Barnacle battle precedes return of boat to harbor

Ishare a sailboat with family and friends in the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, but nine years ago, when the state condemned our finger pier, we had to walk a plank to get aboard. In addition to that wobbly hurdle, several of us had frightening encounters with transients in the neighborhood. As a result, we rarely used the boat.

We all felt bad about neglecting our sailboat, and upset with state officials for neglecting our terrific harbor. For decades the Ala Wai had been one of the best places in the world in which to keep a boat, launch a snorkeling or kayak excursion or simply hang out and watch waves, wildlife and people. Inexplicably, the state let its finest city harbor go downhill.

Recently, though, Hono­­lulu’s little corner of marine heaven began getting the attention it deserves. Last week, after a flurry of activity, the harbormaster declared our slip repaired and ready for re-occupancy.

Delighted, I drove to the harbor to prepare Kipuka for the short hop home from her temporary mooring.

My first chore was to wash the grimy deck, but earlier in the year the hose had fallen off the decrepit dock, and it lay in the water long enough for a community of barnacles to set up housekeeping.

With the recovered hose in the cockpit for a few weeks, the barnacles had died, but most of their brittle white skeletons still stuck to the rubber. To use the hose, I had to knock off the barnacles.

For making stuff that sticks, barnacles are right up there with Spider-Man, except Spidey’s glue lets go. Barnacle glue does not. After scraping, whacking and stomping that hose for an hour, I had a mess on the dock, cuts on my hands and feet, and razor-sharp barnacle bases still stuck to the rubber.

This extraordinary bonding quality is what makes these crustaceans of great interest to doctors, dentists, engineers and navies. Some researchers aim to re-create the stubborn adhesive for practical use, while others want to stop the little rascals from sticking to structures we put in the ocean.

Navy researchers recently discovered acorn barnacles use a system similar to two-part epoxy. The barnacle secretes a thin adhesive around the edge of its growing base plate. A second secretion increases the sticking quality of the first twofold.

Eventually I got Kipuka’s hose smooth enough to hold, her deck washed and drains cleared, and drove her to her shiny new dock. And there in the clean, clear water of the 700 row, as if welcoming me home, were a school of Moorish idols, several bouquets of feather duster worms and a bunch of skittering black aama (rock crabs).

The animals didn’t care that the piers were condemned all those years, and at that moment neither did I.

Life moves slowly in Hawaii, and unfortunately, so do public works. But the relaxed pace is one of the reasons so many of us love living here. We accept the bad with the good because we know that Hawaii is the best place to live on the planet.

I love having our sailboat back in the resuscitated harbor with the people, marine life and scenery that make the Ala Wai great. I’m even enjoying the barnacles.

———
Reach Susan Scott at www.susanscott.net.