Hale’iwa 090812

We left beautiful Kaneohe in the rain, but that’s what keeps it so green, right? Can’t say enough about our most northern anchorage there. Never encountered another cruising boat and yet all our Hawaiian boating friends knew about it. The water isn’t clear but it's warm and we saw a few turtles from the boat. I took the kayak around the bay, closer to land to see all the vegetation and hopefully some wildlife. What I got were two dogs following me, acting like they expected me to throw them some fish or a ball so I kept out of their licking range.
Our goal was Waimea 21 N 38.461 158 W 03.883, 32 miles away. Scott was anxious to see “one of the most frequently photographed bays on Oahu”. (Later, in Hale’iwa, we saw a number of paintings of Waimea so it is worth trying to see.) We had a good angle, pretty good winds but squalls kept appearing and we actually slowed down so we could approach Waimea in sunshine. There are only a few months that boats can anchor there because of the winter surfing waves so that was another reason to try. Unfortunately, we went to the best anchoring spot and still did not feel comfortable. Conditions still were not right, a northerly swell was running and we felt too exposed and too close to land. . Our main book ‘Cruising guide to the Hawaiian Islands’ by Carolyn and Bob Mehaffy (2007) was pretty good. I updated some of their pictures where the landscape had changed and added depths and lat/long when that was needed. For Waimea, it said DLNR (Dept. of Land and Natural Resources) prohibited the use of engines on boats entering or leaving the bay. Sorry, folks, we aren’t going to chance coming in to an unknown bay under sail only.
We were spoiled with Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer’s Sea of Cortez guide. They were spot on again and again and gave way points and lots of location information.

So Plan B was Hale’iwa Harbor/Waialua Bay, another 3.6 miles away. This was a much more protected harbor and although it didn’t offer a lot of room to anchor, we found a spot in 20 feet of water. We spent a quiet rainy night and planned to go in to town but not before a DLNR boat came asking for our permit. We explained we were only staying the 2 nights and we understood we could be 72 hours without a permit. He agreed with that but then complained that we were directly in line with the range markers and could we move either closer to the small boat harbor or further away. So we put off going ashore, pulled up the anchor and went checking out depths with me up on the bow pulpit watching for reefs. We found a spot a little further away from the markers but were in 16 feet of water, going down to 13 feet at times. We agreed with the cruising guide, Haleiwa is a funky little town but bustling with tourists and had a wide selection of lunch options. Check out our pictures of their picturesque Anahulu Stream Bridge and the Surfboard Gallery. There was plenty of room on the temporary dock to land the dinghy, take on water, and throw out garbage. Had a beautiful sunset as we watched surfers ‘catching ten’.
Now we’re sailing the 72 miles to Nawiliwili, Kauai as a final stop before heading down to Palmyra. We could have left directly from Hale’iwa, but Scott wanted to fit in Kauai. We probably won’t get back to it until right before we plan to head for the mainland again in June/July.

The bay here is full of mud and we drug the anchor at midnight and again at 4:30am. We held for 30 hours straight prior to that but didn't have the anchor watch turned on before we thumped around in the mud. Didn't hit anyone so that was good! We were so ready for the 2nd dragging at 4:30am. Just stayed up after that. 9/11 is a very memorable day but for us, it meant just watching the squalls and making some great changes to our main sail, pictures to follow. Be sure to check out new pics in the gallery.