Kaimusailing

I have gotten a lot of concerned questions about my family and what is going on in Hawaii, in Puna, with the volcano. It’s an irrepressible force that can wipe out a whole landscape, but it normally does it in a lazy manner, with some intermittent bomb shells. They are all OK, but maybe they might need to run at some point. Here is a link to a great TED talk from a Hawaiian about Lono and Pele:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PDipPnD2d8
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She has more TED talks on you tube, very entertaining.
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The situation so far is that the volcano has lava that is erupting in a suburban area, which has had its residents evacuated, and there are fountains of molten lava 150 to 200 feet high, a lava volcano cone about 200 feet high, and lava ponds that fill up any low areas, creating an eventually solid pond of rock. On the online news a fellow who was trying to hose down houses to keep them from burning up was hit with a molten lava ‘bowling ball’ that shattered his leg and put him in hospital, but he doesn’t regret it.
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On my flickr site there are a couple of albums of photos taken in the area where the latest volcanic activity has erupted, flowed, ponded, and gone into the sea. The road has been cut and many people are cut off from access out or escape from the lava. Many will stay and wait out Madam Pele.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/8728395@N03/albums
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That link is to several albums, but the Beach Road and Lava Viewing albums are taken in the area of the latest activity.
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This section on the south coast of the Big Island of Hawaii has been my favorite area. It is easy to get a good photograph but difficult to accommodate the bright white surf with the dark black lava. The old beach at Kaimu was an emblem of the white surf and black sand beach. Now the fruit trees, giant, old trees, are being consumed by molten rock. The shape of the land dictates how much of the lava will flow, but there is no knowing what madam Pele will bestow. Lava is very hot molten rock, running like water, but because it is also cooling and that creates little dams to redirect the flow, it is irregular, it is almost like it has a mind behind its motion. The myths and chants of madam Pele display a thinking entity behind the volcano’s rivers of lava. If they come into your neighborhood, you have angered madam Pele somehow.
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As I watch this area get devastated by the volcano, I remember that a while ago Kaimu Black Sand Beach was similarly over run by the lava. A spiritual place. Kaimu means, literally, Kai (Sea), mu (quiet place). So the quiet place by the sea gets wiped out by the volcano. My earlier boat that had Kaimu Bay as its home port, was a joke, Kaimu Bay was 1/2 mile inland and under thick lava. Not a joke anymore, now Pohoiki and Opihikau could go under.
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