My fishing friend came by to say good morning as I got ready to launch. He was impressed to hear that I planned to paddle all the way to Moloaa Bay today. I checked his float for him on the way out and held up the hook for him to see the large squid (bait) still on it. I left it out there for him and headed north again. The shoreline here was pretty developed with lots of houses and buildings along the beach. I could see cars driving by on Highway 56, the two lane road that goes most of the way around the island. The reef ended just north of the park but soon there was another uncharted reef offshore from the town of Kapaa where Kayak Kauai rented me the kayak. There was a marked channel through the reef and I considered stopping by to say hello to Mike Malone. Unfortunately it was still too early in the morning to find a retail store open. I did watch two fishing boats come out the channel, a veritable traffic jamb on this island where hardly anybody uses the ocean.
North of Kapaa the road turned away from the shore and things got interesting again. There were lots oflittle coves along here that created shelter from the waves. I paddled intoone of these and landed to stretch my legs and rest my arms. This cove looked like a nice place to stop and camp (illegally) on some future trip around the island. Much nicer than the city park I just left. I surfed aroundthe cornerof the point into Anahola Bay, where I would have camped the second night on the original plan. But it was only 10:00 AM and I still had plenty of time, so I kept going. It seems that I am destined to never actually camp in any of these city beach campgrounds.
The next stretch of coastline was recommended by Mike Malone as a scenic place to paddle, so when another uncharted reef appeared, I surfed in through a rip channel and stayed close to shore. The tide was high and the water deep enough to keep my keel off the coral. The beaches hereare red sand with houses close to the shore in front of the mild surf inside the reef. A point of rock forced me to turn and go back out over the reef. I figured on staying out there until Papaa Bay. I found another rip current, however, and turned back behind the reef just before turning around the point into this beautiful little bay. The south shore of Papaa Bay is made of roundblack basalt bouldersstained white just above the waterline and pink below with pink sponge. Then there is just one house in the corner of the bay and a stretch of red stand beach. Greenery grows close to the water along this beach, looking like sugar cane. The north half of the bay is full of rocks and a coral reef with fishermen standing on it. That tells me that this reef is too shallow to paddle through so I headed back out to sea.
On the rest of the trip north to Moloaa Bay, the cliffs are made ofcrumbling basaltwith large rounded boulders at the shoreline and under the water. The water was so clear and the waves calm enough that I could watch fish darting between the boulders on the bottom, perhaps 5 meters below me. I lingered and enjoyed the view while considering coming back here to snorkel. As I came around the pointinto Moloaa Bay,the boulders were replaced with sculptured coral deep beneath me. Carved into arches and valleys that I would like to explore. Even lingering the last three kilometers I arrived a little after noon. The original arrival time for the three day version of this trip! Getting up early had allowed me to paddle twenty two kilometers . I still had time to dry out my equipment and do a load of laundry before packing for the Sunday trip!
