Too windy to leave

We missed the perfect weather window by not leaving last Wed/Thurs but we simply weren't ready to go yet. Now the forecast is for reinforced trade winds this week. At first it looked like they would be backing off by Wednesday and we could leave Thursday but now they may last through Thursday and I don't think John will leave on a Friday (superstition). So we're eating all our passage provisions (eggs, bread, muffins, tortillas, apples, etc.) and I'm going to have to go shopping again. Blech!

We spent a nice day in Waimea with Ralph and Glenda but, after all my hype about Huli Sue's, the meal wasn't as spectacular as my first visit. The food was good, but the BBQ pork sandwich didn't require a knife and fork to eat as it did last time. Maybe the servings are skimpier at lunch time than they are for dinner. It's still a cute little place with great service and reasonable prices though.

I absolutely positively finished the dry goods shopping on Thursday (ha!). John too the early bus in to get internet so he could check the weather, and I went in two buses later which turned out to be the one he was taking back when we arrived downtown. I popped into the KTA grocery store to pick up heavy items like Fuji apples and mayonnaise which were both on sale. Then I caught the next bus headed back to the port (the bus does a continuous loop so it takes about an hour to go around once) where I jumped off with three very heavy bags. I took them as far as the gate and left them with the security guards so that I could turn around and go back out to the bus stop to catch the last morning bus as it came back twenty minutes later. Ran some errands downtown and then caught the 1 PM bus to Walmart and then Safeway for the last of the groceries (bread, bagels, eggs for hard boiling, etc.). Caught the 3:20 bus back to the port and John helped me get everything on the boat. Then he went to the bar to check the weather again while I managed to stow everything away (what a miracle!).

There's a huge area of construction along our bus route past Walmart and Home Depot and I finally asked someone on the bus if they knew what was going in there. I had hoped it would be a Costco but turns out it's going to be a Target and a new Safeway. And they're going to close the existing Safeway which is right next to Macy's in the mall.

Friday was a local holiday so the buses weren't running which gave us a chance to catch our breath, and we made the decision to postpone our departure. We still went into the Saturday Farmer's market to buy five dozen fresh, unrefrigerated eggs (at a whopping $5/dozen, but they're huge) which we covered with Vaseline to help preserve them. The cabbages we bought weren't that great so I may get a couple more and will try wrapping them in newspaper so they don't have to go in the fridge. We need to get a few small plastic bins to better separate our fruits and veggies. Right now we have the potatoes in with the onions which is a no-no, and the citrus will have to be separate from the apples. Ditto for bananas.

We're pretty much alone here in the harbor. There's another cruising boat here. The woman from the boat slipped in the shower and broke her hip shortly after they arrived. Her husband is putting her on a plane to the mainland tomorrow night and will be sailing the boat back as soon as he receives a new mainsail.

In other local news, remember the little trimaran that John went out on Dorothy Marie to help bring into the harbor after their over-long passage from California? Well, after basically abandoning the crew member until he was forced to buy his own plane ticket home, the skipper also appears to have abandoned the boat. We returned to Radio Bay to find the trimaran still here, and the El Toro dinghy still sunk on the bottom tied to a ladder, and the (barely) inflatable dinghy also still tied to another ladder on the wall. The security guards told us the skipper hasn't been back to the boat since we left, and last week the Port slapped a 72-hour notice of seizure on the boat. The weird thing is that John attempted to contact the skipper (who is active on Facebook and My Space and is still obviously in the area) but there was no response.

We'll be happy to be on our way soon!

Linda

Rainy Hilo

Nothing interesting to report but we have another full day today so thought I'd better try to get something out since I'm up early this morning.

In spite of pouring rain Sunday night and into Monday we took the 7:10 Monday AM bus to do laundry - all the bedding, blankets, towels, etc. It stopped raining long enough to get it back to the boat where we ate lunch, watched part of a very slow Ed Norton movie (Down in the Valley), and then went back out to catch the afternoon bus to the mall. John went to Home Depot while I walked to the vet to get the last of Ziggy's kibble and emergency supplies. This was the vet who met us at the boat when we first arrived to issue Z's health certificate for the Hawaii quarantine program. Very nice and always seems to have time to answer all our questions. He has no receptionist or assistants (that I saw) and runs out of an old tiny office, but he's the first guy I'd want to go to besides the woman vet we used for a rabies shot in Kona (she and her assistant really knew how to keep Ziggy from freaking out). We'd never go back to the big place where we had to take Z for his emergency because they were so busy they didn't have time to really sit down and chat with us. They have big banners up now advertising their new Sunday hours, so guess they're raking in the bucks (or trying harder to). Lugged a 10lb bag of kibble back to Walmart where I met up with John to do a little more shopping (including a new engine starting battery) before catching the bus back. Still not raining and the security guard gave us a ride from the gate to the boat in their (not always running) truck which helped enormously with our heavy load (ditto for the laundry).

On Tuesday John went in to town early to get some internet (to check the weather forecasts) while I stayed home to vacuum seal monthly rations of kibble and restow some of the things we'd hastily tossed in storage bins just to clear our living space. John returned and I left to go browse the mall and Ross on my own, picking up 5lbs of dried garbonzo beans at the natural foods store and a(nother) 12-pack of toilet paper at Walmart. So my backpack was stuffed and my hands were full with the addition of two pillows from Ross when I boarded the bus! But that's typical and our outings are limited by what we can carry on our backs and in our hands.

This morning we're catching an early bus to Waimea (Kamuela) to meet Ralph and Glenda to take them out to lunch for all their kindnesses. They are doing us another favor by bringing us the last of the things we would have bought from Costco (cheeses, chicken, and more peanuts!) if we hadn't decided to leave so quickly. We're looking forward to a mouth watering meal of BBQ pulled pork at Huli Sue's.

Oh, and it's another rainy day today in Hilo.

