CAPTAIN’S TRAINING ..in sea life rescue?

It didn’t start out as Training in Sea Life Rescue; it was just another Captain Training session The steering classes had started due to lack of Captains during summer months and the interest of a few paddlers who could not do the normal fall seasons course given by Dave Williams. It was just a usual nice sunny day in Kihei, Maui. Enough wave action to get the student captains going in and out avoiding large wave crests, first on North Lei Beach Park and then on the South part. Lei Beach Park is the official name of the county park on the beach at the foot of Ka Ono Ulu Street next to the Maui Lu Resort; also referred to as: Our Beach”.

I (Shel) was the Captain on board, with Chris Stankis, and Mike Reineer , as captains in training. Also on board was Washington Bob and the always willing to help out Al Bayless in seat one. I was trying to get Chris caught up in the training program because he was working more often than usual at his job as a kayak tour group leader. Chris was given double classes did very well and Mike was next in seat six as captain. I was going to get him to go in the same repetitive training sequence, as we had done previously.

“Let’s go out to Wilson “, Mike said. “They put a new float or something out there.”
Wilson is a location about 300 yards out from the Whale Sanctuary along a reef that essentially starts from the ancient fish pond out to sea. Wilson was so named because the buoy was usually a volley ball or basketball with the manufacture name Wilson on it. Later any floating ball would was substituted ; but still was called Wilson in honor of the year 2000 film Cast Away starring Tom Hanks where Hanks portrays a FedEx executive who is stranded on an uninhabited island after the Fed Ex plane crashes on a flight over the South Pacific. He befriends one of the cargo items…a Wilson volleyball. That is why we canoe clubs have our endearing friend out there.

Mike being very much in tune with the ocean and his sixth sense might have been telling him something. It seemed he was being directed to out to Wilson. I said “OK, as some sort of training we will make an educated guess on how many changes it will take to get there.” I thought that Mike could slide along the float and check his steering.

What is said about plans? Well something else happened. About 100 yards away from target Al yells out” Did you see that splashing?”

Mike and I responding together affirmed. The next splash as we approached closer was distinctly a turtle. It was still splashing as in a fight. I though, On No… the turtle was battling for its life against a shark.

Getting very close we could see that the turtle was tangled up in the rope attached to Wilson, which was not Wilson like instead a large plastic can serving as a float. Mike called “Lava back paddle” We drifted back. “Lava “again shouted Mike R. Mike in seat six and I in seat five tried to restrain the turtle. She, yes it was a she, was strong and slapping us and the canoe.

She has two loops around her neck and two loops around her right forward fin. Mike shouted to me. “Watch out, those fins have a harp edge. “ I had being having sprained arm problems and felt it would be better if Chris dropped back to my seat and I moved up on the iako, the wood portion of the outrigger system, to stabilize the canoe. We didn’t have a knife or a cell phone to call for help. We did have two strong men wrestling the turtle. They managed to loosen and untie the head loops and the get the fin loops untied. The turtle not knowing if we friend or foe was battling all the time. It looked at us with its mouth open. Even though I have seen turtles while diving and snorkeling I never had this close of a face to face encounter.
Our brave lads Mike and Chris deserve a lot of credit. Our female Honu (Green Sea Turtle) was free and headed straight down to get away from us, her perceived foe.

Perhaps when we go out there again she may realize that we were just helping out We came back to the beach “stoked” on our great day of Captain training and sea life rescue.