Day 9: Beach Bumming

I've been camping on the beach. I have a tent on a patch of dry sand. All around me is lava rock, pitch black volcanic stone that is frozen in a state of fluid turbulence. One of the fun parts about this living arrangement are the opportunities to forage for food. Fish can be pulled of speared from the shoreline 50 feet away. Palm trees provide coconuts to people than can figure out ways to scale the trunk. Coconuts are so satisfying. Once cracked open, they provide a cocktail of sweet richly tart water and succulent coconut meat. Throw the leftover coconut husk on the ground near the shore and droves of hermit crabs will come to salvage it.
I sit all day on the rocks watching ships go by, some filled with fat tourist snorkelers, others filled with what could either be the merchant marine or fucking buff local kids doing "Stand up Surfing", which is all the rage. Fishing and foraging for food takes time, and I've got a lot of it. I pass the rest of the day playing with my machettes or sharpening them.
Local hobos show up every now and again, camping a few clicks away but keeping to themselves. Yesterday I swam into 40ft of open water to see where the fish were. The ones I wanted to catch weren't around.

About once a day I drive into Kona town for some civilized food and the internet connection at one of the many Starbucks here. As I return to the shoreline, the full moon is usually sky high, lighting up the night with a florescent glow and moving the water level up and down a few feet. It's about when the moon is highest that I go to bed. The sand is lumpy and kind of tough but for some reason I never have any problems sleeping.