We also ended up having a most delightful meeting of the boating kind. One night we were cooking dinner and a shadow passed the port lights. Tor popped his head out to investigate and low and behold there was a traditional Hawaiian sailing catamaran right next to us. The man at the helm (actually steering oar), Kiko, recognized our boat from where we tie it up in Seattle, so he stopped by on his evening sail to visit. He owns a boat in Seattle and had seen our boat tied up in Lake Union, and had been curious about it because as a boat builder himself, he had the plans for the same boat and had wondered about building it. The last time he was in Seattle he'd noticed our boat was gone, and low and behold we turned up in his back yard! He quickly invited us for an evening sail with himself and his friend visiting from Germany and Tor and Kiko talked boats the whole time, I think both enjoyed it. I loved sailing on his sailing canoe, it was so different than anything I'd ever sailed on, and the boys were in hog heaven too.
A couple of days later Kiko showed up in his paddling outrigger canoe with two friends from work because he wanted to go over the charts with us and give us good local knowledge about anchorages on the Big Island. Then he invited us to go paddling for the evening with them. We grabbed oars and the boys paddled with half kayak paddles and had a blast. His friends were a delight to spend time with and the evening couldn't have been better, though when we showed up at a restaurant later with our paddles and lifejackets, the restaurant staff was a little confused!
We tied up in Radio Bay which is behind the breakwater in the port of Hilo and also right next to the shipping terminal and cruise ship dock. There was zero swell, and we all really enjoyed being still again. It was a bit of a hassle to be tied up by the shipping terminal due to post 9/11 security rules that necessitated us walking all the way around the port instead of the shortcut through it, but it offered endless entertainment for the boys watching he loading and unloading of countless containers. Perfect place for our kids!
We rented a car for a few days and in addition to provisioning both food (Costco) and books (there is a terrific used book store in Kona) we did some sightseeing and made it back to Volcano national park. All in all, we had a wonderful time on the Big Island and it was hard to leave, but we did so we could rendezvous with our friends on Asunto on Maui!
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| Radio Bay. Breakwater and canoe club where we rowed our dinghy ashore. |
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| Med moored to a container terminal! |
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| In Volcano National Park, we drove to the end of Chain of Craters road to walk to where the lava covered a park road in a fairy recent flow. Lars remembered the "Road Closed" sign from when we were there in 2014 and wanted to see it again. Things had changed...a new road had been built and we think this is what remains of the sign. |
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| This is what it looked like in the summer of 2014. |
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| Wait, what is this road?! It turns out it was built over the lava flow in quite a hurry as an evacuation route for people who live on the other side. In recent flow activity the only road out was almost cut off by lava, so the residents needed an evacuation road in case the main road did get cut off. |
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| Thurston Lava tube didn't disappoint! |
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| Neither did seeing the red glow of the lava in the evening from Jagger Museum. |
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| Super cute kids super excited by geology! |
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| Dramatic at night, no? |
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| Lars is ready for snorkeling! |
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| Going sailing with Captain Kiko! |
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| Paddling with Kiko! |
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| Hamming it up at the Banyan tree. |
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