Mantas and Dolphins

Wednesday had an early morning start, after a fairly long, and a late day on Tuesday.  We had a few errands to run before hitting the long road to Kona.  Most importantly, we needed to return our 4 wheel drive rental car from the day before.  As is so often the case, when you are in a hurry, the world around you seems to begin moving at its own pace.  What should have been a 10 minute trip to drop of the car using the overnight drop off, and gassing up RJ’s Sentra, ended up taking around 45 minutes because the office was open and they required us to wait while they inspected the car.  Additionally the gas station was crowded and the credit card readers were not working.

Mauna Kea from Near our House while Running Errands

We finally got back to the house, and scrambled to get everything and everyone in the car and on the road.  I took my turn driving the car on the cross island drive along Saddle Road, between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, past the access road to Mauna Kea that we had climbed the day before.  This morning Mauna Kea was completely absent all the clouds and fog that we had to drive through the day before. 

Saddle Road: Crossing the Island

The final 30 miles of this ride provides some breathtaking views of the ocean, and miles and miles of coast, as one drives down from the higher elevations down to sea level.  Though we had now made the cross-island drive a few times, the view of the ocean was still a captivating sight for all of us.  Up until this point we had made good time crossing the island.  The last few miles,  however, met us with fairly heavy traffic that ended up taking back a lot of the time we saved.  We made a quick trip to the Big Island Divers SCUBA shop to fill out Ryan and Amy’s paper work, and then headed to the boat launch.   Though it seemed we had gotten to the rendezvous point at the time communicated to us, no one else was there.  Amy in particular was quite concerned that we had missed the boat (in a very literal sense).  However, after another 10 minutes or so, additional tourists and our tour guides arrived and we boarded the boat. 

As we left the dock, we all admired the rising mountains jutting out of the Pacific Ocean that make up the Big Island.  While we were all quietly looking at the landscape just past the water’s edge, Taryn made the observation:  “It’s funny, when you are on the land, all you want to do is look at the Ocean, and when you are in the Ocean, all you want to do is look at the coast.”  This comment struck me, as it seems to describe so much of human nature.  Aren’t we always looking around us, and desiring that which we don’t have?  As is commonly said, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”  We complain about our own job, and talk about the job we’d like to have.  We look at houses around us that are nicer than ours.  We dream about visiting exotic places far from where we live.  Within the last several years, and the viral expansion of social networking, this is even more apparent.  Isn’t the entire allure of Facebook, the voyeuristic desire to look at your hundreds of friends and see the activities they are doing which you are not, feeding the innate jealousy that we all have?

Perhaps this is not a bad thing.  This ambition is what pushes many within the human race to advance themselves, to innovate, and improve our collective productivity, because we all aspire to achieve something greater. That may not be a bad thing.  A lot of inventions that have dramatically improved the human condition were developed as a result of this inherent discontent with the status quo.

However, this flies directly in the face of the traditional Hawaiian concept of ‘ohana:  the concept of focusing on the here and now, taking care of the community around you, and taking care of your broader family:  in other words, focusing on the here and now, as opposed to always worrying about what could be.  This is not unique to traditional Hawaiian culture and spirituality.  The Christian faith as well repeats similar themes.  “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”  (Matthew 6:34) Even the Israelites wandering in the desert were fed Manna and were told not to collect more than a days’ worth (Exodus 16:4).  Focus on today.

Who is to say which approach is better?  Is it the constant strive for advancement? Or is it the acceptance and embracing of what you have today and keeping the focus on that?

As I pondered all these things, we were approaching our first snorkeling sight.  Our guides explained that we will be somewhat chasing the dolphins, and that they will quickly send us out when we see them and call us back when the school leaves.  Our guides stopped the boat, asked us to put on our gear, and we jumped in the ocean.   The water was probably 30-50 feet deep, and you could actually hear the sounds of the dolphins communicating with their clicks and whistles through the water.  I was amazed at this. 

All of a sudden, a group of 4 dolphins swam by side by side about 20 feet to the side and 10 feet lower than me.  Behind them, another group of 3 swam by, and then disappeared in the azure abyss.  After a few minutes of no sightings, the guides called us back to the boat, we boarded, and moved on to the next sight. 

At the next sight, the routine repeated, we jumped in the water, and did it again.  At this location, a group of 4 dolphins perfectly side by side swam directly beneath me by about 15 feet.

In total, we stopped at 3 different locations to snorkel with these magnificent beings. 

After the final dolphin snorkel, they took us to a bay frequented by manta rays.  This would be a precursor to the snorkel/SCUBA dive we’d be doing that evening with the manta rays.  We jumped in the water and looked down over a coral reef populated with an abundance of fish.  The reef probably ranged from 20-40 feet deep.  Within seconds a huge manta ray, probably 10 feet wide, came gliding slowly over the reef.  Several of us, including myself, dove down, and were able to swim for a few seconds right along side the ray.  The manta didn’t seem to mind this at all, and would continue effortlessly gliding back and forth like an eagle soaring in slow motion around the  coral reef, ingesting its plankton meal. 

I was utterly captivated by the majestic creature, and would reach the surface just long enough to catch my breath, fill my lungs, and dive back down to swim along the ray.  At one point the ray and I were side by side swimming as the dolphins were earlier, with only about 6 feet between us. 

