Thursday, October 07, 2010

Treasures of the Sea

I was born and raised in Kailua, on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.  I still have family there, visit as often as I can, and I like to keep up with the local news online.   It was interesting to read about a large piece of a trimaran hull that washed up on shore at Kalama Beach (great body and board surfing location) in Kailua. 

News reports include this and this.  It doesn't look very identifiable, see slide show here, evidently there was still some sailing rigging on it.

One story has it "built in Ireland for two million dollars it came through the Panama Canal came to the Pacific lost its mast off the coast of San Francisco and the crew was rescued and it's been in the water for 12 years since".

A contractor has just removed it from the beach since it was a hazard, but I'm hoping I'll see something in the news about it's real story and how it came to be there.

I remember as a child walking the beaches of Kailua and Lanikai, looking for sea treasure.  We'd stomp out the bubbles on the Portuguese man-of-wars (I still do that), and collecting glass balls, shells, and driftwod pieces that had washed up on shore.  The glass balls were floats used on the fishing nets in Japan, China and Korea, which you could often find in different sizes, shapes and even colors, mostly after a storm.  Glass floats are no long used, and I've not head of any recent finds, but you do see them in antique and other gift shops in Hawaii.   I still have a small collection at home that I cherish.

1 comment:

bonnie said...

Hey, cool! I was not born there, but I grew up in Aiea. You might enjoy the last couple of posts I've done!

I have one of the small glass floats at home. I can't remember where I got it, I didn't find it, but it may have been from a great-aunt who did sometimes go beachcombing early in the morning.