The calm, after the storm... WOW! What a great picture perfect Kona day it was....

This is actually a pic from last night... after the storm ended. We woke up yesterday morning and it was a bit gloomy outside, but nothing to deter us from diving, so Pat and I headed off towards the harbor to take the boat out since we were both off. As we headed into town I got a call from Bob... "Steve, are you still planning on diving today? It just started raining two minutes ago and now the wind is swirling so hard the trees are bending over." I said we'll check it out, and then about a minute or two later we got to the edge of the front.

What a strong little tropical storm. It was very messy and blew in in an instant. Apparently there was a drowning/storm related death at the harbor right as it happened, something involving kayaks and a small boat that tried to rescue them. I'm watching the news tonight to see if I can find anything out, I heard 2nd/3rd hand early today that someone I know may have been involved but is OK. Very very sad for all involved. I'm glad we weren't on the water when this came across, that's about the time we go out when we have charters. Anything that was on the water at 9am yesterday got suddenly pounded bigtime. We turned around about half way to the harbor and got back to a home with no power. Apparently there was a swath through our neighborhood that lost power (we had neighbors both to the right and left of us with power, but straight above us and below to the coast were without for about 11 hours). It was about a 4-5 hour storm, rather strong for here, then turned beautiful.

Last night's sunset was fantastic, and we woke up to incredibly clear skies this morning. For those of you who get here on occasion... Hualalai was clear of clouds all day, and that's not a common event. Today I went for a drive. I went up to check out the newly re-opened Mauna Kea... they wouldn't let me in - boo on them - said only guests with reservations were allowed during their soft opening. I wanted to check it out. When the Mauna Kea opened back in the 60's it was regarded as one of the top resorts in the world. They were hit pretty hard by the big earthquake in October 2006 and decided it was time to renovate and remodel. They just re-opened this last month and will officially re-open in March. It was still an excellent drive... clear skies and bright sunshine everywhere.

later,

Steve