Snorkeling Captain Cook Bay

August 27, 2024

In excitement (and or fear of missing my alarm) I was up early this morning, but didn’t get out the door any earlier than I originally planned. Uncle Andy was going to drop me off and pick me up from my snorkeling excursion, but instead of making two round trips into Kona, he told me to just take the car. I got to the small boat harbor with 10 minutes to spare before the meeting time of 8:00, although after I had parked I realized I was not in the correct meeting spot and had to drive 5 minutes to the other side of the harbor. I found a small group of people waiting and when 8:00 came and went, someone called the tour operator and found out that they changed the meeting spot back to the other side of the harbor where I was originally at! Back in the car and around I went.

I think there was 30 of us on a two story boat that could have easily fit 60 or more. The captain told us it would be about a 35 minute boat ride to Kealakekua Bay, otherwise known as Captain Cook Bay, where we were going snorkeling. This is where Captain Cook first landed when he arrived and also where he died. The obelisk monument was erected in 1874 near where he died (he died in 1779). It was a pleasant ride to the bay which is a State Historical Park and Marine Conservation District. None of the boats can anchor in the bay and must keep the motors running albeit, idling and just slowly moving in the bay. The crew told us we had almost 2 hours in the bay to snorkel, have lunch, and swim. That is definitely among the longest I have experienced for any one snorkel spot. I snorkeled for about an hour before my face felt cold and I had my fill. It was very good snorkeling. The coral was pretty and there were lots of fish! I don’t think I saw anything that I hadn’t seen before, but it was still great. I always love swimming in an aquarium!

Back on the boat I had a sub sandwich, pineapple, and chips for lunch. It was good and the right amount of food. On the second story of the boat they had a platform where you could jump off and a slide off the back of the boat. I first did the jump. I only hesitated for a few seconds before I made the jump (unlike when we were in Iceland and it took several minutes for me to sum up the courage to jump). I watched a crew member go down the slide on her stomach, thereby diving in. That looked kind of scary so I went down on my butt first. The landing was ok, but soon I got the courage to go down on my stomach. It was scary at first, but then I did it a second time and it wasn’t so bad. The next several times got me really enjoying it! I bet I went down the slide 10 times! I only jumped off the platform twice. I felt like a little kid at the pool. It was great!

On the boat ride back we hugged the coastline for a bit and stopped a few times for the crew to point out some points of interest before we headed back to the harbor. We arrived back at the harbor exactly at Noon. The crew told us there was a beach within walking distance of the harbor that was well know for sea turtles. Never one to turn down a beach walk, I made my way over and walked the beach end-to-end. I didn’t find any sea glass but I did see several turtles in the water and 1 on shore.

This is Pele laying on her side (or so they said).

I had spent an hour walking the beach and as I made my way back to the car I checked the geocaching app for any nearby caches. There was one just a couple hundred feet from where I had parked the car. As I approached ground zero there was a man getting in his car that I swore I heard a chicken clucking from. I asked the man if had a chicken in his car and he said yes she was trying to lay an egg! That’s not something you see/hear everyday. I think he ended up letting the chicken out of the car and then he drove off. It took me a few minutes, but I was able to come up with the find. There was a second cache as I exited the harbor at a veteran’s memorial. It was a nice memorial and I easily made the find.

My next stop was to Walmart for water and special Hawaiian salt used in Kalua pork. I checked the spice aisle first but couldn’t find it. I knew Walmart had it though because Uncle Andy had looked it up the day before. I checked the website and saw that it was located in the souvenir aisle. They had a nice souvenir section but I just walked away with the salt and a Hawaiian seasoning blend.

Back at the condo I showered up before surfing the web for somewhere to go for dinner. There are lots of places to choose from, but Uncle Andy and I landed on Island Hopper Tap Room (https://www.islandhoppertaproom.com/). We had an edamame appetizer and I had a kalua pork sandwich with fries covered with furikake and spicy aioli. Furikake is a Japanese seasoning that typically consists of a mixture of dried fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and monosodium glutamate. (The furikake was on the fried poke I had last night for dinner as well.) The sandwich and fries were outstanding! Super flavorful.

Although I didn’t feel super stuffed when we got back, I still felt a walk would make me feel a little less uncomfortable. With no particular destination in mind I headed out for some steps. I came upon a path that took me to a rocky beach. I got there just in time to see the sunset. I got a few good pictures and then after the sun was gone I checked the geocaching app and saw there was one .25 miles away along the beach path I was on. I headed over and found the cache in one of the most creative containers of the trip . . . a coconut! It was the perfect ending to a great day.