JUST sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a tropic port, just about two minutes from my house. UH goes coconuts
over islandActually, it isn't a port, it's a tiny harbor barely big enough to hold a boat and a half. It's where we often launch our kayaks when we want to paddle around Kaneohe Bay. Through the years, I've developed a kind of standard boat tour that includes a trip around Coconut Island, best known as the island shown in the opening shot of the long-running television show "Gilligan's Island."
I know the island pretty well, because I did a feature on it many years ago and got an in depth tour by Red, the caretaker who lived on the island just about forever. In the old days, it was a party island. John Wayne and other movie stars used to hang out there. Back in those days, the stars cavorted around the beautiful lagoon on the island's north side. I mean, I assumed they cavorted. Red hinted that some sort of cavortation went on, but he was skimpy on the details. I pressed him for any information along the cavorteous line, but he felt it was his duty to guard the reputations of all those long dead movie stars.
FOR years, I've taken friends on kayak tours of the island, pointing out the shark ponds where the hoity-toity kept their exotic pets, the old tennis courts and the long hotel-like building where guests stayed. If the tide was high enough we would even paddle into the north lagoon and I'd point out where movie stars took part in cavort-like behavior.
On the windward side of the island is a rocky little beach where we would get out and look for driftwood and shells. Then we'd paddle into the lagoon on the south side used by the University of Hawaii where we'd wave at graduate students who, as far as we could tell, were not in cavort mode.
If we went on the island, we'd just stay along the beach. We did not actually traipse to the island's interior because we knew it was privately owned and we respected that.
Then, the University of Hawaii took over the entire island and a funny thing happened. Suddenly, there were guards patrolling the island, as if it were the Island of Doctor Moreau. The last time I paddled with my daughter into the north lagoon a very rude man came out and started yelling at us. He threatened to have us arrested if we ever paddled into the lagoon. Now the island is completely off limits, except for a little spike of land on the leeward side about the size of a living room, covered with pine trees and spider webs.
I remembered how unpleasant our last trip to the island had been when I read the Saturday Star-Bulletin, which contained a column by Kailua car salesman Mike Barker. He has been visiting Coconut Island for the past 30 years. Barker lamented the fact that now that "the public" owns the island, "the public" can't even get on the darned thing without being chewed out by state security officers. Barker says that his family is harassed every time they visit Coconut Island.
"As a taxpayer, resident and a frequent user of Kaneohe Bay, I find this treatment outrageous," he wrote. Mike, I agree. Coconut Island is not a university laboratory under lockdown. It is a beautiful place where children can swim in clear water, beach comb and watch fish among the coral. The UH should allow passive, non-intrusive (not to mention, non-cavorting-type) use of the island by the public, that includes snorkeling, swimming, beach-combing, paddling, picnicking and sightseeing around the island. At the very least, the guards should be less Gestapo-like and show a little aloha to people who are simply out to enjoy the bay. Gilligan would want it that way.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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