Snorkeling at Captain Cook

 Captain Cook is a place over near Kona, on the West side of the Big Island.  Linda wanted to go snorkeling again, and all the snorkeling trips seem to be on the West side.  I suspect it has to do with the trade winds — the North and East side of the island get stronger winds and currents.

Of course it is a two hour trip over to the West coast, so we started out this morning around 10, getting to Kona around 12:30, taking the Saddle Road across the middle of the island.  We had lunch and then went down to wait for the cruise, which started around 1:45.  The cruise was on a catamaran.


There were about twenty people on the cruise, plus a crew of 3.  We took off around 2:00. 


The boat went out about a mile or so and down the coast to the Captain Cook Monument.


This is in a relatively secluded cove where the water was shallow and much calmer.  The Captain Cook Monument is very difficult to get to; it is down at water level off a steep cliff.


We snorkeled for about 45 minutes, and then it was time to head home.


On the way back, we saw a couple whales off to the side.  But of course, we saw whales back at Waikiki, and on our walk to the green sand beach, so I didn’t bother to get out my camera.  This time, we saw both the water spout from the whale blow holes, but after that they did a deep dive, which meant that their tail (or fluke) went up above the water surface as they turned to dive deep under the water.  Sorry, no picture!

We got back to the pier around 5pm


And then we did the long drive back home.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

29 December 2023 — First Day in Hawaii

Image
 There seemed to be many problems with the room, so I thought we should work on those first.  Linda wanted food stuff and I wanted to fix the problems with the pillows and such.  So we found a market and a Walmart that looked to be within walking distance and took off. Along the way, we saw an IHOP and figured that would be a good breakfast to start the day.  After that we continued walking, and got to Foodland.  Foodland seemed to aspire to be a Whole Foods, so we continued on to Walmart.  We found a night light, some pillow cases, a clothesline, and some foodstuffs.  But Linda was wanting more fresh fruits, so we tried Whole Foods since it was in the neighborhood, where we got some cereal and pineapple pieces. Then it was back to the room.  My watch had decided I must be taking an outdoor walk, and recorded it as being about 5 miles, and about 3 hours. After we rested we went just down the street a bit further in the opposite direction from our morning hike, and found another super m
Read more

Chinatown in Honolulu

 On our second full day in Honolulu, we spent a lot of the time scheduling things.  Linda did much of the scheduling. Things did not start off well.  At about 3:15 AM, I was awakened by loud music and/or singing outside.  I was never certain if it was live or recorded, but it was loud.  We are on the 6th floor, looking out over solar panels over parking garages and apartments.  The room has windows that function like Venetian blinds — slats of glass about 3 inches high and 3 feet long which all slant up or down to open or (almost) close.  Linda likes them partially open to cool the room down.  No screens, so I guess there is no bug problem here.  But with an open window, noise comes in, as well as air. After about a half an hour, the music quit.  It wasn’t until an hour later that the trash trucks came around emptying dumpsters. We started off with an in-room breakfast of yogurt and granola. And bananas.  Then we went out to check on the price of renting a car for just one day.  Looks
Read more

Going North — Puukohola Heiau and the Waipio Valley

Image
 We have been over most of the South, West, and East parts of the Big Island, but that still leaves the North.  So we went North.  We drove up Highway 19 from Hilo, along the East Coast and then over to Waimea in the middle of the island and then over to the West Coast. The North part of the island is older and so the lava is more weathered and there is more dirt than in the South. It is much better for agriculture.  In fact we saw several fields with cows roaming around in them. This even plays into some of the history of the island.  Back in the 1700s the islands all had their own chiefs; the Big Island had several.  Including two, Kamehameha in the North, and Keoua in the South.  They were cousins, and rival chiefs. The Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site is the site of a temple (Heiau) that Kamehameha built to fulfill part of a prophecy that he would rule over all of Hawaii if he built a temple there and dedicated it to the war god Ku.  He did and then invited his cousin, Keoua,
Read more