Beautiful Blues

I don't have a strong desire to live by the ocean, but every time I'm near it I can't help getting swept up in the glorious colors and moods it presents. Overwhelmed by the spectrum of blues on display, I could spend hours contemplating the seam where sea turns to sky.

The windward coast of the Big Island

Beach at Pololu Valley, the Big Island

The ceaseless waves interpret both the topography of seafloor below and weather conditions above. Gentle curls of foam near the shore with an unbroken gradient of azure denote the shallow slope of reef or sand, and gentle sunny breezes.

Beach at Lower Paia Park, Maui

Neighborhood beach in Kailua, Oahu

On steeply sloped windward beaches, thick white waves race across the water, buffeted by strong winds that churn the translucent blues to an opaque froth and tear apart the triangular peaks as they roll onshore.

Sandy Beach, Oahu

Churning waves, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

The pounding waves highlight the power of water to shape the land, and the tenacity of rock to resist such force. The water as sculptor works with the texture and orientation of the lava rock to create a myriad of forms, from scalloped slopes to thickset walls and arches. Just as the water changes the land, our sun paints the water glorious shades of blue with its light, and so when hidden by clouds a darker, more subdued sea of navy and dark gray is revealed. 

Makapu'u coast, Oahu

Holei Sea Arch, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

Few humans will ever intimately know this vast underwater world, yet those of us who remain on the surface still marvel at its mysteries with appreciation and some trepidation. Perhaps these sentiments stem from knowing that the ocean is as impartial as it is beautiful, and that our attempts to enter into a partnership with it require great respect. This entity that so easily supports life also just as easily takes it away, "The water was made to be a nest that gave birth and bore all things in the womb of the deep." (translated from the Kumulipo, the Hawai'ian creation chant)

Humpback whale off the Kihei coast, Maui

Droplets of oil rising to the surface, USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor