Stuck on the Old Rockpile

An otherwise unidentified 31-ft sailboat from the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor got stuck on a reef at the Rockpile surf spot just outside the marina on Saturday night around 9 p.m. Richard Langdon, who was in town to cover the arrival of Lloyd Thornburg’s Gunboat 66 Phaedo, happened to be on the spot and took the accompanying photo.

The Honolulu Advertiser reported that the two people aboard the sailboat disembarked safely, and that a salvage company worked the following day to try to get the boat off. Given the size of the surf, that had to be tricky.

The south shore of Oahu has been hit by large surf since at least Friday, just as the 50+ boats from the Transpac have been arriving. The National Weather Service reported 8- to 12-ft surf along the south shore on Sunday, with slightly decreasing surf today and tomorrow.

In a much worse tragedy, two soldiers were swept from the rocks near the Halona Beach Cove Saturday afternoon and drowned. Lifeguards had to rescue 147 other ocean swimmers, and issued more than 4,000 warnings.

Hawaii is gorgeous, but the ocean can be very dangerous when the surf is up.