Linda

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Circumnavigation complete

Of the Big Island that is! We made a last minute decision to jump on the tail end of a weather window, but only if the stars aligned just right. The biggest surprise was that the fuel injector pump arrived in the mail as promised on Wednesday morning. John took an hour to install it, we made a stop at the fuel dock to take on 80 gallons of diesel, and left Honokohau harbor by 1 PM northbound for Hilo. We spent an uneventful night motoring through the channel and by dawn we spotted the Celebrity Constellation hovering off shore in the misty rain. We followed the cruise ship into Reed's Bay, and Nakia was anchored and tied to the wall in Radio Bay before their passengers could disembark. Then it really started to rain and the forecasted winds turned the ocean beyond the breakwater into a mess of white water. We really dodged that bullet!

We made a quick trip to the mall for a DQ Blizzard and some shopping before we felt the effects of not getting a full night's sleep. This morning we got out early to catch up on laundry, and may make another bus round trip for more supplies this afternoon. Our trips are limited to what we can carry, so we'll be making multiple forays to finish off the list.

We sold the old Achilles inflatable in Hilo for $50 and are very carefully using our new Achilles here. John has rigged up an elaborate pulley system so that the new dinghy doesn't touch the rough cement wall after we use it to get up the ladder to shore. Ziggy gives it pointed looks to remind us that he knows that's how he was getting to the dock for his morning walks in Kona, but we're keeping him out of it. When we first got the new dinghy to the boat Ziggy immediately used the new seat board as a scratching post. There's a thin layer of foam padding attached to it and it must have seemed perfect scratching material to him. But the floor boards have the same surface on them, so he'll be getting an early lesson with the squirt bottle to prevent him from doing the same to them!

Actually it's been so wet and cold since we arrived that there's not much incentive for Ziggy to go outside. But he got rid of some kitty crazies last night by running the length of the boat down below and then outside and up the main sheet to the main boom and repeating the circuit several times. I guess he was glad to have the short passage over with too!

We'll be in Hilo until the weather looks good for a departure to the Marquesas.

Linda

Provisioning

This week has been a blur of shopping, stowing groceries, and finishing projects. The haul out itself was one of our easier ones since the only big job was getting new bottom paint on the boat. When we were working stiffs (and vacation time was precious) we used to bang that chore out over a four day weekend, but with eight days in the yard we could take it easy. The big news is not only did we paint over the old blue boot stripe, but we also raised the waterline - again. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of times we have to scrub green slime off the white hull. While we were on the hard John also painted the newly modified propane locker in our cockpit. Now it fits the new tanks we ordered after the ones we purchased in Panama City rusted.

Thanks to Ralph and Glenda we've made numerous trips to Costco which has been a huge money saver. It always hurts the wallet to buy six months to a year's worth of provisions but we think it will pay off in the long run. Except for last minute fresh things we made our last $300 visit today and are already kicking ourselves for not buying more cans of dry roasted peanuts. And after spending $200 at the vet on five cases of prescription canned food and a 10 lb bag of prescription kibble we find we still need another bag of kibble to get us through one year. I still can't wrap my head around the idea of needing a prescription to buy cat food.

I spent one day scrubbing misc. black marks and marks from the Travlift off the hull and the next day we gave the whole boat a good scrubbing. John finished replacing the rigging (shrouds and bobstays) and cut down our new plastic chairs to fit in the cockpit. Stowing all the provisions is a time consuming process as we make it a rule to label the tops of cans with a Sharpie and remove all paper labels in the hope that this will cut down on places for critters to hide. We try to eliminate as much packaging as possible to give our garbage to a first world country rather than burning it ourselves farther down the line. And we do a lot of vacuum sealing/bagging to keep the critters out and to repackage bulk items into smaller units. We're stowing heavy items on the port side of the boat in anticipation of spending most of the passage on port tack, and we now have a noticeable list.

John is now working on our taxes, we have some more non-Costco shopping to do, and a few projects to finish up, and we're looking for a good weather window. Oh, but first we have to get our fuel injection pump back from Honolulu, so we'll try to wrap everything up in anticipation of that.

Linda

While we were hauled out

Since I've been remiss in updating the blog, here are excerpts from a few emails I wrote during that time.

3/2: I forgot to mention that Ziggy was pretty stressed by Monday's haul out events. When we entered the slip way to position the Travlift slings under the boat I put Ziggy in his crate and left the boat to find a shady spot to wait. We hauled at 0930 and weren't settled on jack stands until after Noon. It was particularly bad when we got him back on the boat and he was panting hard. The interior boat temp is actually higher when we're out of the natural air-conditioning of the cold water. There wasn't any breeze so we put a fan on him and he finally settled down to sleep. Of course he watches us going up and down the ladder and walking around on the ground and he's dying to figure out a way to get down there too. This morning he even watched a black cat leaping from boat to boat in the boat storage shed obviously hunting sparrows. Last night we had burgers at the Harbor House restaurant here and fed a stray cat that hung out until we were finished eating. This morning he's running around looking over the edge and scaring me to death by insisting on walking on top of the cap rail.

3/3: John is working hard and I'm trying to pitch in where I can. Yesterday he put primer on the bare spots (where the bottom paint had completely worn through) and today he'll put the first coat of bottom paint on those parts, on the old blue boot stripe, and on the bare gel coat where he's raising the waterline. Glenda's b'day lunch is this Friday, so we get a break for that!

3/4: Ralph and Glenda stopped by on their way to Costco late this afternoon so we dropped what (little) we were doing and went with them. I can now cross green beans, Trident, diced tomatoes, and refried beans off my provisioning list!

3/7: I picked up the third season of "Lost" from the library yesterday. Our three month visitor cards had expired but they let me renew mine (for another $10 - the best deal in the islands!).

