John has already blogged that we arrived in Hawaii, now here are the pictures to do some catching up.

After arriving in the dark on a Sunday night, we got a good night's sleep before a 7am arrival of the US Customs and Border Patrol.


So we got a nice shot of Malo and Moses with our very nice Customs agents.

While on passage we check in on the Pac Sea Net (Pacific Seafarers Net), where someone records our current position, speed and direction, weather - and will assist with communications if there is an emergency. The people that run the net are all volunteers, very professional, and provide a very valuable service to us yachties out in the middle of no where. Since we were headed to Kona on the Big Island, John started chatting after the net with Randy - one of the guys that helps run the net. He invited us to come by his house and say hello if we had a chance. So on Monday, we took a trip up to the volcano and stopped along the way to meet Randy.


This is Randy and John in Randy's man cave where he has all his ham radio gear - and lots of it.


Some people collect beer cans, Randy collects big microphones, and lots of other stuff. I even thought his man cave was cool!


View of the outside of the man cave, with lots of antenna's above for all sorts of radio options.


Randy gave us a tour of his property. He and his wife run a small bed & breakfast, and have about 5 acres up in the hills overlooking the ocean. He has a number of out-buildings for various projects and purposes. He also has a few lava caves which National Geographic came out to inspect about a year ago. They were plotting how the various caves are networked together for several miles back towards the main volcano.


Malo standing in front of one of the larger caves.


On the way to the volcano there were vast stretches of lava fields. Doesn't give a very tropical feel to the island does it!


And we had to, of course, make a mandatory stop along the way at the southern most bakery in the USA! I think half of Hawaii decided to stop here as well - busy!!! But great sandwiches on sweet Hawaiian bread.


When we got up to the volcano - it was cold, windy, and pouring down rain. The view beyond Moses is about as much as we saw of the Volcano! bummer.


If it was a clear day - this is what we were suppose to see.


We did see lots of steam coming out of the ground - a very eerie site!


We warmed up around one of the steam holes.


We needed an exciting back drop to make the volcano visit a bit more memorable.


On the drive back across the top of the island from Hilo to Kona - more non-tropical views. Looked more like we had landed on the moon. By the time we got back to the other side though, the clouds had parted and it was a blue sky sunset.


For dinner and some brew tasting we headed to the Kona Brewery & Pub. A fun atmosphere and great food. We didn't really find a beer we liked though - but we sure enjoyed trying!




So the saying goes - "Big Ocean, Small World". While we were at the transient dock at Honokohau Marina - right next to the fuel dock, we started up a conversation with a couple of fellows fueling up their charter catamaran. Come to find out, the young captain had sailed on a drua a couple of years ago with Malo's cousin, Seta. They went from Hawaii down to the Cook Islands together! Crazy!


The refurbished day cat he was on. Nice looking cat!


And the adventures in Kona continued with a visit to the Seahorse Farm!


We each got a chance to hold one!


This little guys was like putty in my hands! I think he fell asleep.


Moses riding a seahorse.


And Malo's turn.


A gaggle of cute little seahorses.


Back at the transient dock later in the day, a boat had come in that had caught a 490 pound blue marlin.


They gave us a huge chunk of meat - at least 10 meals (for 4 people each) worth.


Moses helped them clean and bag the fish.


Our last night on The Big Island, we went to have dinner on the other side of the marina at Bite Me - known for some of the best fish on the island. We sat at a picnic table next to 2 couples on vacation from Texas. What a hoot! They were quite impressed with our sailing adventures, and we were enjoying their travel tales from around the big island. Or course we had to translate though for Moses and Malo - the Texas accents and slang was a bit too much for them to understand!

Around midnight we departed the dock and made way for Maui and the Maui Ocean Center for a quick tour of the aquarium. And that's the next update!