Paddle takes 13-day trip to Kaua'i
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
KAPA'A, Kaua'i — David Loui's outrigger canoe paddle washed out of his boat after it swamped off Hawai'i Kai on May 23.
Jan Tenbruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
The paddle washed up on Kaua'i , more than 100 miles away, 13 days later.
Edmund Cummings found this paddle on Kaua'i after it drifted from O'ahu.
Edmund Cummings, 64, was searching for glass fishing floats among the rocks north of Kealia when a wave hit the shore.
"This paddle just surfed right by me," Cummings said.
It took a remarkable conjunction of proper winds and currents to get the paddle across the channel, and to hit Kaua'i dead-on.
Loui said trade winds were blowing the day he lost the paddle. He figures it drifted along the south coast of O'ahu and past Wai'anae. A week of light winds, often from the southeast, may have pushed it up into the Ka'ie'iewaho channel.
Cummings, a veteran beachgoer, said he can't be sure, but figures it is equally possible that the paddle swept around the eastern end of O'ahu, then made its passage up the north coast of the island into the channel, where currents brought it down to Kaua'i.
Loui said he was steering an outrigger canoe during a Hui Nalu Canoe Club practice on that Thursday afternoon.
It was near sunset, the canoe rose up on a wave — and swamped.
"I guess it just washed out of the back of the boat" and it was too dark to find it. Loui used a spare paddle to steer the boat the rest of the way to shore.
He thought little more of it, but he had written his name and telephone number on the paddle.
Cummings called the number and arranged to get the paddle back to Loui. It surface is scratched and the blade is cracked from its rough landing on the rocks.
Loui figures he'll get the paddle repaired and keep using it. Cummings figures he should hang it on the wall — honoring its voyage.