Ziggy hasn't figured out how to climb down the wood ladder yet, but he's fascinated by the feral cat population here in the yard. The weird thing is that he seems to be calling to them (or having a one-sided conversation of some kind). Can't figure out if he's just trying to be sociable or what, but they don't appear to be interested (and no repeat of the big black one coming aboard). I think he mostly misses his dock walks now that he's confined to the boat again.

Several of the boat yard laborers are from places like Guadalajara and Guanajuato so we're brushing up on our Spanish again (of course, now all that pops into my head is French!).

The surprise b'day party for Glenda was a huge success. Three more friends joined us at Tante's (near the Kona Seaside hotel and the Fish Hopper at the pier end of Alii Dr). It's a modest Filipino-owned place with a great view, and is moderately priced for the location. I had the fish and chips for $8 and thought it was quite good and plenty of it. The stunner was when the bill came and not only had they served us all a free dessert (called haupia, like a coconut pudding drizzled with lilikoi sauce and toasted mac nuts) but they also didn't charge for the b'day girl's entree! The free dessert threw all of us because Ralph had said we were going back to their house for cake and ice cream. We thought he'd changed his mind but he was just as surprised as we were. So we all had coffee, cheese cake and/or vanilla ice cream back at the house before they drove us back to our home in the air.

We may spend a little more time here in Kona before heading to Hilo and then back to French Polynesia. John thinks he needs to get a diesel mechanic out to the boat - something about fuel injectors. Plus the trades have settled into a regular pattern and it will be some time before we get a break to get around to Hilo (let alone to set off for FP). We are so looking forward to getting out of here. Both of us are getting fat and soft. I never thought I'd be looking forward to an ocean passage but this time I really am. Life is just a little too complicated here!

Linda

Hauled out in Kona

I apologize for not getting a message out to let everyone know that we were not affected negatively by the tsunami warning. We motored out the harbor entrance and hove to until the wind picked up enough to sail. We attempted to reenter the harbor at 2 PM but the boat traffic was crazy with big sport fishers coming in on a plane and throwing big wakes. We aborted and waited half an hour until most of the biggest guys muscled their way in, then we proceeded in at a more sedate pace. We continued to see swirling water in the slip and unusual highs and lows in the tides for the next 24 hours, but it didn't affect us. The most interesting thing was the news footage of Coconut Island over on the Hilo side as the water receded and rose repeatedly over the course of the afternoon.

We all wanted to go out to dinner, but of course none of the restaurants on Alii Drive (the waterfront shopping street in Kona) were open. We ended up in the new Target shopping center area where several chains were opening late in the afternoon. As we waited for our orders there was a power outage and when the power came back on the Ultimate Burger cash register refused to open. After repeated attempts to pay by credit card failed, they were happy to get an approximate cash payment (as the open tabs accumulated on the counter). Shades of life in a second or third world!

Yesterday morning we hauled Nakia out of the water at the Gentry boat yard and John is busy prepping for several new coats of bottom paint. He finds that he's been living the soft life for too long and he'll probably take advantage of someone who only charges $25/hour for labor to help him. We'll be living on the hard until at least next Monday, but there's a bathroom with a shower in the yard, so in that respect it's nicer than the marina!

Linda

Tsunami warning

We were woken out of a sound sleep this morning by a phone call from our friends on The Dorothy Marie. They wanted to make sure we had heard the tsunami warning issued by the Coast Guard. We saw the news of the 8.4 Chilean earthquake while watching the Olympics last night, but assumed it would come to nothing for us in Hawaii. Glen and Sally had already decided to depart Maui this morning so they just left a little earlier than planned. After seeing the warning on NOAA and listening to the Coast Guard reports (potential first contact for the Big Island is 11:19 AM local time), we exited from the harbor during the first siren warning at 0600.

We are now hove to just off the harbor entrance waiting to see what develops. We've seen a few early bird charter boats returning to the harbor to disembark their passengers. Our friends on Our Country Home were preparing to leave as we passed them on the way out of the harbor. My parents were asked by their ocean front condo manager to move the lanai furniture inside, and they are packing to leave until the warning is over. We were all supposed to get together for breakfast at The Big Island Grill this morning, so maybe it will have to be for dinner instead.

We are happy to be away from all the dock talk/speculation, and the hourly sirens which scared Ziggy up through a small hole to the forward part of the chain locker - a place I don't think he's ever been to before!

Linda

Blue Marlin Pic

We finally got the picture from the Charter Desk, here we are. Left to Right, Blue, John, Keith and Russ.

Beach Day

Last weekend we took a vacation from the "vacation" and made a spur of the moment decision to get out of the marina and go anchor out. After a week of John's hard work stripping and sanding the exterior brightwork we managed to spend almost another week laying on coat after coat of Cetol (a product we use instead of varnish). We had gotten to five coats and were ready to lay on the sixth when, of all things, we woke up to find rain threatening. The tiniest spot of rain on fresh brightwork will leave unsightly spots so we decided to wait one more day for better, more Kona like, weather. That night it rained in earnest and we woke up to a still threatening sky. In addition to the rain we were also working against time. We had completely taped off our work area and, even using blue tape (now wet), we were looking at a problem with cleaning off any adhesive that remained on the fiberglass when we pulled the tape. So John decided five coats would have to be enough and sure enough, tape residue on the fiberglass will have to be attacked with adhesive remover. But that's a chore for another day. With the brightwork done, I got busy scrubbing off the rust stains weeping down our stern. It looks much better (for a little while at least), and hopefully now our neighbors will stop making gentle suggestions about using products like FSR and Ospho!

Between the couple of walking trips we made to town and John's never shrinking list of boat projects we also got lifts to Costco with our friends, Ralph and Glenda. They have been very generous about picking us up to let us tag along with them for shopping and lunch at Costco, and sharing dinners in their beautiful new home (in addition to receiving our mail for us). But other than that we hadn't been anywhere or done anything on our own since parking Nakia in the marina. We were itching to get out to enjoy some freedom and Saturday afternoon John suggested we up and leave for the night. We hastily cleared the decks of project debris, and at the last minute remembered to grab our swim ladder off the dock.

