Hello all, I just joined this group and wanted to put my 2 cents in about
something I discovered about the Ali Wai entrance channel, namely the nav.
lights at night. Both the NOAA chart and 'Charlies Charts' indicate the
range lights as being yellow. They are in fact RED! This may seem minor but
after a long passage trying to find them with all of Honolulu lit up behind
them is very dficult, add to that a south swell, a shallow reef on the right
and the rocks of Magic Island on the left and you have a very dangerous
situation.

Also be advised that there is an unlit piling sticking 30-40 feet out of the
water just outside of the channel on the green side. The Hawaiia Harbor
Dept. (?) tried to drive the piling in to put in a nav light last fall ('04)
and when they hit bedrock (?) and couldn't get the piling any deeper they
abandoned their effort and just moved the green buoy a few feet east of the
piling. Go figure. At the same time the red buoy became unmoored and drifted
on to the reef. Two boats hit the reef as a result of that snafu.

Hawaii is a very beautiful place but be advised that it is very dangerous
and hard to sail around here and the harbors are mostly very sub-standard,
ie. worse than Mexico was 5 years ago.


Cheers, Haole Kai, s/v Desire