 30 degrees F, ice covered the ground making walking difficult, and visibility was down to 100m., an interesting outing.

We would try for Saturday. This time, Jim phoned on Friday night to advise the wind was unsuitable. So after postponing my swim date twice, I/we were getting a little “toey”. The windguru website showed conditions for Sunday a bit blowy at first, but moderating during the course of the day. But Jim didn’t think it was suitable for my planned crossing and suggested we postpone until Wednesday (a local channel swimmer, Mike Spalding, had a swim booked for Monday/Tuesday). But that would only leave us a few days to do my swim before flying home, and would also restrict our tourist type activities. So we decided to go for my swim regardless on Sunday March 15th.

After getting up at 4.00am (again!), we drove round to Lahaina to meet up with Jim for a 6.00am departure. The crew would be compact to say the least. Jim driving the boat, Penny handling/feeding and myself in the water. We motored along the West Maui coast in the pre dawn toward our starting point at Kapalua. At one point, we had a couple of humpback whales surface less than 50 metres from the boat (we have seen maybe a hundred of them this last week, as they come to these waters each year at this time to give birth and nurture their young). Man, it would be nice to swi with these guys. In case anyone is interested, there are strict rules in Hawaii about boats approaching whales. If any boat motors to within 100m of a whale, it is breaking the law. But if a whale surfaces near the boat, that is ok provided you don’t approach it. There are no such rules for swimmers.

After gearing up, I hit the water at 7.01am, touched the rocks at Hawea Point and was away. The first leg on my swim was across the Pailolo Channel which seperates Maui from Molokai, a straight line distance of around 8.8 miles or 15 klm. My swim course was roughly WNW and we had a southerly breeze of around 15 knots at the start, so I received a small amount of assistance, not unlike swimming to Rottnest from Cottesloe, when you swim in a westerly direction and have a (normally) SE breeze. This was true open water and the swell was a good 6 foot/2 metres. I never saw anything going across except for the deep cobalt blue void below me, although Penny said there were heaps of whales in the vicinity, the closest of which came to within a 100 metres of me. After 3 hours 45 minutes of swimming, I could see the bottom and was only a klm or so from land. We couldn’t land here as this part of the Molokai coast is fringed by very shallow coral reef. I could see the line of waves breaking between me and the shore. I would be cut to pieces attempting to cross it. But Jim advised prior to the swim that there were strong currents along the Molokai coast, which would push me from right to left (and hence shortening the crossing to Lanai.

So now we changed course down along the Molokai coast, heading in a SW direction.  But the current which was meant to assist me never eventuated. We were heading 2 1/2 miles/4 klm along the coast to Puko’o harbour which provided a safe landing spot. Without any assistance from the current, I was now punching into the headwind. The breeze had now dropped to a little under10 knots (with a rain squall every so often) and had switched to SW, so I was going straight into it. After 1 hour 45 minutes of that, an old shoulder problem was starting to flare up so I decided to call it quits after touching dry land at Molokai. I had originally hoped to then swim across to Lanai, or as a plan b), to swim back to Maui. But whichever option I chose, I would still have at least another 6 to 8 hours of swimming into the wind. I thought finishing in good shape was the smarter option, rather than causing major damage to my shoulder, when we have entered to swim the Manhattan Island Marathon in only 11 weeks from now. My final swim time was 5 hours 41 minutes and I had covered 11.29 statute miles/18 klms. Whilst the Pailolo Channel is one of the shorter ones on offer in Hawaii, it is still a challenging crossing. I would rate it equal to Rottnest, in Western Australia. Despite the magnificent conditions for open water swimming in Hawaii, it is amazing how few people have swum these waters (apart from the annual Maui Channel Swim which goes from Lanai to Kaanapali, on Maui). I was only the 19th person (and the first Australian) to swim the Pailolo Channel.

Like any of our swims, if you want some more information to help plan a crossing in Hawaii, please don’t hesitate to contact us.We’re happy to pass on our list of contacts.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.