We motored back over to our favorite spot off the Kailua Pier (in front of the Kona Inn) and set the hook. Our dinghy is on its last legs and has to be pumped up every day so we elected not to put the motor on it to go ashore. Instead we enjoyed watching the departure of Holland America's Zaandam and the sunset cruises passing by. We had a lovely quiet night with Ziggy free to roam the decks at will, and we managed to sleep in until 6 AM! Later, after breakfast, John suggested a morning snorkel/swim to the King Kamehameha beach and we donned our wetsuit jackets and snorkel gear. We made sure to look both ways before crossing the busy bay and quickly swam over to the rocky entrance to the beach. There weren't a lot of fish but we were treated to a long look at a sea turtle on his way out of the little cove. We must have been an odd site to the tourists on the beach because we were the only ones wearing wet suits. But the water still feels chilly to our Tropic thinned blood! We explored the small temple site and then swam back to the boat.

We had an uneventful motor trip back to the marina and got a ride out to the airport to pick up a rental car. It's great to finally have wheels! Monday we picked up Ralph and Carmen from Relax and we all made a much needed trip to the laundromat before hitting the stores for provisions. After saying goodbye to Relax at the pier (they are off to Maui this week) John and I drove south but got stuck in commute traffic (!) and decided to turn around.

Tuesday we met my parents at the airport and helped get them settled in their condo, and I spent most of Wednesday visiting with them while John was out fishing. Yesterday John and I had our first real beach day since arriving in Hawaii. We drove north to the beach at Mauna Kea (it was a windy, red flag day), visited the little harbor at Kawaihae, made a brief stop at Spencer Beach Park (absolutely calm), drove up to Waimea (where the temperature dropped 20 degrees!) for lunch at Tako Taco, back down to Spencer in time to see Relax dropping their anchor in the no-name unfinished boat harbor, then to Hapuna Beach where we sat and watched the body surfers getting pummeled, and finally to a roadside pullout for the gravel road and lava trail hike out to Keawaiki Beach where we walked the black sand beach and watched for whales. After seeing huge splashes but missing most of the actual leaps we called it a (great) day and headed back to the marina.

Linda

Big Blue

Wednesday dawned a little breezy and with Ziggy getting me (John) up at 0130 to sit on deck to look at crabs I was still in bed when the charter showed up at 0630 for Lepika, the charter fishing boat moored next to NAKIA. Russ, the owner/skipper, is a super guy which was confirmed again by his offering to cancel the charter for the day and reschedule (it would have been no fun for people on vacation to go out and bash around trying to catch a fish).

Russ had a problem though, he was trying to catch a fish for a Luau to celebrate the first birthday of his cousin's daughter. They take these things seriously and I guess he was feeling the pressure because at about 0730 a friend of his showed up and announced they were going to go out to try to catch a marlin for the Luau. I'd met Keith the day before. He lives in New Mexico and has a boat in Hawaii which he puts in the water one month a year.

While Keith and Russ prepared to go out, Keith looked over at me and ask if I'd like to go fishing. I stayed put for a second until I heard Russ ask too, I wanted to make sure he was ok with my coming along, but as soon as the words were out of his month I was out of my seat to get a hat, jacket and sunglasses and in two minutes was aboard Lepika.

Once we left the harbor it was clear that canceling the charter was the right thing to do. It wasn't rough by sailing standards but it was rough enough to make fishing uncomfortable. Keith set the lines while Russ drove and at some point Keith told me "ok, when we hook a fish you get in the chair." "Oh great", I thought. "I'm going to be the one that looses this fish." I can remember being very excited the first time I went sport fishing, but I wasn't so excited this time. This had more of an air of a boat ride with friends who just happened to be fishing at the same time. For me, the fun part was watching Russ at work, here is a guy who truly loves his job and I really did not want to let him down.

So we set about the task of fishing, which for those of you who have never been sport fishing before I'll tell you it is a pretty boring activity. Mostly you just motor around the surface of the ocean looking for anything that might indicate a fish. This trip had the added entertainment of windblown spray and a pitching deck due to the wind, but really it was just a chance for Russ and Keith to talk over old times and for me to make a joke when I could. For 4 hours we went back and forth off the coast with nothing to show for our efforts. Finally Russ called it in and we motored back to the harbor to wash the boat.

After the boat was clean, extra clean in fact because Keith and I took special care to dry everything thoroughly, we went to the harbor restaurant for lunch. We talked over burgers and beers but the whole time Russ watched the ocean. He was clearly stressed about this Luau and he started joking about all the places we didn't try to fish. Then he started saying that he thought it was getting calm and maybe we should go out again. The idea that it was calming down was pure fantasy, but I'm game for anything on a boat so I supported the idea of heading out a second time. We finished lunch and drove to a spot overlooking the ocean. If anything there was more wind, the only improvement was that it had shifted offshore a little so the waves weren't so big. "Looks good to me," I said. Keith mumbled something under his breath and Russ said; "Lets Go."

So out we went again and as soon as we cleared the harbor I heard Russ say "This is insane." Well, obviously these fisherman didn't know what it looked like when the sea was really crappy but Russ did have a point. Off again to motor around looking for a Luau fish.

After about 2 hours, nearing the last of the days runs Keith went down on deck to clear a snag in one of the lines. Then Russ started yelling about a fish near one of the lures. I couldn't see anything but moved down on deck as well. "He's taking it, He's taking it," yelled Russ, and then "BANG" one of the reels started peeling out line. Of course I saw none of it, but got in the chair I did. Keith set the pole in the chair and I clipped my belt to the pole. Now the only thing keeping the fish from pulling me over the side was a 1/4" nylon tag line attached to the reel. Russ and Keith were like mad men behind me, clearing the other poles and readying for the arrival of the Luau's main course.

