Sailor relives
Hokule‘a pain

IT was emotional chicken skin time this week for Ki'i Hugho, 47, a veteran Hokule'a sailor, who was on the canoe 20 years ago Tuesday when it capsized soon after departure. Eddie Aikau, Ki'i's close friend, was lost when he left on Ki'i's 11-foot-6 surfboard to get help. Ki'i said they were in more than 8-foot seas for 24 hours. "Eddie was on my right and "Snake" Ah Hee was on my left. We would dive under every wave and when we surfaced we would feel for each other to make sure the guy was next to you again. It was pitch black. We were getting weaker and weaker. One man was hours away from dying, and John Kruse and Curt Sumida struggled to keep his head above water." Ki'i said they saved his life. Hugho said the hardest thing came just after rescue. Families knew one man was missing. "Pops Aikau came up to me. We hugged and cried and he whispered in my ear, asking if it was Eddie. I nodded and said yes" ...

BEFORE the voyage, Eddie wrote a song about Hokule'a. Ron Jacobs recorded Eddie and Ki'i doing the song. Ki'i took out the tape for the first time in 20 years Tuesday. "I live in a serene place on Kaneohe Bay," Ki'i said Thursday. "Tuesday night I put the song on the stereo, then sat in the darkness by the water and listened. I cried." Hugho was the cameraman both before and during the ill-fated voyage. Wednesday night he took the film out for the first time in 20 years and ran it. "It wasn't as emotional as listening to the song," Ki'i said. "It's been 20 years since I opened the box. I never had the desire until now ..."

Outrigger club elects woman

IT TOOK 90 years but the Outrigger Canoe Club has elected a woman president, Mary Philpotts McGrath. Mary heads Philpotts and Associates, an interior design firm. Her firm did the Convention Center. The Macfarlane outrigger canoe regatta is named after her late uncle, Walter J. Macfarlane. Her granduncle, Clarence Macfarlane, founded the Transpac yacht race. Her brother-in-law Robert "Rab" Guild and nephew, Walter Guild, are past presidents. "I'm thrilled to be president," Mary said. "It's part of my legacy ..."

"WE'RE GOING to bring life back to Diamond Head," said an upbeat David Paul Johnson at last Saturday night's rip-snorting grand opening of his new restaurant, David Paul's, a benefit for Marimed. In the dining room, Nohelani Cypriano sang a romantic, "You Are So beautiful" to David Swanson's piano as Celeste Akeo danced hula. It had Jennifer Zukerkorn making "goo-goo eyes" at husband, Herb. In another room, besides Nohelani, Dennis Graue's band backed singers Jimmy Borges, Anita Hill, Azure McCall and Cathy Foy. The joint was jumpin' and full of life ... Bali Manager Alicia Antonio said the phone is "ringing off the hook" since it was announced the last dinner served on the Titanic would be recreated Friday through March 28; $75 per ... Jean Marie Josselin marks the second year of his A Pacific Cafe Oahu Thursday ...

Jean tees off on Land Rover

SO there was Jean Anderson, motoring down Kalanianaole, when she is suddenly blinded by the morning sun, can't see the red light and runs smack into a Land Rover. Jean said the Land Rover didn't budge when whacked, but her Mercedes suffered $12,000 damage. Jean, perhaps in a bit of shock, refused to go in the ambulance because, "My golf clubs were in the car and I couldn't leave them unattended." Friends took Jean and her golf clubs home. Jean, a former Roosevelt song leader, is proud of her twin 6-foot-4 grandsons, Cord and Brad Anderson, Bulletin All State team members who helped Iolani win the state basketball title. Both made the Bulletin's All State team ...