Thank you LeadTurn, I appreciate the info. I'm in Japan with the Marine Corps. lol, Thanks for the compliment on my English. It never hurts to hear it every now and then.
Nautilus sounds like my kind of place.
Any suggestions for a "post dive" restaurant?
Oooops, my bad (about English), very sorry! :blush::blush:
But heck, if I'd known you were are Marine, I'd have used much smaller words... (runs and hides).... sorry, as an ex-USN puke I could not resist!!!
Hilo is small enough that there are several pretty good places to eat within a 5 - 10 minute walk of Nautilus. None are exceptional, but all are pretty decent for a post-dive lunch. There are 3 Thai, 2 Mexican, 1 Vietnamese, a few local "lunch shops", a sports bar and grill, and "Cafe Pesto" serves a variety food. Basically it would just depend on what you were in the mood for after the dive.
About Hilo Diving: It is a "weather-permitting" kind of thing. We are on the windward side, and this can often churn up the water. There are not too many no-dive days, but if the trades blow hard it can get too rough to dive, and sometimes the visibility is shot for a day or two afterwards.
We
do have a great reef system with lots of fish and turtles about 10 minutes outside Hilo (at Leleiwi), and when the weather is good I'd rate it as one of the top dives on the Island. A "tyypical" dive at Leleiwi will be light wave action and surge, visibility of 40 - 60' in the shallows, and maybe 80' as you get a little deeper. However, those distances can drop quickly if it gets rough, or improve a bit if it is flat calm.
If the weather is marginal, I'd recommend making the drive to Kona to dive. Kona is in the lee, and
almost always has good diving conditions.
Enjoy your stay!
Best wishes.