As a marine preserve, Kealakekua Bay (Captain Cook) is only accessible via hiking, canoe from the other side or via a tour operator. We elected the latter because we felt it was most convenient for us. We then decided whether to use a large operator (Fair Wind Cruises) or other operators using a small, uncovered boat (sunburn anyone?). We elected to meet in the middle with Hang Loose Tours and their powerful covered boat for 20 passengers plus crew.
Be forewarned about Captain Tim: he has good energy and is well-intentioned but you will come to either love him or hate him. He is passionate, boisterous, chauvinistic, eccentric and fanatical to sum him up in five adjectives. His stories on melting polar ice caps, religious references and stance on Hawaii’s independence may either be well-received or off-putting depending on your position and tolerance. For instance, in the meeting area that morning, my wife observed someone joking and pretending to be a crying whining child to a pregnant lady from a different operator but no one was really laughing. My wife thought in her head, “I hope we don’t get this guy”. Well, sure enough, we did :) The rest of the crew was competent and kept the pace of the tour moving.
As for the tour itself, we departed first thing in the morning. We saw spinner dolphins which were amazing (especially underwater you can hear their echo location) and the bay had ample fish of varying species even though we were one of the last groups to arrive there that morning, having swam with dolphins first.
Some considerations: The boat is very fast and rocks into waves, so it is recommend to take motion sickness medicine an hour before. You must wear a yellow floatation device when swimming with dolphins and can elect to wear your own floatation or none at all at the bay. Not sure if this is consistent with all other Captains with Hang Loose, but Tim disallows the one-piece full-face snorkel. Their attitude and expectation is you have good swimming ability and are comfortable in the water, in contrast to our first snorkel tour with Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui who were very helpful with those learning (that was my first experience and to this day, I still commend them for their efforts). With a smaller operation, there isn’t a BBQ on board but alternatively you get fresh sandwiches, fruit tray and boxed snacks. The cooler had various refreshments available (non-alcoholic).
If you know how to snorkel and can put up with some crew saltiness, this is great value for what you receive at a lower rate than other operators for essentially the same product. A valuable tip is if you are flexible with your time and don’t foresee it to be the busy season, consider booking directly at their offices (Hang Loose Boat Activity Center) in Kailua-Kona on Ali’i Drive by the ABC convenience store and Fish Hopper. We saved about 10-15% from web prices this way.
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