The Molokai Crossing August 16 th 2003 - Hawaiin Sailing canoe powered by a kite

Crossing conditions : 10 foot seas 40knots

THE LAUNCH

Aug 15th (day before crossing day) After building the outrigger canoe for 3 hours in the scorching hot sun at Embassy Suites beach , we (Don , Barkley, Loch and Todd) attempted to launch the kite and do a practice run to check out all the gear. It took us 10-15 minutes to launch the kite because of the back eddy's created behind the Hotel buildings were we were launching from. Our team was concerned that on race day the same problem on the launch would occur.

Aug 16th (Race day)

On the way to the beach, we were listening on the weather radio "40 knot winds and 6-9 foot channel swells" We knew this was borderline whether they were going to cancel the race because of extreme weather conditions. When we got to the beach @ 7:30 am the condition were not letting up at all. Race coordinator said to proceed ahead. 30 minutes prior to the start we pumped up a 12 meter kite and everything was going fine and the adrenaline was getting high. Then--- 5 minutes before the start we noticed there was a leaking hole in our kite, So Don ran to get another kite  we completed rigging the  kite with only seconds to the start. Then the race started, we immediately cleared all the spectators away from the beach and clear a path for us to drag our canoe 200 feet to the edge of the beach. The kite was launched with the anticipation that we would have the same launch problems we had the day before in training. But not on this day----the kite went straight up --full powered and immediately dragged our canoe toward the water edge at running speed. When we got to the waters edge the crowd was going wild and it took us by total surprise as if we had done this a thousand times before.

THE CROSSING

It wasn't long before we pasted all our competitors and became the lead contender early on in the race. About half way across to Molokai the helicopter approached from behind getting some great shots. Shortly after the helicopter arrive we found that the swells were getting larger and we were finding ourselves surfing down the wave at over 15 knots, while Loch ,our steersman, was fighting with everything he had to keep the canoe from twisting away from him and dodging with his paddle and hitting sometimes the rear mounted camera . Don kept the kite steady and keeping the kite in one spot most of the time in fear of powering up the kite too much and risk breaking the lines. I (Todd) was in charge of bailing and communications. The walkie talkie's I had were useless with all the helicopter noise and ciaos going on we ended up using hand signals to the chase boat, jet ski and helicopter for most of the communications needs. And Barkley, our on board dentist and bailer,  kept the morale up by telling Don, who could not turn around because he was concentrating on the kite, that the canoe was dry and everything was under control, all the while we sunk twice and we were continually bailing with an endless of waves crashing into our hull, sometimes both of us were bailing at the same time, throughout the entire race. We finally made it to the friendly isle Molokai

THE FINISH

Due to our lack of communications with our chase boat and race officials, It was unclear to everyone were the last marker was located. Once we were near the reef break at Molokai. we cautiously made our way down wind until we could see the marker. Molokai has very little physical land makes and buildings to get your bearing were your positioning is. During this time we tacked down wind several times and took in overwhelming amount or water while surfing down the waves and sailing down wind. Then someone spotted the marker, we were quite far down wind and the whole crew was breathing down Don's back to tack as high as we could to make tight up wind finish.

The wind was increasing up to 45 knots and after a few attempts pointing as high as we could we found that we could not maker it upwind On our last attempt we tacked only 150 feet from the water edge finish.  The kite whipped around unexpectedly before we were completely turned around and put too much power into the kite and ended up snapping one of the lines. Fortunately we were in about 3 feet of water so we ended up gathering the kite up and pushed the canoe to the finish.

This was the wildest ride of our lives.

Todd W. Carle Extreme Canoe Kiter / Chief Liquid Extractor