Snorkle Sunday

Honolua Bay on Maui - the island of Lanai visible in the distance

We pulled up to Honolua Bay, and the island gods were with us, we got the last two possible parking spots. Now, Jeannie volunteered to stay on shore and watch baby Gracie. Hum... suspected Jeannie might have something up her sleeve. It was fun hiking through a jungle of tall trees, filled with the sound of exotic birds - that magically managed to stay completely out of view - to the beach.

Trail down to the beach

First thing I noticed on the beach is there were loads of chickens - and chicks. 

"So... like me and my peeps can't enjoy a nice beach, b*tch?"

This shameless rooster begged for some of the man's sandwich and got some

Soon we were hauling into the surf, which was ROUGH. There were loads of rocks and I no sooner got into the water than my upper feet began to ache - what the....?  I peeled off one swim fin and dislodged the sand that got in them on the shore. No difference in the pain level! So I pulled off the fins again and found - the plastic of the fins had a sharp nodule of plastic built in!  It was far too painful to use my right foot to paddle, so I was in effect a one legged snorkeler. Well... I wanted adventure, didn't I?

The water was churning and quite murky. Lots of reef  with coral and urchins to stare at and at first it seemed, not many fish.

School of little Bluestripe Snappers seen through rough waters

Close-up of a Blue-striped Snapper

Every once in a bit I'd raise my head up and check how far off I was from shore. It was when I got near the off shore tourist boats I decided I'd better head back to shore. With only one foot to paddle with I headed back, and although at first I thought I was going to be a drowning statistic, I made it back to shore, peeled off my stupid swim fins and flung them to shore. Now the most difficult part of snorkeling was at hand: getting-the-EFF out of the water. Every attempt to stand, was met with a buffeting from incoming waves. Over and over I was knocked down. Lying on my side with every fall, the ocean waves dragged me over the rough grit of the off shore substrate. Then for an added bit of humility, the strong pull of an outgoing wave, pulled my over-sized shorts down to my ankles! I was heartily glad for the underpants under my shorts, the only thing keeping 'the moon' from shining mid-day on this Maui beach. I scrambled to pull my shorts up while the Jeannie - and I now know why she decided on baby-sitting over snorkeling - kindly tossed my water slippers to me: Thank you Jeannie!

How much grit, polished volcanic glass and bark was buffeting along the shore? Check this out!

Hum... if only under normal circumstances I
could take off my shorts and shed ten pounds!

That grit rained in the shower when I doffed my shorts. And you ought to have seen the pile from my my shorts and t-shirt when I put them in the washing machine. Yikes!

Now the horrid news: post snorkeling, I could not open my underwater camera to access the flash disk or so I could recharge the battery - Aarrrggghhh! How can the latch of a camera that promises it is waterproof, shock proof from 6 ft and dust proof in a whirlwind, jam itself shut? I  passed the camera on to Ron and Steve and although Steve managed to get some grit out of the lock, none of us could get the camera open. No more underwater photos, and I'll have to depend on my iPhone for above the water shots, and no more underwater photos. ARRRRRRRRHHHHHH!