Yesterday we went on a snorkel trip from Keauhou Harbor, which is within walking distance of our condo here at Kanaloa, with an outfit called Sea Paradise. It was a really, really nice day for it, sunny and calm. Keauhou Harbor is famous as the birthplace of Kamehameha III, and there’s a heiau down there. Two roads lead in, one from each side, and we stumbled on the closer one by dumb luck, as the driving directions actually indicated the other access road. When we got there, we found the storm-battered hut that several adventure companies work out of; most of the people there were going out on a boat called Fair Wind that frankly didn’t look that good, being an older boat with a kind of DIY air about some of the modifications to its cabin and mast. It sported a faded looking “sail” that was raised while it motored, but was non-functional other than maybe as advertisement.
Our boat was called the Hokuhele, and was a smaller power catamaran. We were mildly disappointed to find that they had removed their mast and thus we would not attempt to sail, but we were told that the mast was undergoing yearly inspection and repair. Good enough, and we were given the additional information that it was one of the only wooden masts in the Hawaiian Islands, most sailing boats having gone over to aluminum.
Our crew was friendly and affable, and all about 15 years younger than me. There was a captain whose name I didn’t catch, a divemaster (we had one person diving with us yesterday) and a crew guy named Ron who covered the lunch/snorkel gear/tying up/comedy bases. We were a group of only 15, as opposed to the mob that waited to board the Fair Wind – we beat them out of the harbor and beat them to the snorkeling location, too.
Although whales had been sighted breaching outside the cove before we took off, we didn’t see much of anybody other than a couple of distant cetaceans that clearly had someplace else to be. We went first to Kealakekua Bay, of “little grass shack” fame.
We had been on the other side of the bay at Honaunau/Place of Refuge the afternoon that we snorkeled at the beach park, but didn’t snorkel on that side as the crowds were too big (there was a big party luau going on at the canoe club shelter there). So on that day, we contented ourselves with wandering around the place of refuge and picking our way across the lava to explore the little tide pools.
But on our snorkel trip, the Place of Refuge was a distant sight, and we were on the more inaccessible side of the bay near the Captain Cook monument, where the English explorer met his fate at the hands of a crowd of enraged Hawaiian warriors, who had dropped to the fact that he wasn’t the incarnation of the god Lono after all, and had previously outstayed his welcome.
The Sea Paradise is a front-entry type of excursion cat, so you head down a stair-ladder that the crew lower into the water. I’m using a rented corrective vision mask since breaking one of my contact lenses on the second day, but swapped my own breathing tube onto it so had fewer problems sucking large amounts of seawater in with my breaths. David and I both have shortie wetsuits, and were glad we had them as the water wasn’t very warm at either snorkeling location. The area around the Cook monument was crowded with people who had either hiked down or kayaked over, and shortly after we arrived the Fair Wind showed up and moored at the mauka (landward) end of the bay. We stayed at the makai (seaward) end.
These two guys were hanging out and taking it easy, and that’s what David and I are doing today, as our exertions yesterday are telling on us (I’ve got minor aches due to frequently popping my head above water to check my location, using back and abs muscles). Although yesterday was gorgeous and cloudless, today started out overcast, so we’re taking the day at home.
Anyway, yesterday’s excursion took us to places where there were plenty of fish, especially at the Cook location, where there were lots of shallower “coral garden” areas of the reef. The second location was deeper and the water was colder, at a place the boat crew called Red Hill. The fish there were smaller and not as numerous as at the first location, and I suspect it was really more interesting for the divers, who had a nice deep ledge to explore. While motoring around we enjoyed chatting with the other people on the boat, including a Dutch family, another couple from Illinois, and a UPS driver from Montana who was the lone diver. He lost his hat to the wind at one point and the crew made a game of swinging around to retrieve it; the divemaster got out the boat hook and tried to snag it and missed, and ran forward to try to get it from a position on the bow, commenting on how the other guys were never going to let him live it down. Ronnie, the crewman, stayed at the stern and hung over the edge while the captain moved the boat. A shout went up from the stern:
“Got it barehanded! ARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”
The entire boat responded with a hearty “ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”
The divemaster dejectedly stowed the boathook, knowing he’d been bested and would be razzed.
At one point we tried to deliver an apple to the pretty girl leading one of the zodiac tours, who steered her craft up next to us, but she missed Ronnie’s throw and the apple went into the water. Somewhere below, a turtle smacked its beak and said “Yum!”
A nice thing about the Sea Paradise experience was that the music was a nice mix of current hits, “island style” reggae, oldies, and jazz. So there was something for everyone, and none of it was the kind of stuff that’s been overplayed. They don’t currently serve liquor or beer, though, and have a “BYOB” notice posted at their little hut, when it’s a bit too late to run out to the store. This was fine with us, though, as neither of us are big drinkers when on the water.
Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed
Dinners the last couple of nights have been fairly casual – day before yesterday we grilled our tuna steaks and asparagus, with only a bit of margarine and sea salt for seasoning and a dipping sauce I made with our old friends, thick teriyaki cut with tropical juice and with fresh ginger added. We counted “one mippipippi, two mippippippi” and did about 45 mippippippis per side, but I think we could have gone for 60 mippippippis per side for just a tiny bit more donenness (we both like our tuna steaks medium rare, these were rare). Last night, after a post-snorkel period of serious relaxation, we went to a nearby sushi restaurant called Kenichi that was favorably mentioned in the guidebook we’re carrying, Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed.
The food was very good, and I even had something called a Passiontini that was a vodka martini with a bit of passionfruit juice and a spritz of soda. However, the service was spotty: our waiter was a bit brusque about how ordering both from the sushi menu and from the dinner menu meant the food might not arrive at the same time, and in fact another server brought out the non-sushi stuff and omitted one of David’s side items. Our own waiter’s response was “She didn’t bring… okay, I’ll bring it out.” Meanwhile, David had seen the girl wandering around with his order of hijiki rice, unsure of which table had ordered it. The owner spoke to us and thanked us for coming, but some of the waitstaff and the hostess were a bit off their game, not sure why. Also, I’m always uneasy when the waiter looks like a young Gary Busey, about 15 years pre-Point Break. Strange, it must be some kind of weird psycho typecasting on my part.
Today: easy day hangin’ out, like a coupla fish. We may stay in for the day and watch waves; there’s a primitive hiking path that goes along in front of the property that I may explore later. Accessed by a gate by the family pool (we overlook the area), if you go to the right it leads to the nearby golfcourse. If you go to the left, it leads in the direction of Keauhou Bay (we saw the Hokulele heading out for their evening Manta Ray dive, which takes place nightly just off the point in front of the Sheraton). We saw surfers yesterday evening and may go back that way with cameras.
We’ve got coffee, beer, wine, sandwich stuff, burger stuff. We’re good for the day.