TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

June 27, 2008 through July 16, 2008 – Upon waking up the day after we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted with a beautiful, calm, picturesque, small bay.  We anchored just inside of the breakwater and decided to stay there instead of tieing up to the sea wall.  Other cruisers that were already there, hailed from Australia, Canada, France and the USA.  Conveniences such as a market, laundromat and bar (with free internet access) were within walking distance.  The was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing; locals taking their outrigger canoes and catamarans out to Hilo Bay, cruise ships arriving each Tuesday and cargo ships coming and going (we saw one of Ken’s ships that he sailed on – the Matsonia).

We enjoyed the three weeks we spent at Hilo and the big island very much.  All of the people were very friendly to us.  We were able to rent a car for two of the weeks and got to do a lot of exploring.  Some of the highlights include; the Hilo farmers market (yummy vine ripe tomatoes, papaya, mangoes, etc.), the tsumani museum, the library, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, lava trees park, ‘imiloa astronomy center/planaterium, the lava viewing site, the lush foliage and jurassic park like scenery.  Hilo usually gets a lot of rain, but we were lucky and experienced hardly any at all.

Originally we had inteded to sail around to the west side of the island, but after driving there and seeing the limitation of anchorages, we decided to leave Sand Dollar in her secure spot at Radio Bay and tour the island by car – aka asphalt circumnavigation.  The barren old lava flows and burnt land scape of the west side contrasted sharply with the water falls, tropical colors and lush green of the windward side.

Hilo is a very Hawaiin town.  Local merchandise and produce are inexpensive and excellent quality.  Tourist impact is low and locals are very friendly; our rental car delivery driver took us on a tour of the town.  Women wear dressy muu-muus and leis to church and the Hawaiin language is commonly interspersed with english in daily conversation.  One of the local radio stations (KHBC) catered to the needs of their town and played a great variety of music – we really enjoyed it.

Aloha Hilo and mahalo for your hospitality.