The Island!

Kahehoe Bay is a place of mystery. As you exit the H3 tunnel to the east, you sometimes see a large sandbar island in the middle of the bay and sometimes you don't. It is a striking feature that is visible on the Eastern Shore of Oahu (see satellite image below). This island is a large sand bar formed by an offshore reef. When the tide is low, the sand is high and dry - other times, the sandbar lurks beneath the waves.

I have wanted to boat out to the sandbar ever since I learned about it and this Saturday was the perfect opportunity. The air was still (though thick with VOG from the Big Island) and the sea was calm. So we rented a sea kayak, drove to Kahehoe and put out to sea around 10:45am. Low tide was at 11:00am. You can see that there weren't any waves making it the perfect time of day to be out on the water.

Paddling through the bay to the sand bar is about a 1.5 mile trek. Along the way, there are coral reefs that rise up out of the deep and hover just under the crystal clear water. Our goal was the collection of boats that seemed to be anchored together on the water. As we got closer though, we could see that there was a thin strip of sand with people playing volleyball and relaxing under umbrellas. Kids ran and played and swam in the shallow water around the sand.

We finally made it to the sand and pulled our kayak well up on to the shore. Surveying our new shared domain, we found ourselves on a long strip of sand about the size of a football field. With the ocean on one side and the bay on the other.


The sand flows across the offshore reef and piles up here, then sinks quickly to the deep. This makes a perfect place for boats to berth right up on the beach.




We had brought our snorkeling gear just in case of an opportunity, so we put on our masks and fins and swam down along the sandy bottom as deep as we could get but there wasn't anything to see except deeper sand so we waded out along the reef top for a while.

Here is a wide screen image of our little temporary domain!



When we returned to our kayak, the water had been rising and it was now at the edge of the water. A drink and a little snack and we loaded up to make our way back to shore but not before enjoying one last scan of the party bar in the middle of the bay!


It was great to get out on the water - even if the VOG was so thick you couldn't see the mountains. Now we only have one week until Julia arrives for a visit!