Tuesday, August 28~Boat Adventure at Kaneohe~

This morning we left the house fairly early, 7 a.m. and were on our way to Kaneohe on the other side of O'ahu to the Marine Base.  Sara went several weeks ago and got her boat drivers license so we could take a pontoon boat out into the bay.  We were assigned pontoon boat #1 and after loading our cooler and beach towels on board we were soon backing out of our slip and Sara had us on our way.  Although the day started out a little rainy and overcast it soon cleared off and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We headed towards China Man's Hat island but found ourselves hung up on a reef before very long.  Sharon, we decided, was our MPV of the trip because of her boating knowledge and with Matt's he-man power we were soon drifting over some of the prettiest coral reefs we have seen.  We found the channel and decided to drive around Coconut Island which was the island that was used for the opening shot of Gilligan's Island.  We eventually found other boats that were at the sand bar and before long we dropped anchor and were wading in the middle of the bay in about 3 feet of water on a sand bar.  We swam some, ate out lunch and enjoyed seeing several sea turtles in the area.  We were heading back when Trish yelled "turtle" and Matt, who was driving at the time pulled the throttle into neutral or maybe reverse, it all happened so fast we really don't know, but the boat stalled.  We all admired the very large sea turtle and then realized that the boat wouldn't start.  Because it was quite windy we rapidly drifted back into the coral.  We finally had to call the marina since we could not get the motor started and even if we could the propeller would have it the rocks anyway. They didn't answer so Sara called the reservation desk where she was put on hold because she was talking with another customer.  She never did call us back but within about 20 minutes they sent a boat out after us and towed us back to the dock.  Sara was a little nervous about checking in when we got back but was surprised and much happier when they apologized for the inconvenience and refunded half of our money.  So, other than Matt's killer sunburn, it was a great day.  Tomorrow we fly out at 8 a.m. for a few days in Maui.  Aloha!