About that time two things happened; First I looked down at the reel and noted that about half the line was gone. "Crap," I thought to myself, "I have to pull all that back in." Second I looked out to sea where I got my first glimpse of the fish. I'm not going to go all Ernest Hemingway here, in fact I'm trying not to use the word 'fish' too much in this description, but this animal was definitely bigger than anything I'd seen on the other end of a fishing line. It was really something to see as it broke the surface, thrashing wildly for 20 yards or so.

Then, Russ yelled "Reel John, Reel," and I started the work of pulling back all the line the fish had taken. I'm not sure how long it took, maybe 20 minutes, but after the first five the muscles in my shoulder were flaming. Thank god Russ and Keith were there to coach me. Every once in a while Russ would say something like "Sorry to be yelling at you John, but I really want to get that fish on board!" As if I didn't know it already. I told him not to worry and to make sure I didn't do anything to loose this fish.

Finally the line filled the reel and I got to sit back and watch while Russ and Keith gaffed and subdued the fish so they could bring it on board. Russ opened the door in the transom and they tried pulling it onboard. I say 'tried' because the first attempt failed, it got stuck in door and had to be turned a little so it would fit. A second more forceful pull brought it in and for the first time I got to see all of it. A blue marlin, it had to be about seven or eight feet long. Keith estimated 210 lbs, while Russ guessed 250. Back at the dock it weighed out at 306 lbs.

I guess I always thought I wanted to catch a big fish, and I can say doing it was fun. But the best part, by far, was being there to watch the relief on Russ's face when that fish was finally on board and knowing that I'd taken part in getting the main course for a little girl's first year birthday party.

John

For more information on the Lepika, see http://lepikasportfishing.com/

Honokohau Marina

We're in Honokohau Marina where we are shoe-horned in between two boats with never more than six feet between us, and often less than two feet. We generally manage to keep 6-8 feet between our stern and the dock (the bow is tightly tied to a mooring buoy). Of course all this proximity to land and boats is more than tempting to Ziggy and it's all we can do to keep him on Nakia, making mornings and evenings very stressful for all concerned. We've finally resorted to putting him in his harness/leash combo and following him around with a squirt bottle when he's most active. When we can't keep an eye on him outside we attach his leash to the binnacle in the cockpit, and when we leave the boat he gets locked below.

But the worst part is that he's accustomed to waking up at 4:30 AM and going out on deck to survey the world until he wakes us for breakfast at 6:30/7:00. Now that we won't let him out at 4:30 he walks on us like he's giving us one of those massages where the girl walks all over your back and legs. I ignore him, but John can't sleep though it and gets up to sit in the cockpit doing internet (yay, free Wi-Fi!) while watching Ziggy. Needless to say we've been bleary eyed since we got here. Today John moved out to the settee to get some sleep and Z actually laid down to go back to sleep on the bed with me.

The good thing about the marina is that we've seen spotted eagle rays and turtles, the latter on a regular basis (one has a front flipper missing). We even hear the turtles breathing under the dock before sunrise when we're sitting in the cockpit on Ziggy watch. The water is very clear and seems to be pretty clean, amazingly enough.

The closest bus stop is at the Kmart which is about a two mile walk along the highway from the marina. Our laundry is reaching critical mass because I haven't come up with a way to get it to the closest laundromat. I'm probably going to have to ask for a ride from someone to get this batch done, and then go back to hand washing.

Speaking of rides, we've been fortunate enough to hitch-hike out of the marina twice. But getting a ride back from Kmart is something we have yet to figure out. Not being savvy hitchers, I don't think we've been standing in the right spot to make it easy for people to pick us up. Last Tuesday John needed to go to the post office and a guy coming out of the marina told us to hop in the back of his spotless truck. When we told him we were trying to find the post office, he took us all the way to it! From the post office we went to Long's, KTA, Ross, the Hele Mai laundromat, (still walking) Tyke's laundromat (near the Kona International Market Place in the old industrial area), Target (looks brand new and had hardly any shoppers), Petco, Sports Authority, and walked up Makala to Kmart where we waited for the bus only to be told that the scheduled stop that I thought was by the marina was actually a suburb up in the hills somewhere. So by the time we walked back to the marina we were really beat.

Wednesday I had to find the library to return the DVDs we'd rented in Hilo (you can return library materials at any branch statewide!). I got a ride out of the marina in a van with a humpback whale on top of it (!) to the first main street running down hill to town. Looking at my map I thought the street I wanted was a significant distance down the highway so I crossed Palani and found a shady spot to stick my thumb out on the highway. A lady in a van stopped to ask where I was going and took me all the way to the library - turns out I was looking at another street with the same name and the library is actually one block up from Alii right next to an outdoor market. After walking around town a little I walked back up Alii almost to the pier to catch the bus up to Kmart, and walked back to the marina. I tried hitching a ride but gave up after about 10 minutes. (Hitch-hiking and riding in the backs of trucks are both legal and fully acceptable practices here.)

So we're having some growing pains, but are enjoying the cool nights and warm days of Hawaii.

Linda

ARR Kona

We made it to Kona after 36 hours of motoring :-(

Then we had to try 4 times to get the anchor to set. Finally I (John) dove in and swam around until I found some sand to drop into. We're way inside and even though it's rough outside we're pretty comfortable.

We may be able to get a spot in the marina soon, we'll see.

John

Hilo to Kona

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Ziggy came home safe and sound last night. He was still a little out of it because they'd had to sedate him again for one last test (and probably to remove the catheter). He's on a prescription diet and antibiotics for the time being. He doesn't like the food very much but I managed to hand feed him a little this morning.

We're getting underway today for Kona. Our friends left Monday and called last night with a glowing report of the bright lights and big city. They say it's like Cabo San Lucas compared to sleepy Hilo! We'd have to jump through a few hoops to stay in Reed's Bay any longer so it's time to move on. It's an overnight run and we'll be anchored in Kona sometime tomorrow.

