Monday Part 1

We woke up and could hardly wait to start the day. We ate a big breakfast and headed off to meet our Ocean Safari guide. Our guide set up our group of six in two tandem kayaks and two singles. After coating ourselves thoroughly with sunscreen, we pushed out. We left out of Keahou Bay just after 8:30. On our way out, we saw Larry and Rita from the balcony of the Sheraton waving and yelling at us. Too fun! I bet we looked all sporty! The waves were incredible that day. We bobbed up and down, up and down. It was such a beautiful site to see the cliffs being bombarded with these giant majestic waves! We paddled out for about forty minutes when the guide stopped us. There was a school of about thirty to forty spinner dolphins about thirty feet from us! We all just bobbed and watched them. Every so often one would jump out of the water and do a cool flip for us! I’ve personally never been to Sea World, but I can only imagine that I now have one upped them! Our guide said on a good day the dolphins will come right next to your boat and let you rub their bellies. So incredible.

After a while, they finally headed out to sea and our little group headed over to the sea cliffs to cliff jump! This was also the site of the sea cave that you can tour on calm days…we were very far from a calm day so settled for getting to enjoy the view from about twenty feet away. Our guide gave those wanting to cliff jump very specific instructions about how to approach the shore so you don’t get tossed and turned and all sorts of jacked up from the waves and the rocky shore. After his little disclaimer, three of us decided to stay in our kayaks. The guide tied our boats together then dropped a mini anchor, and flipped off his boat into the water. He swam to the shoreline making it look ever so simple to get out then motioned for those in the group. So out Ryan went. He said the current was incredible and he had to swim incredibly hard to get to the shore safely. Once to the top, Ryan and the other guy in our group made Christine (the Australian we met) jump off first! She was a champ :o) She hardly even hesitated. It was twenty five foot up. Ryan and the other dude on the other hand, took a bit more coaxing. Ryan said his brain would be saying jump, but his legs wouldn’t move! But there’s no way you are going to climb down after a chick has just done it so off he went. The guide came last and he disappeared under water for quite a while afterward. When he popped back up, he was next to his boat. He dove down and picked up the anchor (yes, I said picked it up), came back up, untied us, and off we went!

This time we headed back along the shoreline, him showing us blowholes you could only see from the water and little sea caves and cool arches that had formed. When we got back into the bay, he let us all snorkel. Lots of yellow tang in this little area. Because it was so deep it was harder to see many fish. It was more fun just getting out and having the chance to swim around. Our arms were extremely tired at this point as well from all the paddling…very hard work and huge waves!

Snorkeling

After about an hour, we got back into the boats. Then our guide pulled out a cooler with snacks (cookies, chips, string cheese), drinks (Fresca, water, and other sodas), a box of chocolates, and what else but a pineapple. THEN he pulled out a knife and a cutting board! Right there in the ocean…waves strong, cut up the pineapple and passed it around. It was wonderful! With such an incredible view :o) After our snack we paddled back to the beach. Returned just about 12:30, rinsed off, thanked him and headed to the car. Krystal and Howard were getting in at 2 and we told Larry and Rita we would meet them at the airport instead of trying to make it to lunch. We ran back to the room, rinsed off and jumped in the car. I had bought some coffee for my work that morning so we stopped by the UPS store and got it shipped. Right across from it was Hilo Hattie’s. It is the ultimate island souvenir/gift/island shop. We were still doing okay on time so we ran in and found Ryan a shirt and me a dress. We changed into our “Aloha” clothes in the car then headed for the airport.
More to come tomorrow….