I saw a place online where I can reserva a pontoon
boat in the kailua-kona area. It would be driven by me
and they say it's easy to do. I'm thinking of a full day rental to go up & down the Kona coast. Is this too dangerous to do? I'm looking at May 4th for this adventure. Please give me any tips or feedback on this idea.

If this is like what is used on lakes on the mainland, I think the water would be too rough for this boat.

The Kona coast is wind-protected by the mountains from the trade winds. Therefore, the water is calmer than the north or east shores and is like a lake and is very calm at times. However, the westward moving ocean currents are strong if you venture too far south or too far from shore since the drop-off goes to great depths rapidly. And if the engine fails, you will be swept out to open sea. And once beyond the buffet range of the mountains, the winds will drive you farther and faster. Since the Big Island is the furthest island to the south in the chain, as you drift westward, you will be headed to points unknown....well, only the wind knows.

Other than that, I don't see a problem. Just make sure your GPS unit is waterproof and your waterproof, portable emergency radio is working. This way you can contact the Coast Guard and give detailed cooridinates in the event of a mishap.

Happy boating.

Three years ago, my husband and I and another couple rented a pontoon boat for half a day. We had so much fun that my husband and I rented it again the next day. We had the time of our lives. We were very lucky, a pod of about 20 spinner dolphins joined us three different times. Twice they got in front of the boat as if they were pulling us. We could have literally reached out and touched them. We also had a sea turtle join us for a little snorkeling on one of our stops. We reported our adventure back on shore and found that our experience with the dolphins was pretty rare, but not unheard of.

We found the boat to be very safe and we were totally comfortable with the experience.

We are going to Kona again this May and we have already reserved a boat.

The owner was very good. I talked to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago when I made my reservation and he said that he had only lost one boat in the entire time he had been renting them and it had something to do with putting down an anchor where it shouldn't have been. Everyone made it to shore.

You can not get very far in these boats as they do not go all that fast (who wants to be in a hurry anyway??!!) So planning to go "up and down the Kona coast" may be a little ambitious. Ask when you make your reservation. They will have good advice.

Twid7

If you are considering "Captain Cruise" I would say NO!!

The items shown in the web site were not available.
They were late in getting to the marina.
They did offer additional hours due to their being tardy however the boat DIED in the water and He tried to talk me through repairs. It was unfixable due to shabby upkeep. Finally a state boat towed us in. He couldn't pick us up because his boat trailer broke in two.

Nice guy but that doesn't make up for runnung a poor business