Hawaii 2 - Snorkeling Maui

Today we had our big snorkeling trip. Dani was feeling better, but not better enough, so Dad used her ticket, and he, Adam, and Myself packed up and headed 15 minutes down the road for our trip. We signed the waivers, chatted with our fellow trip-mates (one was a pilot, so he and Adam had a lot to discuss), and killed time waiting for our boat to be ready for us. During which time, I looked up sunburn facts.  Did you know it's easier to get sunburned at the equator? Did you know that being at 10,000 feet halves the amount of time it takes to burn? Reading more about  UVB levels Haleakala is named as one of the easiest places to get burned!  And don't we know it - we're all a little toasty after yesterday, and made sure to slather ourselves with sunscreen.

I think traveling after a major disaster may be the best travel-hack. Our flight had plenty of room, and our snorkeling tour was only 11 of us - on a boat designed for 50. It was awesome.  We walked down the beach where they nuzzled the massive catamaran right into the knee-high waves, and scrambled up the ladder on deck, where they greeted us with fruit and breakfast. I'd already eaten, but it's hard to say no to pineapple juice. All aboard, we set off to Molokini Crater - a bird sanctuary and some of the best snorkeling around. On the way, perhaps because they had time to kill, perhaps because they're just like that, they grabbed a floating ball and a flipflop out of the ocean. We pulled into the bay and one of our deckhands (who had checked us in previously) dove off the boat, swam to a white marker, and disappeared deep beneath the water. She resurfaced with a line, and they tossed a mooring line to her, which she threaded through and swam back to the boat, before repeating the operation with the bow line.

Time to snorkel, we opted for the fast option - stepping off the side of the boat and plummeting 6 feet into the water. Definitely fun, and we were suddenly surrounded by fish. Well, not surrounded. Just the two fish that came to check out boat for barnacles... but after swimming a dozen yards towards the shore, then we were surrounded!

The water was ridiculously clear, warm, and probably 40' deep where we were moored. We did most our snorkeling between 10'-20', staying far enough off the rock wall that waves wouldn't push us into the sharp lavastone or corals.

The corals were plentiful, but only a few types - no where near as interesting as the fish.

Tangs, parrotfish, anglefish, elephantheads or whatever those long skinnyboys are called, it was a good mix of pretty large fish.  Highlights include a giant sea-star, a 4' long morey eel, an angelfish with a topfin twice as long as his body, and these weird super-fat sea urchins. I kept looking for an octopus against the odds, but didn't get quite that lucky. I think my favorites were the black dudes with thin aqua lines across their bodies. Just neat looking. I filmed a bit on the gopro, and passed it off to Adam for a bit. 

I struggled a bit with the mask leaking (apparently beards are a known hazard), and swapped out for some eye-goggles. They were terrible, the lensing effect threw off my depth perception, and water would try to go up your nose, it was just all bad. So I swapped back to a smaller mask and just like goldilocks everything was perfect.

After we wrapped up our time at the crater we went boarded the boat and headed back to shore. Oh, also, the bird sanctuary was full of pterodactyls. I should look up what they actually were [Frigates], but the wing and tail shape.... totally pterodactyls. Back near our departure beach, we stopped at turtle city! Apparently the sea turtles come here to hang out and get their shells cleaned, so they had a good idea where to find them. We splashed in and followed the staff to the first turtle! It was big, at least 3.5' long, probably 4 including the head. Maybe 4.5... but  disappointingly it was just sleeping down there, with a little fish occasionally nibbling at his shell.  Now that we knew what to look for we explored on our own, and dad almost immediately found another! And in swimming over to him I found a third! They were all pretty large, and just napping on the bottom, between hunks of rocks.

I kept exploring, checking out fish, we saw another morey slipping into holes, and I found a turtle that was moving! Finally! He was just hanging out half under a rock, but he kept looking about and occasionally turning around. So I just posted up and chilled, watching him. Now that I had my goldilocks mask I was set to chill for a while, so I did. And he swam up to the surface to get a couple breaths! Very cool to watch him glide through the water, and they look so much bigger at the surface than they do on the bottom.

The rest of the time was more of the same, Adam found a turtle in a deep valley we checked out, and I kept going back to visit the turtle I thought of as "my dude".  We came across another turtle swimming, and then everyone was headed back. I guess we got the signal, though I never heard it.  On the way back I checked out the rock outcropping that poked out of the surface, and there were two turtles swimming around! It's basically a giant arch with a passageway through it, and these two turtles were doing gymnastics together. So like half of us stopped for a bit to watch them, and then finally made our way back to the boat. Those two were for sure the cherry on top of a great snorkeling trip.

Onboard the boat, we got a beer and a surprisingly large lunch.  I had no idea all this was coming, I just said "ok" when they asked if I was in. It was great. We puttered back to our starting beach, had our lunch, and headed home. Oh, and the sun was brutal. Despite several layers of sunscreen, yesterdays sunburn was catalyzed into a serious... annoyance.  Then we walked down the ladder, ran up the beach, and made our way over a MUCH HOTTER path back to the van.

Back home, we hung out at the pool and caught up. Dani is essentially over her covid, and they spent a few hours at the beach with the baby, who was having a great time splashing around in the pool. And then, with all the sun and swimming, we were wiped. It was nap time, for everyone. I read in my book, although somehow it went to sleep on me when I blinked... Ok, it was probably a 15 minute blink, but it was rejuvenating and my burns weren't as annoying afterwards, so great success.

Sage is no longer an angel. She was angry, didn't want to sleep, didn't want to eat.... She almost certainly has Dani's covid. So we took dinner (great seafood from a local foodtruck) in shifts, staying home rocking the baby as she alternated between catatonically tired and unable to keep her eyes open, and screaming wildly while blowing her nose into our shirts. C'est la vie.

After dinner she finally went to bed, and we went out to watch the sunset (technically, I just missed it, but the post-sunset fadeout was still gorgeous). Then I went out solo for some new sunglasses (mine broke for the 4th time), and some burn cream - which was widely enjoyed all around the house. Then a bit of hanging out, cards, and journaling.

Tomorrow, we plan to do the Road to Hana while Sage and her parents chill at the house, and hopefully she can fight off the 'vid and get back to her angelic self.  If not, well, we can take it in shifts again.