The morning started out pretty mellow. Carol worked most of the day and Aaron sat at the pool and soaked in some sunlight. The afternoon came and we headed to Jacks Diving Locker for some diving. We scheduled a refresher course since it has been over three years since we last dove. We showed up almost one hour late so we weren't able to get into the pool, but we did get some class time.
SCUBA diving is one of our favorite activities. Although it doesn't require as much energy exerted as many of the other activities we do it does have a great adrenaline component to it. Sometimes it is the fear of breathing in water instead of air, sometimes it is seeing an enormous fish swimming towards you in the water or other times it is hanging out in a huge cavern created by cooling lava as it hits the ocean. Mostly diving is visiting one of the last wild frontiers where humans are still welcome and have not completely destroyed the beautiful natural resource. Diving is the reason we don't visit Sea World or other big aquariums...why cage up these amazing animals when you can still interact with them in their natural wild habitat?
One of the highlights of today's trip happened before we even jumped into the water. On the way to the first dive we spotted some spinner dolphins playing in the waters near the boat. I am pretty sure they saw us so they started to put on a show where they shot out of the water doing all kinds of acrobatics. We saw the signature "spinning" jump where the dolphin spun about 4 times while in the air.
As if the air show wasn't enough the dolphins cruised over to our moving boat and started to surf on the surge of water created by the front of the boat. We hung our heads over the front of the boat and watched four dolphins cruise at 20 knots right in front of the boat for a couple of minutes or so. We haven't spent much time with dolphins, but with their playful spirit and amazing physical performances they are one of our favorite animals to enjoy in the wild. Dolphins are great performers and we've seen them at various theme parks around the country, but enjoying their playful attention from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean is the only way to go!
The sun was still shining bright during our first dive that entered the water around 4:15 p.m. It was a pretty mellow dive that went to a 60 foot depth in fairly calm water. Although we hadn't been in the water for a long time it was just like riding a bike so we descended into the depths and quickly forgot about the world above the water.
We jumped in the water for the first dive and immediately a Spotted Eagle Ray was cruising 10 meters below us. Not everyone was able to see it. The remainder of the dive was just touring around checking out some of the yellow fish and looking at a big eel hanging out under a rock. We swam briefly into a lava cave, but the currents were moving sloshing us around so we didn't stay too long.
Back on the boat we arrived at our night dive spot shortly before the sun slowly descended into the ocean. What a beautiful sunset that was slightly tainted by the other 5 boats hanging out at the dive site waiting for the perfect moment to descend into the darkness and spot some rays. Everyone had big spotlights and were instructed to point them into the air to attract the plankton which is the primary food source for these enormous animals. Apparently it worked because there were immediately two Manta Rays playing around the group of people. They both took turns flying through the crowd like a Blue Angels air show. At one point the Manta Ray started doing flips just underneath the pile of snorkelers hovering on the surface of the water. Another time one of the rays flew over our heads so closely that we easily could have reached out and touched the majestic animal (although this interaction is not permitted).
The whole experience was a bit "touristy" since there were at least 20 divers and 30 snorkelers in this area. Onlookers would think we were harassing these poor animals, but in the end we were not in an aquarium we were in the open ocean and these animals had every right to leave if they didn't like us hanging around. We can't say the same for the Dolphin Quest back at the Hilton where the dolphins were kept in a small lagoon and the children could swim with them during the day. The animals seemed happy, but honestly these beautiful creatures are meant for open water. Diving in the open ocean is a wild experience where the most amazing animals may actually choose to interact with us awkward bubble-blowing fish. Although we've never swam with a dolphin the day that a dolphin chooses to swim with us will be a spiritual moment where two intelligent beings share an experience on their own terms. It's not a whole lot different than the two of us taking the Extremepath through life...it may not always work out the way we'd planned, but we always learn a valuable lesson through experience and you can't really ever pay admission for that.
Photo Map for this Trip
Intro: A'awon and Kawol in Hawai'i
Day 1: North Kohala
Day 2: Volcanos National Park
Comments