Now that I have had 9 hours of sleep after the 4 hour grind in Hawaii, after loading the trailer, after flying the red eye home..time to reflect and re live what was by far the hardest Molokai.

I have done 4 channel crossings, Sunday made 5, the 3rd one in double. I thought I had it down, even giving advice to new comer and training partner Sean. Do this,don't do that..escort boat wash messes you up, the wall is a defining moment, the water changes, and blah blah blah. Well here is my story....I don't have any advice anymore except I guess you have to do this race to understand....and even then you don't get it and you come back again and again.

Ok, all smiles the day before the race.

We prepared well, had the right juice mixed, the water chilling in the tripper, the hammer gell in squeeze bottles. Wind was prediced at 6 knots on wind guru. Patrick and I kept looking at other web sites and news broadcasts to find the prediction we wanted more. 15-20 knots. We (I) was convinced that if the wind was blowing we would beat Carter and Robin in the other double. There were 2 other double crews..both from Italy that we knew would be fast, probably not skilled in the waves.

Race morning was uneventful until the Island Air flight starting leaking fluid and instead of flying toward Molokai we were in the airport wondering if the next flight would leave us just on the beach as the race went without us. I should learn to handle adversity like late flights better..but intead I paced the airport in my bright orange paddling shirt and lycra shorts (all our stuff was on Noahs escort boat..on Molokai). Since there is no cell phone reception on Molokai we never knew that race organizer Shelley Oates-Wilding was going to hold the race for us.... Sean Lupton-Smith, Kala Judd, Bill Mehula and a few other escort crews. So anxious and pacing, using precious engery that I most defintely needed later, we made it with time to spare..wheeew.

Thanks to Eva for getting the water off the escort and on our skis...ok no wind..gonna change out there. No white caps, gonna change out there. Sunscreen on, life jacket in the footwell, leash on, footbrace adjustment, Hawaiian prayer, a little chatty chatty and off we go. A sea of green and orange shirts..green had escort boats, and the orange were exempt.

Itailian double takes off likes its a 1000m sprint..we're on wake, Robin and Carter on wake and ok, not too hard. We seperate a bit..settle in, then escort boat crap wakes come from all over....hey I was prepared for this..ok not so much, life jacket floats up and out of the footwell onto my lap, footwells and my seat is flooded as we back up over the wakes. Carter and Robin the same... we are right next to them as it settles down. Italians number 1 have finished their 1000 meter sprints and have mellowed for their long day out there...bye bye. Italy number 2 goes by later with their ski on the escort boat..later they said in best broken English.."this a different sport out there, we flat water paddlers, we will learn and come back."

We take a North line for a bit..right behind Dean Gardiner...he's surfing small stuff, we are grinding for big stufff.....Carter/Robin double is south and seperating a bit. We are not worried because the runs are gonna pick up and we will out surf them...thought that for the next 3 1/2 hours. It got bumpy and lumpy and flat and calm and small and hot and hot and hot. My gps froze at 1 hour 20. 12.4 km speed and how far to go? Shoot, Pat had to yell out stats so I didn't go crazy with no info..how far, 30 km oh great...how fast 14km,11 km, on rhumb line yes, what? YES stop asking me.

Felt terrific from 2 hours to 3. Then sorta as expected the mind starts playing tricks on the over spent body. We never really had good runs, they were so hard to catch and not long when you did. The little chop was not good working for on the double. My hands suffered like I remember. Patrick did really well considering he had an old gal type behind him. I tried not to complain, I never cried, well until later, and we made it solid in the chip chop along the wall. Pat even caught a big wave, actually 3 of them on the way in. He asked me if I was ok to catch the wave and I just said whatever, I'm not looking ,do what you want. On the biggest one, we were angling left so hard that I actually considered jumping out....would have ripped my leg right off or the foot strap or broken the leash,so glad I had enough sense just to hang on.


So we finished just under 4 hours...not happy with that as the first time we did double we were well under in like 3:48 or something...but looking back it was huge and working that year and so I have to be happy with how we faired with the tame ocean this time. A huge mention to Robin and Carter...they did fantastic, maybe they suffered like we did..Robin probably more than fit, fit fit Carter. It was awesome to have a crew to race...made it more challenging for sure.

Oh and...never ever take the red eye home....biggest mistake of the weekend.

And finally a massive thank you to Courtney Seto, who raced as well and then spent the entire afternoon helping me and Patrick (well I layed on the grass) loading the trailer. Friends like you are what make this worth doing....

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1. Great article!
   Posted by Chuck Haberlein   on  05/17   at  02:19 PM
2. Good story De Anne. For me to get there and back would be more than a red eye... Must be so nice to have that island just around the corner!
   Well paddled, and see you in SF or later in LA.
   
   Ciao, Paul
   Posted by Paul Rosenquist   on  05/18   at  12:03 AM
3. Thanks for sharing the race details, that's some race!
   
   Maggie
   Posted by Maggie Pyle   on  05/18   at  12:25 PM
4. De,
   You and Patrick are awesome. Great work. And thanks for sharing your story, its always a great read...
   Posted by Al Bowers   on  05/18   at  05:41 PM
5. Congratulations DeAnne! When the event detours from your expectations you still made the decision to finish well. A great journey. I hope to do a few more with you guys!!
   Posted by barry   on  05/18   at  08:45 PM
6. Tha nks for a brilliant write up. Really enjoyed pre and post race vibe.
   Posted by Chris Walker   on  05/19   at  12:43 PM
7. Aloha DeAnne!
   
   My Pop's favorite phrase for a woman like you was "...she coulda gone bear huntin with a switch!" Great crossing you two.
   
   Hui hou, Uncle Pete
   Posted by Pete Wylie   on  05/26   at  06:33 AM

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