Team Island

It's been a while (like 2 years??) since I've swam to the Mokes. Before I had any responsibility a husband and a kid I used to swim out to the Mokes fairly regularly... at least once every few weeks. I remember my first trip out here really well. It was 2005 and I had only been living in Hawaii for less than a year and was just finally establishing a group of real friends... I don't remember exactly how it came about but somehow I ended up swimming with a couple people I didn't actually really know who became really good friends as a result of this awesome swim... none of us had done this swim before but somehow one of us must have heard about it so however it came about I do not remember... but it was a Sunday morning and we swam to the island... sat in the sand there and told each other all sorts of things one might not normally tell people they didn't really know very well... then swam back to Oahu and ended up making pancakes at my house. It was such a cool morning that we established ourself as a little group and named ourselves Team Island because the bonding had been so awesome. We were all really close friends after that... Unfortunately Team Island has since been disbanded because I went and got hitched and had a kid and Andy went and became famous and Ellen and Dana both are in the Navy and are no longer stationed in Hawaii. Rumor has it Dana is coming to visit next month so we'll have to swim out to the Island to catch up because it's been years and really, no other venue would do for the kind of catching up that will be required.

This is Lanipo beach which is where we start the swim. There are some new swimmers on Oahu these years and some of them have actually never swam to the Mokes before so somehow it came up that we should do it so we decided to gather a group to do it this morning at sunrise. Good Friday indeed. 

It's less than a mile out to that island and the one we land on is the one on the left where there's a nice sandy area that works well for sharing your innermost secrets. It's where I told Dana and Ellen that I was pregnant back in 2008. Somehow it seemed like we needed to be there for me to spill the news.

The wind was a bit chilly this morning (I think it was only 70 degrees) but the water was nice once we managed to get in.

This is like 100x more interesting than the pool.

Obligatory group shot from the island. We had a good group of 11 of us this morning plus a kayaker to give everyone the illusion that we were not shark bait safe.

There are some incredible swimmers in this group. Nalani, Roz, Nathan, Mark, me, Vicky, Aaron, Natasha, Lectie, Brian, and Steve. There were too many of us out there to have any real heart to heart talks. Need a smaller group for that kind of discussion.

It's a bit dicey getting back in because the waves are crashing from like all directions on that island but the best bet is just to sort of rip the bandaid off and go for it so off we went. Here's what Oahu looks like heading back...

Afterward we shower in style. Mark brought HOT water. He has experience.

Good Friday Indeed!

Credit for these pics goes to super swimmer Vicky West. She is a welcome addition to Oahu women's swimming!