Linda

Radio to Reed's

Yesterday we made the long (one mile) trek from Radio Bay to Reed's Bay in Hilo. Reed's is where local boats are kept on dedicated moorings. We tried anchoring on the east side but it was solid rock with no sand. So we moved to the west side and dropped the hook in a 30' drop off and backed towards the shallow mooring field. That should keep us from dragging into the moored boats (to the south) with lots of room to drag across the channel to the north if the wind picks up.

We settled in and started working to get the boat ready for the overnight trip to Kona. The swell is very high over there right now, but we hope to move to an anchorage on that side of the island some time this week. John got out the new spool of line from Fisheries to make new jib sheets so that he could stow the rest of the line under the quarter berth. We had moved everything out of the quarter berth to make room for an overnight visit from our friend, Tammy, who's visiting her parents over in Kona. She drove to Hilo on Friday, we visited Akaka Falls, the Lili'uokalani Gardens, and Banyan Drive before returning to Nakia in time for a cruiser's Happy Hour at the picnic table on shore. This was kind of a farewell get-together because most of us were moving on to other places after spending a month in Radio Bay. The next day we rode with Tammy to Waimea for lunch and a walk around town before saying goodbye to her and catching a bus back to Hilo.

Earlier last week John spent a day doing sail repairs for Bill on Quest and he in turn spent a day going up the mast to help us remove and replace two shrouds, the forestay, and the backstay. Having his help saved John a lot of work!

We took a break from projects one afternoon to buy a brand new 19" DTV and last night we watched an episode of Nature on PBS about hummingbirds that was just breathtaking in high definition. We get about eight channels which is plenty.

I returned to the boat early Thursday evening to find all eyes from S/V Lap To on Nakia. Ziggy had been playing on Relax's dinghy tied to Lap To (Helmut and Kerstin are huge cat fans and had Z over for several play dates). The dinghy is much larger than ours and we suspect Ziggy thought he could make the jump to Nakia from the dinghy. Everyone heard the splash and, without a single meow, Ziggy was up the stern rescue rope and back on board Nakia in a flash. I arrived in time to feed the shower hose out our forward hatch so John could rinse Z with fresh water before he began the arduous task of drying himself off with his tongue.

He seemed to recover completely from his short swim so we doubt the events are related, but last night we noticed Ziggy making frequent, lengthy, and unproductive visits to his litter box. John was able to get on the internet only to read that 24-36 hours of blockage can be fatal, and by 10 PM John was on the phone to a 24-hour emergency vet service. They told him we could bring Ziggy in but it was complicated by the fact that we're now anchored out and are still unfamiliar with any potential dinghy landings nearby (not to mention it's a mostly rocky shore and it was pitch black out). So John called Security in Radio Bay to ask permission to land our dinghy there and get an escort to the gate where we could have a taxi meet us. To our immense surprise and gratitude they said we could do that so we put Ziggy in his crate for the dinghy trip. We called for a taxi and arrived at the vet's office by 11 PM. The vet examined him and said that Z's bladder was the size of a tennis ball so they kept him overnight to put him on a catheter, antibiotics, and fluids. We got a call this morning that he's doing well, but we're still waiting for the test results to find what caused it. It will probably mean moving him to a higher quality pet food to prevent a reoccurrence. We both hate to think what would have happened had we been in the Marquesas (where the closest vet is in Tahiti) or on passage, but I'm afraid it's something we're going to have to think about before we leave Hawaii.

Linda

New Pictures Uploaded

I've uploaded a few pictures from our current adventures in Hawaii. Take a look at http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia

"Lost" on a rainy day

I've been telling everyone how lucky we've been with the weather here in Hilo because it's been day after day of sunshine and warm temps. This has made taking the bus for daily treks to town, and all the walking to the post office, library, laundry, grocery stores, shopping mall, and discount stores, very easy and comfortable. It's been nice not to worry about our backpacks and shopping bags getting wet, let alone ourselves. Tuesday evening we even walked from the harbor to a new restaurant called Ponds where we celebrated Glen's birthday with delicious meals of surf and turf, Italian meatballs, shrimp, and my generous plate of pasta in a macadamia nut pesto sauce with scallops. What a delicious splurge!

On Thursday the sky had an odd overcast look to it, and I overheard several people comment that we were having a bad "vog" day. Vog is short for volcanic smog caused by the activity at Kilauea volcano. It's become quite a problem for areas normally downwind (southwest) of the volcano, which are typically Ka'u and South Kona. But when the Kona winds blow the vog in the opposite direction, then Hilo is affected. According to the Lonely Planet guide book the high amounts of sulfur dioxide can affect residents with respiratory problems, but it's not much of a problem for short-term visitors.

I spent some time doing internet chores at the library and checked out several DVDs on Friday. We've never had the opportunity to watch the TV series "Lost" so I got the first season of that. We watched the first episode on Friday night, when it started raining. It rained hard all night, complete with thunder and lightning, keeping me awake wondering how I was going to get into town Saturday to pick up a few groceries.

When it was still pouring down Saturday morning, John said I was nuts to take the bus and I quickly realized he had a point. I spent part of the morning filing most of the mail delivery we'd recently received, and then we popped in the "Lost" DVD. We proceeded to watch three episodes back to back before taking a short break, and then we watched four more episodes! In between episodes we popped our heads out the hatch to see the rain turning the concrete wall behind us into a cascading waterfall, and the surf pounding over the breakwater way out in front of us. The waves over the breakwater sent enough water into our little bay to make the boats rock and roll for the first time since we arrived here. Just before sunset the wind came up enough to push Dorothy Marie uncomfortably close to the wall and Glen and Sally decided to let their stern lines go to re-anchor out in the middle of the bay for the night.

