Story and cover photo by Nikko Tiahrt-Conrad
Other photos as credited
December 7, 2025
Our paddle off Keʻehi Lagoon began with light rain yielding a double anuenue 🌈🌈as we readied our kayaks. Winds were light, no headwinds, also a good sign as the channel can be gusty. Ideal conditions for our flotilla of 16 boats to explore the islets with Sailor Steve leading the way and Stan serving as sweep. The club is well familiar with the area as it’s been the Earth Day clean up project to remove trash from the larger islet north of Mokauea, the Hawaiian fishing islet. Over the years, every third Sunday in April, we’d haul off debris that got trapped in the mangrove and kiawe brambles. This work detail was not for the faint of heart thin skinned as the kiawe thorns were thick and pierce through shoes. Since the airport has taken the lead to clean the invasives as a way to deter birds from the flight path these islets appear to be reclaimed by the tide and rising sea level.
In May of this year Honolulu City Council passed a resolution to urge the Hawaiian State Board of Geographic Names to officially restore the name of Sand Island to it’s Hawaiian origin Mauliola, meaning “breath of life” or “power of healing”. While not digressing too much on the history of the area it is important to note the tenacity of the Hawaiian fishermen families on Mokauea. They are preserving the island fish pond, that is the last in the area that had at one time 20. King Kamehameha lll designated it a protected royal fishing area in 1830, these handful of homes off the grid maintain a way of life in the face of planes overhead.
The paddle went around the islets and to the end of the runway. We stopped for a break to snack and stretch watching the rain moving across the coast. The tide was receding so we had a shallow paddle (rudders up) on some of the way back. Some chose to walk their boats. It was a good one that the wind did not pick up as this paddle back in headwind can be tiring. For our first paddle back in Hawaii after several months away it was an easy re-entry. Good to see familiar faces and meet new ones. Good to see Mokauea is maintaining its traditions while smaller islets remain clear of invasives. Doubly so! 🌈🌈
