17-hour paddle ends in Nawiliwili

After a 17-hour trek from Hale‘iwa to Nawiliwili, a nearly 70-mile canoe voyage ended Saturday morning for 14 paddlers.

Kimokeo Kapahulehua, also known as “Uncle Bully,” spearheaded the journey from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i, one of several interisland trips that have become an annual tradition for him and fellow paddlers.

This was the first trip from O‘ahu for several of the paddlers, though several went from Maui to O‘ahu in September. The trip went off without a hitch, Kapahuelehu said, noting, however, that he and other paddlers were “a bit sore.”

An escort boat followed the paddlers, who left O‘ahu around 6 p.m. Friday and arrived on Kaua‘i around 11 a.m. Saturday. It was Kapahuleahua’s plan to arrive in Hanalei, but poor weather didn’t allow it, he said.

Two crews rotated every hour, taking breaks on the escort boat, he said.

Between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., after the near-full moon was gone, the light emanating from the escort was all they could see, Stephen Luksic, a paddler from Maui, said.

“At one point it was so dark and the boat was just getting slapped around left and right,” Luksic said.

During the hours right before the dawn the water was the most choppy. However, that just made the moment when the sun appeared to be truly appreciated, Luksic said.

“It was such a relief when the sun came out and we could see the waves,” he said.

The experience was full of several of such “incredible” moments, he added, including when birds flew overhead and followed the boat, or when a fellow paddler — George Rixey — dropped his paddle and the crew was able to turn around and retrieve it.

“It was the most rewarding experience,” Luksic said. “I feel privileged to have traveled with them.”

The group is training for another trip on Dec. 22 — a Northwestern Hawaiian Island voyage from Layson to Kure, Kapahulehua said.