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Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Four

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January 11 (Sunday, Day 7, Kona, Hawaii)

The day started a little cool and cloudy, but we signed up for the Zodiac snorkel adventure so the three of us got to the lounge by 7:45 AM with the rest of our adventure snorkelers. We were put on the first tender to shore and met up with the two Zodiac captains. We boarded the second Zodiac and hung on tight (and kept a foot under the taut rope running along the floor of the Zodiac at all times so as to not fall out). The captain was radioed about the first Zodiac seeing a whale about 20 yards away. We weren’t that lucky and didn’t see any. We missed the whale by about 5 minutes!

The Zaandam peeking through the palm trees

More after the jump . . .

On the Zodiac

Our captain commented on the large tail (cloud) in the sky and that he hadn’t seen one looking like that before. He then handed out rain jackets to anyone that wanted one and half of the 14 snorkelers took them, including the three of us. It soon started to rain. HARD! Then we saw a water spout/tornado/water “dust devil”/hurricane on the water about 100 yards from us and the captain made the decision to turn back. We all agreed and tried to not look into the rain since it was really, really painful and cold. Several times waves sprayed us and they were warm. By the time we got back to the dock we were all soaking wet, regardless of rain jacket or not.

Rain chasing the Zodiac

Running to port through a driving rain

We got on the tender to go back to the Zaandam but the tender service had been discontinued due to the weather. After about an hour, we got back to the ship. Snookums immediately took a hot shower and went to the coffee bar and bought a hot chocolate. Even Filbert was cold.

Safely inside the tender--it's wet outside

That's the Zaandam--we hope

We heard the announcement saying that ALL shore excursions were canceled except for the afternoon city bus tour. (Our money was reimbursed.) Much to our surprise, the monsoon finally stopped around noon and the sun came out. The three of us took the tender back in and walked around for a while and enjoyed sitting on the seawall watching the sea, a crab and a net fisherman (he didn’t catch anything while we were there). Filbert bought a 6-pack of Miller Lite that he nicely shared with Mom, Dad and Judy.

A much drier Kona

Crab on a rock

Fisherman throws his net

Mom, Dad, Judy and Snookums attended the 6 PM movie, “My Mom’s New Boyfriend”. Snookums snoozed off and on but the simple plot was easy to follow. The popcorn was delicious!