Bullers Meet the Coast Guard

Lucky us...a rare opportunity for a ride on the fastest and loudest boat on the waters of Kauai. What are the Bullers up to now? You ask. Our family was treated to an early morning visit to the United States Coast Guard Kauai Station in the harbour port of Nawiliwili. We arrived with Jon, Sandra and Jackson at the Station where we had to sign in and meet with Senior Chief Kai. The senior chief gave us a quick tour of the station and his office, gave us a brief lesson of what the Coast Guards responsibilities are and technical terms of the boat itself. When asked how many emergencies they tend to in a day, his first response was at his last station in California...there were 2-3/day. Here in Kauai, Coast Guard rescues are quite infrequent if not rare. One of the reasons for this is that it seems the Hawaiian people take care of each other and the coast guards aren't made aware of any of their distress calls. They did have to rescue one tourist from getting caught in a current at Kalapaki Beach this week (nobody noticed her missing...her husband was out shopping) and a surfer, but other than those two incidents, things run pretty quietly and smoothly for them.
We boarded a smaller red boat that looked similar to a zodiak but with a steering wheel and some fairly fancy technology. Due to unusually high winds and rough waters, we weren't able to head outside of the port area. Senior Chief Kai had been preparing for us to head south down the coast to a secluded beach inaccessible by car and some whale watching. Unfortunately, neither were a possibility due to the swells. Still, rippin' some donuts in the port in a Coast Guard boat, blaring the siren and yelling "pull over" over the intercom was an experience not often entertained by the average joe and will not soon be forgotten. Jackson, Ben, Alyson, Ed, Jon and myself all had a run at driving the watercraft. Sandra opted not to drive but rather took the moment to soak in the sun on the starboard deck. For those of us now in the know regarding boating terminology, bow is front, stern is back. Port is left and starboard is right. That's about as educational as I can remember the lesson being. We also had very special guest drivers for our trip. Young and amateurish but eager to get in the driver's seat. Our drivers, ready for the Coast Guard are...

Ben, Jackson and Aly