Dad Tales

An impromptu talk with my dad about the ocean, sailing, life

Aloha kākou, Keili here!

Sorry for the late post - this is a special one!

Hope you are all having a great week so far. With Chris being gone and working on ʻAʻĀ I have been consumed with the feeling of FOMO. So grateful to have friends and family helping him on his quest to get her ready for our voyage this Summer!

Last 2 weeks I had a break from school, so I have been enjoying some much needed me-time. Last Sunday I had the privilege of volunteering for a local charitable organization, Kids Hurt Too, where my friend Brit and I enjoyed a beach cleanup and helped out with surf lessons. The kids were so full of joy & reverence for the ocean and surfing culture. It was so touching to see the community come together to uplift children from displaced homes.

Sometimes it is easy to forget how blessed I am to have grown up with a supportive and loving family. It was another reminder of the many ways which the ocean can connect and heal us all.

doing what we love most

That was the highlight of last week… my highlight this week is my dad visiting for a double birthday celebration! We celebrated his birthday last night with a Luau at my work, Sea Life Park - we enjoyed the cheesy celebrations and mai tais.

Since he is here, I thought I would take advantage and ask him to recount some of his past adventures for us to share here on our Ethnomads Substack. Some background; my dad is a pretty avid waterman, as he enjoyed and still enjoys sailing along with many ocean activities like surfing, fishing, diving, outrigger paddling (thatʻs actually how he and my mother met), scuba diving, foiling, and tandem surfing.

Although he has told me some of his tales, I thought this would be a cool way to hear more of the dirty details regarding his longer sails now that I am somewhat savvy on sailor jargon and lingo (or at least I try LOL).

What kind of sailboat did you have, how did you get it and how old were you?

I bought it with a partner who was a lifeguard that worked on boats. He found the boat with a for sale sign on it. I was 19 years old and had it for about 12 years. It was a Catalina 22 called Finisterre - meaning the end of the earth, it’s also the western most peninsula in Europe - I believe she was named after a famous explorer. I think we paid like $3500 for it.

You already had so many activities that connected you with the ocean… was there anything in particular that got you interested in sailing?

My dad warned me against getting a sailboat because he thought I would find it boring. But, my lifeguard friend took me out on it and gave me an appreciation for the serenity and the efficiency of being able to just move with no engines running and I kind of got that right away. It was something completely different from the motor boat I was used to fishing on.

What was the best sail you ever did?

I enjoyed going downwind, you know, because a lot of my friends were novice sailors. Going upwind was a bit of work - which is fun for more experienced sailors - but not a fun way to spend your whole day.

Probably the best sailing i’ve ever done was just around the Coronados in the bay. It’s offshore and you feel like you can zip around where you want to. Sailing out of San Diego Bay is rewarding because you have Point Loma there and all that.

What was the scariest thing to happen to you in the water?

When we ripped our main sail, I had just convinced your mom that we were going to have a really mellow sail downwind from Dana Point down to San Diego. The winds weren’t that strong but we were just tacking our way out of the harbor and I decided to let the boom and main sail out so that we could just kind of go downwind… but when you have a jetty there it obviously forces your path. So, I ended up having to turn more down wind than I wanted, and there was boat wake that tipped the boat and luffed the mainsail which flung around the boom on an unintentional jib and split the sail in the middle and the boom fell on the deck making a loud noise and completely freaking out Illa. So we went back to the dock and got a mooring, took the sail to a sail maker and they were able to stitch it up for $30 and we were back out there a week later. It actually made her want to learn how to sail, she was saying “what if that thing hits you in the head and I have no idea how to sail?!”.

Scariest thing was actually when I was sailing to todos Santos with a friend who didn’t know he got sea sick. He ended up getting green underneath the whole time.

I thought we were making good time - and we were - so I wanted to save as much gas as possible for the way home. I was being to frugal with my gas and we ended up getting there at dar. And, you can’t really tell how far a lighthouse is at dar, ya know? So I got my engine full speed for the last two hours… I finally turn it down and off and put up the mainsail because there is a little bit of wind. All I hear is sparkling water… we were in the impact zone. So I fire up the engine and full speed it back out. We just barely made it up and over the first wave of a set. The boat is fully vertical and my friend comes up asking what happened. I told him, we just almost died! Waves were about 8 ft Hawaiian, so we went up a proper 15 foot face.

When I figured out where I was, I was at urchins which I knew was a left. So I headed towards the channel and anchored at the isthmus of the two islands.

Childhood when I was boogie boarding out on a big day out further than I wanted to be and wasn’t sure how I was going to get in. Probably the most scared I’ve been in the water ever. I tried to just stay calm and time it to catch a wave in.

Did you and mom have any special memorable trips on your sailboat?

The most memorable was when we went to Catalina. The trip was nearly perfect. I had an engagement ring in my pocket when we boarded the boat. I was planning to propose at the island. But I wanted to get there safe and hang and celebrate. Mom was pregnant with you at the time. I had assured her we would get married but I didn’t want to get married right away because I was finishing my masters program and I wanted to finish my MBA program.

So, we started sailing and the yellow tail were running so we were dragging rapala and we both brought is fun sized yellow tail. The fish were squirming on the sailboat so I started whacking them with a mallet. I was saying something like, “go to sleep little fishy” hitting them with a mallet and I looked up and your mom was in horror. I was on cloud nine but I can see how she saw me as a barbarian. So we sail in to two harbors and I instantly suggested going on a hike. She hesitated, but we ended up doing a pretty gnarly trail strait uphill. I was pushing her up the hill, and we made it to the top as the sun was about to set. I had some college kids at the top take a photo of us at sunset and that is when I proposed to her.

Are there any lessons that sailing taught you that you still use in your daily life?

Yeah, I think so. Especially planning, planning ahead. And tracking your progress towards your plan. Even that Todos trip, I was just kind of going and not tracking progress and I should have turned the engine on sooner. If I had done that and not been so miserly on gas we would have arrived before sunset and not had a near death experience. So I always take a little bit of comfort in having a plan, being comfortable with the plan, and tracking progress to the plan.

I learned that people are especially friendly when they are outside their comfort zone and their home. So pretty much everyone you meet sailing is cool. When people are vulnerable they are almost at their best, because they are willing to help a stranger.

I used to try and jump from free mooring to free mooring. And you know, a boat would come off a mooring for one reason or another and neighbor would grab your boat and help recover it for you. While I was gone on shore or even out of town.

Anything else you would like to share?

Going back to my dad telling me not to get a boat because I would think sailing is boring. I don’t know if that made me want to like it more, but it struck me as odd. And it made it clear to me that it was just different. No boat is right or wrong, but it depends on what your purpose for that boat is. If you want to catch lots of fish, yeah, don’t get a sailboat. But if you want to cruise and slow down then yeah, go sailing. Really just depends what you are using it for. So it really opened my eyes. I just picked the right one for the right day.