Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe we are now in our fifth year on Celestial. We started in Maine Sept 2009, sailed down to Panama, then Seattle, back to Mexico and now in Hawaii in the four years. We had two tsunami warnings (one on the big island, one in Calif) and we can’t recall ever hearing of one in our trip from 1988-1996. Unfortunately, we had more accidents than we’ve ever had with any of our other boats but thank goodness, it is a sturdy boat. The latest ding came when monster waves broke both stern lines on a power boat tied up next to us and the edge of his stern rammed us. He’s dragging his feet on making it right, the bugger.

On a happier note, the big island has been great to explore again. We called ahead to DLNR (port officials) on Dec. 6 to ask for one of their two transient slips at Honokohau Harbor as we neared the shoreline and they told us ‘there was no room in the inn’. So we quickly looked back at the chart and chose Puu Alii Bay, near the airport and spent a quiet night there. The next day we went to the Harbor anyways since we needed fuel and water and knew we could get it there.

Lo and behold, there was an empty spot so we took it and have been here ever since. (Remind you of ‘the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing’?) You DO have to find or bring a plank to walk from the stern of your boat to the dock. This was our second time coming here so we knew to prepare a lasso ahead of time to capture the mooring ball your bow will be tied to. Then you stern tie to the dock once you can safely jump to it. There are rocks under the dock and with surge you can hit them or the cement dock. There are bright yellow planks to warn of the cement and someone must have hit the dock and knocked loose the plank so we got to use to get over to the dock. The last time Scott scrounged around until he found a plank that was long and sturdy enough.

Outside the harbor is a great snorkeling area near the dog beach. We took our kayaks and spent a day, even using our underwater camera to video a spotted eagle ray touring the area. Inside the harbor, it is still clear enough to see rays, sea turtles, and even a huge moray eel right from your boat. In the height of the fishing season, we hear there is a tiger shark that roams around also. It is the winter season so we have gotten some higher wave action, wind, and rain but most days are sunny and hot. There’s a great park across from the harbor and during the high waves, we took a hike and counted 14 sea turtles up near the shore. Back on Maui, Celeste did a great video of swimming with a sea turtle.

We rented a car for three days and took in the national parks, South Point, the painted church and Kilauea Visitor Center; getting some great shots of the volcano's lava activity at night. No active lava during the day but lots of places to view past flows and steam vents. Be sure to check out the gallery.

We have some great friends here, especially Tara off of Xenia, who helped us with trips to Costco, Fed Ex to return a new solar panel broken in transit and more. We spent over $1000 just at Costco to prepare for the South Pacific trip. Couldn’t help taking advantage of Amazon free shipping to add solar panels, a freezer, boat lines and more to Celestial. We would have been gone already but we’re waiting on a drawing tablet that connects to the computer so Celeste can continue her art commissions along the way. It died just a few days ago.

Our current plan is to leave for Fanning Island next week so look forward to more tropical reports then. We will close down our phone so please call our son, Nathan at 206 484 9216 if you need to get a hold of us. Our email will stay the same (Hansentripp47@gmail.com); we just won’t get to it as often.