I returned to the surface, and took a quick look around again to see where the rest of the snorkelers were, but I could not find them.  I tried to use my fins to boost myself a little bit higher, so that I could see over the waves, but still saw no one.  Uh oh.  It had been a few minutes since the last time I ensured I was still with the group, and now all I saw was the boats a hundred yards behind me.  I began swimming in that direction to see if the swimmers were over there.  I got within about 20 yards, and saw no one, so I stopped for a minute.  As I did, the captain looked at me and gave me the “OK sign, to ensure I wasn’t in need of help.  I was fine, though wondering where everyone was, so I returned the OK sign.  At that point, the boat began to drift a bit, and I noticed that behind it, was a large crowd of snorkelers boarding.  I quickly swam over to the boat and boarded myself.  As it turns out, Taryn told me that one of our guides was about to go back out and do a rescue/recovery operation for me since I had disappeared from the group. 

While we were finishing our snorkeling tour, Michelle and Jason were having their own adventure to the southern side of the Island.  South Point Hawaii, is the lowest point of the entire United States.   This area, was a picturesque setting with high cliffs overlooking an ocean that was crystal as glass with large,  slow swells coming in.  Jason was somewhat alarmed to see a fairly young boy standing on the cliffs, looking down at the water below.  He was very near the edge, and Jason was concerned that he may fall.  As his anxiety grew about this, suddenly the boy lept off the ledge.  Jason’s fear allayed as the boy plunged into the water, surfaced, and then swam away.

Jason and Michelle had only planned on staying for a little while, but ended up mesmerized by the sights around them and stayed for quite some time.

South Point

South Point

Back in Kona,  Ryan, Amy, Taryn and I attempted to check into the hotel, The Royal Kona, but our rooms were not ready.  We spent a bit of time in the Don the Beachcomber bar, and Ryan and Amy began sampling Mai Tais, and deciding to begin Ryan’s birthday celebration a day early.  While they were supposed to join us for snorkeling with the manta rays at the same site that Taryn and I would be SCUBA diving, Ryan had learned that morning that snorkeling was definitely NOT an activity he enjoyed, and they decided to relax the rest of the evening watching the sunset from the beach, and enjoying some more tropical drinks.  They completed their evening by falling asleep while watching Godzilla in the hotel room.

Taryn and I on the other hand, headed back out to the Marina for another two tank dive with Big Island Divers.

The Royal Kona

RJ Enjoying his Birthday

Upon boarding the boat, there was an amorous couple from Japan across from Taryn and I.  The entire ride out to the dive site Dawna, who appeared to be in her mid twenties,  could NOT keep her hands off her beau Peng who looked to be late 30s/early 40s.  She constantly either had her arms wrapped twice around his neck or would be practically sitting on was giving us the orientation they were too busy talking to each other and snapping selfies to listen, and our dive master had to continually reel them back in.  As we were all suiting up for our dive our dive master, who was very jovial with a fairly goofy sense of humor, ran through the final guidelines and warnings.  Meanwhile, Peng and Dawna grabbed their expensive underwater cameras and lights, and jumped off the side of the boat in their dive equipment.  Mike, mid sentence turned in reaction to the sound of the splash, and without missing a beat, said “…. Please give me a sign when your tank is half empty, and when you are at about 700 PSI, I will send you back to the boat, or you can jump in without listening to anything I’m saying.”  Yet the smile never left his face.

Our first dive, was another coral reef that led down to a long white sand underground beach about 55 feet below the surface.  We had hoped to see a field of garden eels at this location; however they had all disappeared under the sand and were not visible to us unfortunately.  We continued to explore the reef for 45 minutes, and Peng and Dawna continued to be just as obnoxious under the surface.  Though we had an entire ocean to ourselves, they were extremely skilled at swimming directly into me no matter how far away I attempted to stay from them.  They also had no problem pushing people away when an exotic fish was seen so that they could take a picture of it.

Our second dive, was the highlight of the evening.  We resurfaced, and spent about an hour at the surface waiting for the sun to go down.  Once it did, we resuited, were given flashlights, and additional weight, and told that we would be diving to the floor, and sitting in a “campfire”.  We would then point our flashlights up, attracting plankton, which would in turn attract the manta rays.  As we executed these instructions, I unfortunately started to develop quite a bit of heartburn.  This was exacerbated by the BCD wrapped to tightly around me, additional weight pulling on me, and a wet suit which was creating uncomfortable pressure on my gut.  This increased my own anxiety quite a bit, to the point that I was considering requesting to go up early.  However more and more mantas started to appear, and I knew I couldn’t cut this experience short.  Several boats used this area, and there were about 50 divers with us at the bottom, and about 20 snorklers over our heads .  As we all sat, the rays, which ranged from about 6 feet wide to about 12 feet wide, glided back and forth over our heads. 

The rays had no problems getting extremely close to us, and occasionally brushed us.  Every know and then, from 20 feet away one would turn directly at me, slowly getting closer and closer, larger and larger.  Its tremendous gaping mouth opening.  A few times, I thought it was actually going to swallow me, and I could see all the way to the back of the stomach of the magnificent beast.  The ray would continue to glide towards me, and only inches from my face would slightly adjust its trajectory and grace right over the top of my head. A couple times, the belly of the ray would actually rub the to pof my head.  The experience was absolutely amazing.  As we came to the surface after the dive, Taryn looks at me and says with uncontrolled excitement “I just got bitch-slapped by a manta ray!!!!”

After this experience, Taryn and I were completely exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel, got a quick bite to eat and turned in for the night.