Setting off Archives - Page 6 of 13

Friday, February 28

Feb 29.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, final day

Kalaupapa National Historic Park is a peninsula on the north side of Molokai. This little spit of land was, in the mid-19^th century isolated as a ‘leper colony’, originally using the east side of the peninsula, Kalawao. That original settlement, in 1866, was developed over several decades into one that supported about 1,100 patients, largely cared for by Father Damien, Sister Marianne, Captain Dutton, and often their own family.

We began our tour with a 7-minute flight to Kalaupapa, as there is no road in or out.

approaching Kalaupapa from the west, after crossing to the north of the island

A guide picked us up at the airfield there in Kalaupapa, then drove across the peninsula to Kalawao...

Thursday, February 27

Feb 28.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, day 5

Our final dives in Molokai today and, like the others here, easy and pleasant. The same boat, crew and even a repeat of sites we’d visited earlier this week. Small craft advisories and heavy winds had me a bit nervous about the boat ride to the dive site, but along the south shore things were quite calm.

Again, turtles galore around here, especially near their ‘cleaning station,’ but also a spotted ray, a little eel hiding in the coral, and a conch (not a conch, but a member of that family) shell re-inhabited by a sea slug.

look at the center of the frame for the little eel hiding in the coral

a sea slug moves in…

Following a spotted ray

Turtles stopping by for a cleaning

The winning experience of the day, certainly the week, and perhaps the mo...

Wednesday, February 26

Feb 27.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, day 4

A good night’s sleep—10 hours!—got this day off to a good start, ready for some work. Began by taking care of some business (including the pleasure-business of finalizing plans for a family trip in December). Took a long time to develop a response to learning that the Young Composers program of the NewMusic Initiative won’t continue to get funding….that was a sweet arrangement, with the School of Ed funding an assistantship so that a grad composer could spend time in the ECU Community School in S Greenville. This is a very worthwhile program, great for the children, as well as augmenting the music teacher’s offerings but, alas, funding shortfalls in the SoEd are no different than such shortfalls in other places. Hard decisions have to be made.

We ...

Tuesday, February 25

Feb 26.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, day 3

A dive day today, largely a pleasant replay of Sunday’s experience with Molokai Fish & Dive. The early morning easy drive to the harbor, the lowkey loading up at the boat, the small dive group (6 divers) with Annia and Gabe as dive guides, the ease of getting to know the other divers…all such a nice way to get the day going. This trip was with two very young newlyweds from Tampa, a couple in their 40s from Oahu, and two solo divers, one who splits his year between Molokai and Montana, the other visiting Hawaii for the first time, an experienced dry-suit diver whose entire diving experience was in Alaska.

The boat ride to the dive site offered, like most rides here and in Maui, a view of whales doing their thing.

Whales playing a bit

The whales must have ...

Monday, February 24

Feb 26.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, day 2

We took this day to rest, nap, write a bunch, relax, and enjoy this quiet locale on the east side of Molokai. We were both clearly pretty tired and just plain needed to rest. And this is a good, quiet place to get in that rest; I suspect we’ll use another day this week for rest, as well.

our apt complex in Molokai

In little bits that gained duration over the day, I brought Let Them Not Say to it’s 90% complete spot. Now it’s time for small corrections, editing, tightening up. Then it’s on to finishing Celan (James Brasfield) and/or getting going on Limbo (Marie Howe)…or the E.E. Cummings for Rachel and Ari…

Sunday, February 23

Feb 24.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Molokai, day 1

Everything about this place seems super-relaxing. The place we’re staying is spacious, airy, and quiet. After a great night’s sleep we were up and at ‘em for a 6:15 departure/drive to the harbor. It turns out we were one of three cars leaving this apt complex at that time. A very pleasant drive allowed us to chat over coffee while in the sparsely travelled road at that hour—or any hour, it turns out.

Molokai Fish and Dive is the only game in town, we learned. They had two boats going out; one for whale watching, and one for snorkelers and divers. We were eight divers with two lovely dive guides, and I’m not sure how many snorkelers were watched by the boat’s captain.

This was a maiden open water voyage for a piece of equipment I recently purchased...

Saturday, February 22

Feb 23.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Maui to Molokai

Travel days are different, but this one was particularly challenging as it involved saying goodbye to Jackson, Cristin, and Joe. What a fabulous few weeks we’ve had together, and words really can’t capture the sheer joy we feel when we’re taking care of Jackson.

We finally got on our way at 10:30 to return the car, check bags, etc. The airport experience in Maui was easy. We flew to Honolulu first, then connected to Molokai via a much smaller plane. The prop plane loaded passengers through a back door, put cargo in front, and it reminded us of flying between Charlotte and Greenville.

Maui to Molokai

Travel days are different, but this one was particularly challenging as it involved saying goodbye to Jackson, Cristin, ...

Friday, February 21

Feb 21.2020 / Ed Jacobs/ / Setting off.

Maui, day 13

A perfect day begins with retrieving a smiling Jackson, freshly awake, ready for play. I was able to get in a tad of writing before seeing his happy face at 6, then brought him up to our apt since Pattie was up early today.

Joe and Cristin were off for a morning dive (the dive we did last Tuesday, but they had much better luck finding hammerheads and dolphins!), during which Pattie, Jackson, and I ran some errands—sending home 25 lbs of excess!—then went to the aquarium for a bit. We met up there with Joe and Cristin at 2 and, at 2:40 Joe, Cristin, and I checked in for our dive into their tank. A unique dive, for sure.

The pre-dive briefing was particularly interesting, as it included much of the history of the aquarium, its mission, and its inception in the l...