April 10 - 11, 2005

Our trip from Kona to Honomalino was a rather boring motor sail for 6.5 hours.  We were headed essentially south, and very light winds were from the SSW.  Although swells were only about two feet, they were from the south.  So motor sail we did. This leg would probably not be worthy of mention except for catching a fish – a very big nice fish.

It was late in the day, and sunlight was starting to fade.  We needed to head in and drop an anchor before dark.  We went aft to retrieve the line and lure we were trolling, and – be it ever so unbelievable – we got another fish.  This one was a big ono (wahoo) – our favorite fish.

We know that our good luck is just that – luck – but we are really enjoying this fishing!

We chose Honomalino as our last anchorage before heading south towards Fanning Island.  Honomalino is about as far south as you can go on the west coast of the big island before the coast starts running southeast towards south point.  We knew we wanted to avoid the winds and seas around south point, so this seemed a good place from which to set off.

Fish slayer strikes again

Beautiful secluded Honomalino bay

We actually spent our first night one cove north of Honomalino in Milolii.  This is a small bay with the most profuse coral growth we have seen in Hawaii.  The entire bay was huge mounds of very healthy appearing coral with small sand channels between them.  This would have been an excellent place to spend some time other than its exposure.  However, even with just a very small swell running, the anchorage became very rolly.  So we moved a mile south to Honomalino.

Honomalino is beautiful.  There is no development of any kind there, and it is just an isolated black sand beach.  The water is remarkably clear.  Also, it provided a modest amount of protection from the swell, so we spent a restful night there.

However, we had checked out with customs before leaving Kona, and we needed to head off.  So after only one night at Milolii and one night at Honomalino, we set off for Fanning.  Aloha Hawaii…

Read about our trip south toward the equator – first stop Fanning Island