Honolulu, Hawaii

Saturday, October 26, 1929

Eddy and John called this morning and I went out to their house for lunch after which Vance and I went swimming at Waikiki. Too cloudy though.

After dinner, Jeff, Vance, and I left on a fishing party amid the razzing of Eddy and John who were getting up a party to go to a hula dance affair. We picked up Jack Johnson, lanterns, etc, etc. and drove 33 miles past Pearl Harbor where the navy yard is located; the Schofield Barracks, second largest camp of U.S. troops; miles and miles of cane and pineapple on the Ewa Plateau, its density broken occasionally by deep gullies, the fields finally sweeping off a green mass up valleys of the Waiauae Range. The soil of the hills is an oxide red in color, making the landscape like a splotched painting of vivid colors.

Long after nightfall we came out on the sea on the north coast. There were three others awaiting us there. Putting on bathing suits and shoes to protect our feet from the jagged coral, we took spears, torches, and nets and waded out on the shallow coral beds near the shore. Unfortunately it was high tide and a little rough so that the waves bothered us considerably, stirring up the water, tossing us about almost at will sometimes. One minute you would be standing in a foot of water and then a wave—and you would be up too your neck in a swell. If caught between a wave and a back swell, it was too bad. The idea was to see the fish and eels lying on the coral, then spear them. The strong torch blinds them so they do not move. I had the first luck by discovering an eel (I was carrying a torch at the time) and Vance speared it.

An hour of this and we had several eels and some fish. Someone went to town for food while we built a fire, and soon the chow was really disappearing. Yarns followed the food and kept up steady for well over an hour.,

Jack had to be home before daylight, so we drove him in and returned to help the others haul in the big net. First time I had driven a car for 16 months.

Just after daylight and a few minutes before the sun rose in a gorgeous setting of green and red hills, pink and gray clouds, we went out for the net and hauled it in after much trouble. The waves make it hard to get over the coral without getting caught on the sharp edges. But there were three fish in the net to compensate.

Not satisfied, we dragged close to the shore—with no success. Next time we went out to our shoulders. But here the trouble began, for the tide was going out and the tow stronger than we realized. The Portuguese on the other end of the net let go and swam for shore. Jeff and I thought the net was caught and, as the water was now well over our heads, swam about trying to loosen it. The sad fact that we had on shoes didn’t help, especially the gun-boats of John’s I was wearing. But the net was not caught and it was just the tow dragging the whole business out. Vance, who was on shore, began to think something was wrong and tossed off his clothes to swim out. Between the three of us we managed to drag the net fifty feet to a floating buoy where we tied it. Then to get in ourselves—some pull after fighting the tide and net for 15 or 20 minutes and swimming against the tide made progress seem nil. However we all finally made the shore and gave up the net to return to Honolulu at nine.

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