I haven't done any posts for nearly a month because as I've said before, since this is a sail blog my posts will always be about sailing, cruising or boat related things. Since we are currently off the boat visiting family and friends in the PNW our activities here don't qualify. But a week or so ago when two hurricanes were heading for the Hawaiian Islands, it brought back many memories of our first blue water cruise and having to deal with the last hurricane to hit the islands: Iniki

We were new to cruising, having just left Gig Harbor in June of 1992 aboard our Golden Gate 30, Cassiopeia. We had a couple wonderful months exploring the islands of Hawaii, Maui and Lanai and then we started hearing disturbing weather reports of a hurricane heading to the islands. Locals downplayed it as they often head in their direction but rarely hit, the last one had been Iwa 10 years before. But we were concerned, and even more so when another cruiser, a French lady told us "zee water it is too warm -- iz hurricane weather." And she had been there for Iwa so we figured she knew what she was talking about.

On September 10th it was apparent that this Iniki would be coming ashore somewhere in the islands but where? We were anchored off the Mala Wharf on Maui and we contacted the small boat harbor there to see if we could get in, but the harbormaster just told us not to worry all we'd get is a little rain. So we held our ground with about 15 other boats in the anchorage and some boats left for another anchorage on another side of the island. That turned out to be a smart move, for when Iniki finally made landfall on September 11, 1992, and devastated the island of Kauai, the Mala Wharf, though it didn't get high winds, was battered by huge surf.

Several boats were lost as the huge waves picked them up and tore loose their moorings. We were safely ashore watching the horror as peoples boats were destroyed and tossed ashore not knowing if our Cassiopeia would be next. It was an agonizing night, but in the morning she was still there! What saved her was that when we came in to the anchorage it was very crowded, so we anchored in deeper water than we'd normally choose so when the surf rolled in it didn't break until further in to shore than Cassiopeia was anchored.

So when we heard the chances were good to have another hurricane hit the islands, we were glad we weren't there this time.

The picture isn't a very good copy, but if you look closely you can see the boats bobbing on top of the big wave -- and those are pretty big boats, 35+ feet most of them, but they look like toy boats in the picture.