September 6, 2024
I was greeted by two of my feathered friends this morning as they came by to get something to eat from the bird feeder. The Hawaiian Honeycreeper paitently waited its turn as the Red Headed Cardinal pecked away at the cracker crumbs in the feeder.
After breakfast, I removed the forms from the concrete in the bathroom area.
Then I used the weed whacker to chop down the weeds in the area and around the septic tank.
I also cut down the weeds in and around the house walls.
I took a drive down to the ocean at Honuapo. The ocean is pretty calm today, not much wave action crashing against the lava and shooting into the air.
The swimming poolis clear, calm and inviting.
As I was at the swimming pool, a guy ccame walking around the point from the Whittington Beach area, carrying what appeared to be a homemade boat – made from branches tied together with odd rope scraps, string, and fishing line and a sail made of a plastic garbage bag and a palm frond. The whole thing would have barely fit into a wheelbarrow!
I wish I had taken better pictures of his boat – and of him! He was barely five feet tall, with a muscular build, scruffy beard and wild unkept hair, and a complexion of someone who spent many hours outdoors. He was wearing a pair of torn cargo shorts, an old dirty tee shirt that was so old and/or dirty that the printing on it was illegible. On his feet, he had a pair of rubber boots like the ones a scuba diver would wear, with the seams coming apart. They were unzipped and I doubted that the zippers even worked any more. He reminded me of a lost, forgotten and forelorn Menehune!
He stood on the lava at the upper left side of the picture above watching the waves. Finally, he released/tossed the homemade boat/raft into the water, tied to a line that was many small pieces of scrap ropes tied together – about 50 feet of line! It looked like a rough imitation of a mini “Kon-Tiki raft!
I expected the waves to throw it against the lava, but it slowly moved away from shore and began going around the point. He said that there was a current moving around the point and if he released it, it would flow around to Whittington Beach area. Apparently, there are baited hooks below the boat/raft, and he was fishing. I asked him what he was hoping to catch, and he told me. But I didn’t understand what he said. I did understand that he was using the crabs that scurry around on the lava as bait.
He chucked and said “They don’t like using the plastic bag for a sail . . . they get caught on boats propellers!” I watched him for over a half an hour as he watched his little boat/raft. The clouds were slowly moving in from over the volcano behind us, growing heavier and darker, as if it were going to rain, so I headed back to the truck.
On the way back to the property, I stopped at the water fill station just outside the transfer station to fill the bottles I had brought with me. As I filled the bottles, it slowly and lightly sprinkled on me.
When I got back to the property, the rain had quit and everything was dry!
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 