We successfully completed the first Kikaha men's Molokai race. The race was very rough and very challenging! We had some difficulties that pulled everything together to finish the race safely. We stayed upright the entire way even with lots of bailing, ama watching, and big water. It was amazing looking right and seeing what looked like 15 foot swells, cresting at times. John was totally competent in steering us with lots of on-the-job training of seat 5 helping hold the canoe straight. It was frustrating that we couldn't catch the swells but we heard later the tide was against us making it hard for the entire field. The last 6 miles afforded us some bumps, and rounding Diamond Head and making it over a couple big waves made it "hawaiian" for sure. Jumping into the big ocean for the changes was defiitely exciting! Then watching a 44" canoe come out of the sun glistning swell to pick you up was worth the trip. It took us 7 1/2 hours which is long but all the times were much slower this year. We also had some serious energy deficiencies - a strange snafo stopped all our food and energy bars from making it onto the escort boat (instead they were flown back to honololulu). All we had was water and gatorade! Good thing we had 3 nights of big food feasts on Molokai. All in all, it was a great trip, and hopefully the first of many for Kikaha. -scotty