Our last splurge was a catamaran tour of the west side of the island. We had to be at the dock at 6:00 a.m., which is best forgotten, and churned diesel clockwise around the island to the Na Pali coast. It was spectacular, eye-bendingly beautiful from a helicopter, from the Kalalau trail, and in the single glimpse through a momentary lapse in cloud cover from Pihea trail, and it continued to be mind-boggingly gorgeous from the ocean.
It was a big sea, with seven- to eight-foot waves, and I have previously been seasick, nauseated though managing to hold my gorge. I have decided that this is from the fumes and throbbing of ferry-type whale-watching vessels' motors, because it doesn't happen on regular boats, like Key West snorkel boats, or even on highly irregular Zodiac boats that jump and skitter over the whirlpools and waterfalls in the strong tides off Vancover Island. But it did happen crossing Lake Champlain on a ferry. Anyway, here I was fine, I am glad to say.
On the way out, we saw spinner dolphins and green turtles. The dolphins rode the bow waves and lived up to their names by spinning (along their longitudinal lines) as they leaped. The turtles were mostly green and solemn-looking.
If the wind had been amenable, we would have sailed back a lot faster than the motor could bring us, but it wasn't. Instead, RDC and I lay on the "trampolines"--a seemingly solid mesh strung between the two bows that water permeates--and bounced and jounced all the way and got impressively wet. Just as wet as we would have got snorkeling, which the captain judged the water too choppy to allow. We could swim and snorkel afterward, at our own beach, and we did. We even managed to find our second good meal, at Pomodoro.
In between the way out and the way back was the way, and the way was amazing.