Back in the day - working a several-ton semi-submersible
("Maui E-Ticket") off the coast of Lahaina, in Maui, entertaining the
newly-weds and nearly-deads. Had to grab goodies off the ocean floor to bring
up to the windows and show the "ooohh, not me, never" people, that
preferred the topsides of life. Was a pretty fun job till I got knocked out,
under water, while scrubbing the hull and windows on a down day and in big
surf! The "Screaming E Ticket", as we called it, ended up on the
reef, in front of the whaling wall in Lahaina, when the owner insisted on
taking it out through big surf for a burial at sea. We came back in and rode a
4 or 5 foot wave, straight on up to within feet of the sea wall! The locals
told us we had broken Hawaiian law, and not ’dispensed’ of the deceased far
enough out to sea (ashes, and 3 miles is the minimum), and thus suffered the
repercussions of angered Hawaiian gods. As soon as the whole debacle came
to rest, my coworker and I jumped ship, waded through shallow water, and ran up
to Cheeseburger in Paradise, right on Front Street, and watched for several
hours, with daquiris in hand, as the Fire Dept snapped a cable or two,
dangerously close to the gathering crowd, trying to pull the E-Ticket off of
the reef. They ended up getting hauled off by a tug that came over from Oahu a
few days later. Man, were the surfers pissed off! The harbor break right there
was messed up for a few days, right smack dab in the midst of an epic
swell...