Kauai Cinderella Story – Glass Balls Instead of Glass Slippers

In 1975 I sailed for 21 days from Hanalei Bay to San Francisco with a group of friends on the 48 ft sloop Tasco II (that had competed in the TransPac race). Larry Byfield of Kaua’i (God rest his sweet soul) was our Navigator and James Cotton of Laguna was our Skipper.

On 9/11/1975 (my 21st birthday) we hit the doldrums and motored through the Japanese Current which was alive with glass fishing floats. We literally cruised from one glass ball to the next grabbing them with our boat hook or net. The most unique find for me was one of these double glass balls which I sent to a friend on Kauai, for safe keeping, as soon as I hit the shores of California.

Double Glass Balls

I never retrieved the double glass ball until 1993 when I married my husband Rick. In 1975 Rick found the other double you see above on the beach near our house at Pila’a.

Pila’a Beach, Kauai

He sent it to his mom (in Newport Beach) for safe keeping. Although Rick and I first met in 1975, while I was singing and playing guitar in a Kauai restaurant, we did not reconnect until 1992. When Rick’s mom Barbara came to Kauai for our 1993 wedding at Pila’a, she brought Rick’s double glass ball as a wedding gift. When I saw it, I was inspired to locate mine (which I did easily) and was amazed to find that they were identical—blown into the same mold…off of the same boat.

It is a true Cinderella story of our own love and soul connection with the sea and each other. We are now in our 20th year of marriage and the matched set of double glass balls still have special meaning and sit in a place of honor in our little beach shack on the North Shore of Kauai…forever a reminder of our true love.