Skinny-Dipping with Aloha by Kevin Reardon
National Skinny-Dipping Day—Saturday, July 13, 2024—began rather early for my
husband, Tim, and me and a few of our friends. We needed to leave our house in Hilo,
Hawai‘i, around 6:30 a.m. in order to get across the Big Island to the Kona side in time
to be on the boat before it left the Honokohau Harbor dock at 8:30. We would be
spending the morning with Swim Free Hawaii.
The quickest way between Hilo and Kona is over the “Saddle Road,” a.k.a. Daniel K.
Inouye Highway—named for one of the longest-serving U.S. Senators in history—but
even that route takes a minimum of 90 minutes. The road rises to an elevation of over
6,000 feet as it passes through the saddle between the peaks of Mauna Kea and
Mauna Loa, which are considered by some to be the tallest and largest mountains on
Earth. It was a typical damp, crisp morning as we headed out of Hilo and up the East
side, but once we passed under the arch of a not-uncommon rainbow, the clear blue sky
appeared and we knew it was going to be a beautiful day! Although Tim and I got a little
later start than we had planned, we arrived at the harbor with time to spare. After
parking and gathering our group together, we made our way down to the slip where the
Catchem’ I awaited us, with Captain Chuck Haupert and Co-Captain Gloria Martin ready
to take us out for a morning of nude snorkeling.
Hilo, Hawai‘i, has been Tim’s and my home for more than 15 years, and we’ve enjoyed
a couple of the Big Island’s beaches clothes free on many occasions, but it wasn’t until
a few years ago that we discovered Swim Free Hawaii (SFH,
www.swimfreehawaii.com). It popped up one day as I was scanning the Kona side of
the island on Google Maps. This was during the COVID pandemic, and when we had to
cancel a cruise vacation due to a spike in virus infections, we decided to take a local
mini cruise on SFH. Chuck and Gloria warmly welcomed us aboard the former charter
fishing vessel for the first of many excursions. Since then, we’ve been able to recruit
friends to join us on occasion, and for this National Skinny-Dipping Day, we had a
couple of first-timers in our group.
As Gloria capably piloted Catchem’ I away from the dock, Chuck expertly stowed the
line that had kept the boat tied in place. He has been operating SFH for eight years,
and before that, he captained deep-sea charter fishing trips aboard the boat for 35
years. Around the time that he was feeling that he was lacking the energy to continue
the fishing trips, some people asked him if he would take them out skinny-dipping. His
response? “Hell, yeah!,” and SFH was born. About a year later, as he and Gloria were
beginning their relationship, she asked about the boat. When he told her about the
nude snorkeling cruises, she said, “You’ll never get me on that boat!” At the time, she
felt fearful of the water, but that has obviously changed.