Kanehoe Bay to Kauai was an overnight passage on the best window available. It wasn’t bad, but I was seasick a couple of times, so we were glad to tie up at a mooring ball in Nawiliwili Harbour in the morning. We had warned the harbour master we were coming. We were charged approximately  $800usd for a month for anchorage in a windy harbour where numerous boats drag frequently, plus cold showers on shore. ”Mistake!” I said, we are not staying aboard.  “Ahh - the price goes down to $180 then.” 
The mooring ball we had tied to, we were told by its owner,  was unsafe. A few weeks before the wind had reached 65 knots from the west and had dislodged roots etc from the river which in turn took the mooring ball out on its way by. That storm also had three large boats drag on their anchors and run into some other boats on mooring balls. Hmmm. Since the ball we were on was not secure we moved forward of it and put out 2 bow anchors and a stern anchor. The bottom is silt on rock though, and after another strong blow (this time in the 30s from the NE) in which our anchors moved and another boat dragged, we up anchored and went close to an entrance marker with again, 3 anchors. We would have been obstructing the usual yacht club race course where they scream around the marker with spinnakers flying, but luckily, a trustworthy mooring ball became available the day before.
So we had definitely chosen an exciting place to be for the next two months, while expecting two sets of visitors. Think “adventure holiday” we told our son and his fiancée! Aptly, their visit started after arriving at 10:30 pm, with a dinghy ride in the dark bundled up in thick rain ponchos against the wind pushing up waves over the bow soaking anything it could reach till we arrived at our boat. It wouldn’t be their worst dinghy ride back to the boat in strong winds. Looking ahead at the weather for their stay, didn’t look good- one day of sun the following week.
Fortunately, we found out once again, that there is no spoiling a vacation in Hawaii! Although, being on the windward side of both the Big Island (Trish and Herman) and Kauai for Robert and Jess in the winter isn’t the best for weather, on both occasions we rented a car, and could always find more acceptable weather on the leeward side if need be. Mind you, the weather was actually great and didn’t slow us down a bit. You can see from the gallery, the skies looked threatening sometimes, but rain only lasts for a few minutes usually. We had a fantastic time exploring trails and beaches with them and they also were able to take off on their own occasionally when they had worn us out!
The trouble with having visitors though, is you miss them so much when they leave!