It rains a lot in Hilo. Radio Bay has been permanently closed to cruisers, so Reeds Bay is where it’s at. We found good holding in mud at a depth of 10 feet under the keels. There are some rocks too, and we occasionally heard the chain grinding around. The bay is protected by a monstrous breakwater made of cold lava, and various creeks dump cold water into the bay. Between the rain and the creeks there’s a fairly thick layer of fresh water floating on the surface, which makes for a cold top layer, a thermocline about a foot deep with much warmer underneath. That makes cleaning the bottom a bit unpleasant and difficult as we’re not acclimated to the cooler water and the thermocline makes seeing props and such on the other side really blurry. It’s also a bit tricky to run the water maker in that sort of brackish water, as the DOW membranes are rated for a particular maximum flow rate and operating pressure. Normally we would make water at 800 psi and 2.0 liters/minute, but in Reeds Bay pressure varied from 580 to 720 psi to limit the flow rate to 2.0 liters/minute, and I had to keep a really close eye on things to avoid trashing the membranes.
Old cruising friends Mike and Nancy from SV Shanti met us at the shore when we dinghied in on Friday the 30th of March and had us at the US Customs and Border Protection office minutes later. Officer George Valdez was kind enough to return to the office to check us in, as normally on Friday he closes down shop a bit early, and he had to be the friendliest and most efficient CBP person we’ve ever encountered. In a flash we were done with the formalities and after thanking George profusely our next stop was Hilo Brewing Company. Brewmaster / owner Sebastian cut his chops at Stone and Karl Strauss in San Diego, and after hearing that we had just sailed 2200 miles from French Polynesia the sampler platter was on the house! Every example was great, but the West Coast IPA won the “put that in my growler” award. Mike and Nancy led us back to the car and soon we were at Hilo Burger Joint for our arrival cheeseburger. Without reservations we had to wait for a table, so we took a walking tour of the older downtown Hilo business district to kill time. Sadly, Lucy’s Tacos was having their closing night, and as she does the best Mexican food in the area we resolved to wait until our arrival in the continental US (CONUS) to address our Mexican food low light which has been glaringly bright for quite some time. When we were finally seated at HBC we found we were next to the stage where a fine musician was playing acoustic guitar – quiet enough that we could still chat at normal tones. Seated at the table next to us was George the CBP officer and his lovely bride, and we had a good time telling her how kind her husband had been to us.
The evening ended with Mike and Nancy depositing us back at the dinghy which we had tied to a palm tree after setting a stern anchor. It’s fair to say that between the craft beer and elation and fatigue we were feeling a bit goofy. The way into the dinghy landing area was strewn with boulders just below the surface, so we had paddled the last bit in, and after we had been paddling back out for about a minute Isabel commented that the current must be exceptionally strong as we hadn’t managed to move more than a few feet. She then enquired if I had thought to retrieve the stern anchor.
Well, the best stories are generally created by dangerous events or really stupid actions, aren’t they?
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