There is a daily
tradition at the Kihei Kai Resort. Every night at around six the residents
meander towards the grass area just in front of the beach and arrange the
chairs in a straight line facing the ocean. One might think it is a group of
foolish people sending a challenge to Poseidon, but they would be wrong. We
gather to watch the sun set over the ocean and if we are lucky, to see a whale
or two frolicking out just on the horizon.
We all compare our days and use others experiences to plan what we might do in the next few days to keep paradise interesting. We are all after all in the same boat, thousands of miles from the rest of the world with a literal ocean between us and them. The sun slowly lowers itself just over the point and a blood red line of light streaks across the ocean. It is pretty magical.
Last night, our first for watching the ocean, we were introduced and greeted by the "old timers". There was talk about the weather "back home" and not a small amount of laughter. It is a fun time. Someone pointed out a whale, but like most of the times I didn't really see anything but it is just easier to say I did rather than have them continue to point at the ocean and say "There! Just left of the boat out there! No! My left, not yours."
"You’re left and mine are the same."
"So you see it?"
"Not really, but I believe that you believe that you can see it."
"Just to the left of the boat!"
"My left or yours?"
"Mine!"
"Oh there it is...nice." I never saw it, but I'm happy for him that he saw it.
On the beach there were a couple of guys arranging cone shaped nets and attaching empty plastic pop bottles to the nets. They then took the nets about twenty feet into the ocean and set them there. I couldn't figure out why the nets and bottles didn't just wash into shore, but they didn't. Must have been some fisherman magic. I got tired talking about which left was left and went to find out what the guys were doing.
I asked the one guy what kind of fish he was fishing for and he looked at me and said "Crabs".
"Really? How big are we talking here? Eating big or stay out of the ocean big?"
He just laughed and said they were pretty small, just about two inches around, but they didn't need much cleaning and were pretty sweet. When I asked him how long it took, he held up a beer and said "We start with two beers, and if there is nothing in the net we have another beer. After six beers, we just wander off and forget about the nets."
When I stopped laughing, I wished him and his buddy well and went back to where the sun set watchers were putting away the chairs and I said a silent goodbye to our first full day in paradise.
We all compare our days and use others experiences to plan what we might do in the next few days to keep paradise interesting. We are all after all in the same boat, thousands of miles from the rest of the world with a literal ocean between us and them. The sun slowly lowers itself just over the point and a blood red line of light streaks across the ocean. It is pretty magical.
Last night, our first for watching the ocean, we were introduced and greeted by the "old timers". There was talk about the weather "back home" and not a small amount of laughter. It is a fun time. Someone pointed out a whale, but like most of the times I didn't really see anything but it is just easier to say I did rather than have them continue to point at the ocean and say "There! Just left of the boat out there! No! My left, not yours."
"You’re left and mine are the same."
"So you see it?"
"Not really, but I believe that you believe that you can see it."
"Just to the left of the boat!"
"My left or yours?"
"Mine!"
"Oh there it is...nice." I never saw it, but I'm happy for him that he saw it.
On the beach there were a couple of guys arranging cone shaped nets and attaching empty plastic pop bottles to the nets. They then took the nets about twenty feet into the ocean and set them there. I couldn't figure out why the nets and bottles didn't just wash into shore, but they didn't. Must have been some fisherman magic. I got tired talking about which left was left and went to find out what the guys were doing.
I asked the one guy what kind of fish he was fishing for and he looked at me and said "Crabs".
"Really? How big are we talking here? Eating big or stay out of the ocean big?"
He just laughed and said they were pretty small, just about two inches around, but they didn't need much cleaning and were pretty sweet. When I asked him how long it took, he held up a beer and said "We start with two beers, and if there is nothing in the net we have another beer. After six beers, we just wander off and forget about the nets."
When I stopped laughing, I wished him and his buddy well and went back to where the sun set watchers were putting away the chairs and I said a silent goodbye to our first full day in paradise.
No comments:
Post a Comment