The local TV evening news reported flash flood warnings and 1.5-2 inches of rain falling per hour in the Hilo area, but the leeward side of the island (Kailua-Kona) wasn't affected at all. We also saw footage of the eight inches of snowfall on the east coast which made us feel pretty lucky to be getting nothing more than a good boat wash. It continued to rain all night, sometimes very hard with more thunder and lightning, sending Ziggy running for cover when one set came within three seconds of each other.

This morning we're trying to be a little more productive and John's already helped Dorothy Marie get tied back up to the wall. But it's still raining off and on, so we may be watching some more episodes of "Lost" this afternoon! We're making plans for a Christmas potluck BBQ with the two German boats, and we've been invited to Christmas Eve dinner with Glen and Sally. So while we will miss spending the holidays with our families back home, we'll enjoy sharing them with the new friends we've met here.

Linda

Volcanoes and lava

The highlight of the past week was a visit to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Friday. We shared a rental car with the crews of Dorothy Marie (Glen and Sally) and Avalon (Rick) to make the short drive from Hilo up to Kilauea crater. With a big cruise ship in port we decided to see the Thurston lava tube before the crowds arrived and had the pleasure of sharing it with just a few other cars. Rick, John and I went deeper into the unlit portion of the tube, but I had forgotten to remind everyone to bring a good flashlight, and with only Rick's headlamp and my small LED key chain light we turned around before reaching the end (assuming there is an end!). It hadn't rained for a few days so there were only a few shallow puddles and a bit of dripping from the rock overhead, but I can imagine how wet it must get during normal rainfall. It was nice to have that part of the tube all to ourselves!

Imagining that it would be very hot hiking on lava during the middle of the day, we opted to start our hike on the Kilauea Iki Crater trail at 10:15 before going to the Visitor's Center and the rest of Crater Rim drive. We should have just left our car right there in the Thurston lava tube parking lot and walked the mile to the trailhead parking lot because we ended up exiting the trail at the lava tube where the car could have been waiting for us. But not realizing this we drove the short distance to the next parking lot for our first view of the small crater in the foreground and the huge steam plume rising against a clear blue sky from Halema'uma'u Crater in the distance. Wow! We could see people already on the faint smudge of a trail on the lava and steam was venting from small cracks in the lava floor. We quickly descended through the forest of trees and ferns which ended abruptly above the edge of the crater floor. I was surprised to find there was a brisk breeze blowing the entire length of the crater floor portion of the hike keeping us cool and dry. It was very easy walking on the smooth lava and worn gravel trail marked by several rock cairns to keep us on track. We lacked the $2 map to tell us the significance of the numbered markers but we took pictures to remind us of what we had seen at each one and Sally bought a map at the Visitor's Center later. Several of the steam vents were easily accessible and we carefully reached our hands out to feel how scalding hot and wet they were. It was just amazing to imagine molten lava less than a football field length below us. We reached the opposite end of the crater edge and made the easy ascent through forest again up to the parking lot. John had sprinted ahead of everyone on the uphill trail and was nice enough to bring the car around to us for curbside service. The four mile hike took us just over the advertised two hours including lots of stops for pictures and refreshments.

We headed back towards the Visitor's Center but when we passed the turnoff for the Devastation Trail I insisted on making that stop first. I remembered it as being starkly beautiful from a previous visit over 30 years ago, but with limited time to see everything we should have skipped it. After hiking Kilauea Iki, this little trail was unimpressive.

We drove back to the Visito's Center and ate our lunch at one of three shady picnic tables between the Visitor's Center and the Volcano Art Center. The latter had a variety of beautiful and unique pieces in several mediums. It was all I could do to pass up a $32 Santa ornament with an Asian flair carved out of tagua nut and delicately dyed to give it a beautiful antique look. We regrouped for the 3 PM showing of a movie at the Visitor's Center. This had some footage of volcano eruptions but also covered flora and fauna. With better planning we might have been able to see the special 11:30 AM showing of Kilauea's eruptions.

It was 3:30 and getting late but we still hadn't seen the steam vents at steaming bluff or the sulfur banks, and we wanted to visit the Jaggar Museum for the closest possible view of the caldera. Crater Rim Drive is currently closed from Jaggar Museum counterclockwise all the way to Devastation Trail because of the steam plume emanating from Halema'uma'u Crater. The "steam" is actually full of Sulfur Dioxide and other harmful things that the park service doesn't want visitors exposed to. We quickly checked all of the above off our list and took photos of everything. I wish we'd had more time to spend at the Jaggar overlook because it was truly spectacular, but the sun was sinking and the breeze was freezing.

Not wanting to miss anything we took a quick drive down Chain of Craters road. Rick ended up getting the best out of this detour because he was the only one who opted to hike out to see the petroglyphs and got some great pictures. I was in my flip flops and didn't feel like taking the time to put my shoes back on for that short hike, so the rest of us drove out to the end of the road hoping to see the rock arch. But none of the people returning from the ocean end of the trail knew anything about a rock arch and we were pretty tired so we turned back to the car before walking out to the end of the pavement. John and Glen got out at an unmarked turnoff and clambered over lava to the ocean's edge. We picked Rick up on our way out of the park, and the race was on to get to the lava viewpoint before 8 PM.

We were all very tired and it felt like a slow drive back on Hwy 11 almost to Hilo, then to the end of Hwy 130, and finally along a sometimes one lane strip of rough pavement, with lots of pullouts to let oncoming traffic pass us. I was completely surprised by the jam-packed parking lot which had just emptied out enough to let us park right next to the entrepreneurs selling flashlights, photographs, shave ice, and crafts. We grabbed the flashlights we'd stopped to buy on the way, and picked our way carefully over the ankle twisting broken lava in the pitch dark. The county (because now we were outside the park) had thoughtfully painted yellow marks on the smoothest parts of the lava to guide us to the barricades at the viewpoint. Although we were still a good half mile from it we could clearly see the deep orange color of lava flowing into the ocean with steam clouds glowing orange above it. Shadows moving in the foreground of the lava appeared to be ocean waves breaking and receding. It would be worth another visit to arrive just before sunset to get a better perspective on the location of the lava. Glen and Sally passed a mile away from it at the end of their passage to Hilo from Fanning Island and got some great pictures, so John and I may time our passage to Kona for a closer look at it from Nakia. We were told that in October the lava broke out of the tube through which it's flowing and came within 50' of the current viewing area. Wow!

