Planes, Trains and Automobiles (not)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (not) was Originally Posted on February 26, 2007 by

Actually, today I’ll cover whales, boats, planes and trucks.

Not long after moving to Hawaii, I saw my first whale. It is a wondrous thing that the whale population has been increasing 7% each year now. How do we know? We count them! Well, we count a sampling of whales, but it is pretty accurate. Estimates are there are 10,000 whales here now.

The downside is that we are now having more people vs. whale encounters. Boats are hitting them more often. As you can imagine, whales can rise from the depths at just the wrong time, and boats can be traveling faster then they should. It is not a pretty sight and can be quite dangerous for both species.

Another issue is the Hawaiian Super Ferry, which starts running in July. It will connect the islands with passenger service and will also allow us to take vehicles to other islands. Owners are doing their best to address concerns that the ferry will have more than just close encounters.

One thing the ferry will do is allow us farmers to load a truck with products, drive to the pier and then onboard and disembark on another island where we can drive right up to a farmers market. It may not sound cost effective, but consider the shipping cost for many hundreds of pounds of products, airline tickets, car rentals and so on.

By the way, I assume that rental car companies will not allow you to take rental cars on the ferry, but have not heard one way or the other yet.

Slipping over to SuperFerry.Com I found that all islands will begin service in 2007 except mine! I believe this is because the pier here was damaged in the earthquake.

Speaking of transportation, we are still receiving very good rates on inter-island airline fares in a fare war that just keeps going. It is said that one reason is that a certain airline is trying to put another out of business. Still, now is the time to book tickets.

Normally I would have traveled all around the islands, just because of the sale, but beginning March 2nd, I’m on call for Jury Duty! I call in on a Friday to see if I need to show up on Monday of that week. It will pretty much scuttle my plans fro the whole month.

A while back I tackled the brakes on my truck. I’m not an expert on brakes but have replaced them a few times in the past, so it was no big deal. However, I am hearing a clunk from the transmission or 4-wheel drive. I may need to get some help on that one.