Finally after 2 nights at sea I am starting to tolerate the motion again. Although it is not nearly as bouncy as the first few days out of Tahiti, the motion has still been stomach lurching at times and since we were med moored in the most protected bay in Hawaii, we lost our sea legs quickly with the absolute stillness of the water. Most of the past year, we have been gently and sometimes not so gently rocking at anchor between passages.

All of us on Phambili were less than enthused about starting the long journey home and teleporting home was one of the options mentioned. The crisscross white streaks from jets above only served to emphasize the speedier forms of travel between Hawaii and North America. Despite all this talk of getting home quickly to be with family and friends, however, we really do want to see this voyage come full circle and I for one am going to treasure this last month of close proximity with my family.

We became quite fond of Hilo with its lush tropical vegetation and showery weather but having to call security to escort us out of Radio bay port proved to be a real nuisance at times. Fruit flies ambushed the boat when we first arrived and moved in for the duration of our stay, with a few determined stowaways keeping us company still. Lots of time was spent off the boat, doing laundry as I think I mentioned more than once, but also sightseeing. We had a fascinating time at Mauna Kea observatory and if there was one stowaway I would like to have, it would be the astronomer who took us on a tour of our galaxy, pointing out and waxing lyrical on all the constellations. The night was moonless, crisp and clear and large telescopes were trained on Saturn.

We spent a full day at volcanoes national Park hiking across larva, near steam vents and through larva tubes. At nightfall, as we were watching the brightly glowing magma lake in Kilauea crater there was a buzz of excitement among the park rangers as there had been a large rockfall into the crater earlier in the day. This had started a larva overflow at a remote cone crater at the east side of the park which had in turn precipitated some bush fires. From our vantage point a bright glow in the distant sky was evidence of this. Everyone was wondering if this would restart the larva flow to the sea that had stopped flowing about eight months ago.

Yes, it is all about larva on The Big Island. A short trip south of Hilo is an area of very new larva flow covering a previously established oft visited black sand beach. We followed a path across this young earth to a newly forming black sand beach, the rollers coming in and grinding up that larva as we watched. Coconut shell fulls, hat fulls and pocket fulls of that sand was collected and needless to say, samples accompany us home.

The other major bit of sightseeing we did was a rather ambitious day trip around the entire island. Unfortunately, Tommy could not accompany us on this one as he was replacing the engine mount cover on the port engine. Although tremendously rushed, it was interesting to see the climate contrast between the east and west side of the island. Hilo, the windward side is lush and wet and the Kona side is hot, dry with scrub like vegetation and even the odd cactus here and there. We made sure to try a malasada, one of Hawaii's signature foods, essentially a holeless doughnut with a fruit jam filling of ones choice, originally introduced by the Portuguese.

The high pressure system that we have to round on the north west side in order to keep some wind, has split into two with a westward drift. This makes a direct route with some wind through the high more possible at this point. I'm sure we will have to do some motoring, however, as the winds are going to lighten considerably. If the direction is favourable, perhaps we will pull out the genniker.

Aloha