After a quick fast food stop we got back to the boats at 10:00. Since we'd left at 8:00 in the morning (with stops for snacks and beer before we really got going) it was a long day. But we packed a lot into a 24 hour car rental, and I think the Volcanoes Park is the highlight of any visit to the Big Island!

Linda

Aloha!

It's great being back in a first world country! There's so much to marvel over and the variety of foods and products to choose from is breathtaking. We've been taking the free local bus every day to places like the shopping mall, the downtown Hilo area, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot. The bus doesn't run on Sundays but a cruise ship came in this morning and we'll probably hop on their Roberts Hawaii shuttle bus to take closer looks at Wal-Mart, Ross, and Office Max.

John already mentioned that we had too much motor sailing during our passage. A lot of it was spent getting through the area surrounding the ITCZ which seemed to go on forever instead of just a couple of days like our past crossings of it. The wind dropped significantly for the final two days of the trip and it was like a lake motoring into Hilo. The last several nights at sea were in the chilly mid-70s (Brrrr, break out the fleece!) and I had to put a bedspread back on the bed when we got here. The overcast cooler weather makes for a nice change but we're not looking forward to snorkeling in 76 degree water temps.

We had an easy entry into the small boat basin at Radio Bay where a Matson security guard was ready to catch our stern line after we set our bow anchor and backed to the concrete wall. We are actually located in the Matson port area and Homeland Security is very strict about access. So we are restricted to the area of the wall immediately behind the boat up to the restroom building. To walk out to the front gate we call security and wait for a guard to escort us, and they bring us back to the boat when we return. We know we are an added burden to their already busy days, and we really appreciate having the harbor kept open for transient boats like us. There's a water faucet and a coin operated electricity outlet if we need it, and the restroom with shower is basic but clean.

After tying up on Thursday we launched the dinghy and climbed a big ladder up the wall to go ashore. We checked in first with the port office (our first sight of Christmas decorations!) and then walked to Customs just outside the gate to fill out the usual things-to-declare form. No one came to the boat, and we were only asked to keep our left-over onions on board. We caught the hourly bus and rode it past the downtown terminal out to the Prince Kuhio Plaza shopping mall. The bus is great except that the last one back to the Port from the terminal is at 4 PM, and there's a big gap without service from the terminal between 10:30 and 1 PM. There are several other island buses that we'll check out later for sightseeing.

Our primary reason for visiting the mall was to get a SIM chip for our cell phone in order to make local calls. After inquiring at all the mall phone shops we ended up at T-Mobile in the nearby Wal-Mart shopping complex where we got a $10 chip with 140 minutes on it to start out with. I was impressed with how service oriented everyone we spoke to was. When shops couldn't help us with what we wanted we were twice nicely directed to a different business that might have it. After buying the chip we returned to the mall where we had enough time before catching the bus to eat DQ Blizzards - our first Stateside food treat!

We had pre-arranged to have a local vet visit us first thing Friday morning to issue Ziggy with a Health Certificate for Animal Quarantine. We chose Skip Pease of All Pets Mobile Veterinary Clinic because he advertised house calls and was listed as an approved vet with Hawaii Agriculture in case Ziggy had to go into quarantine for some reason. This was the first time we'd spoken with a U.S. vet since adopting Ziggy in Mexico so we had lots of questions about diet, shots, and medications. Skip spent an hour and a half with us and we even got off topic to talk about his experiences flying his RV-4 kit plane. Once we had the Health Certificate in hand we called Animal Quarantine to have an officer come out. He looked Ziggy over, used a wand to read the microchip number, filled out a form, and Ziggy is now free to stay in Hawaii if he wants!

With all our entry formalities completed we took the bus to downtown Hilo and explored that area a bit. We quickly found the library where for $10/pp you can get a visitor's card good in the entire state for three months. Our first priority there was internet, but I also found that you can check-out DVDs for $1 each! It's a lovely facility with an open air, central courtyard. You know you're in Hawaii when you're standing at one of the card catalog computer terminals and a bright green little lizard goes strolling by in the courtyard! We also visited a couple of grocery stores where we were shocked at $5.50 wheat bread, 14 lbs of cat litter for $14 (in Panama it was 28 lb for $14; now we're glad we over stocked), and higher prices for cat food, just for starters. We'll wait to visit the Costco in Kona to see what's available there before we finish out our pre-passage shopping here in March.

Oh, and we have TV again! Granted we can only tune into the Weather Channel, the Church Channel, and CBS but hey, it was our first chance to see Katie Couric anchor the news; we now get our fill of Tiger-all-the-time; who couldn't love a local news show with a shaky camera trying to find the anchor (and surf reports!); and best of all - we get to watch Survivor and Amazing Race. Woo hoo!

At 3 PM most days you'll find us at the local bar, Margarita Village, across from the gate next to a small local corner market. Yes, they have an especially good beer ($3.50) on tap there, but they also let us use their really fast wifi (24 podcasts downloaded in 15 minutes!). I uploaded some new pictures to our Picasa web albums last night. There are a few new ones of Ziggy in his album and here's a direct link to the first batch of Marquesas pictures (or you can use the normal link on our blog page):

http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/Marquesas83To9509?feat=directlink

The blog will probably be quiet for the next few months unless we do any special sightseeing or boat projects. We're also both on Facebook now so you might catch us online for a chat at the bar!

Linda and John