Capturing the Moment

. I have been waiting a long time for this. Swimming with a whale shark in really clear water. It was magical. I was working as a naturalist for one of the Pacific Whale Foundation boats called the Ocean Spirit. It isn't my usual boat but I have been helping out one day a week this month. Today was my last day on Spirit and it turned out to be a memorable one. It started off almost not happening at all. If under 40 passengers sign up then one of the naturalist doesn't work. We just changed this to give us the option to work if we want to. And of course, I wanted to! So I showed up and enjoyed a relax snorkel cruise to one of my favorite destinations, Molokini Island. Its actually the tip of a submerged volcano which provide crystal clear, offshore, protected water to snorkel in. Or you can scuba the backside which drops 300ft directly into the ocean floor. After my reef tour we got everyone back on the boat and headed out of Molokini crater. By this time we were the second to l

There are so many beautiful creatures under the water. I have been so lucky getting to swim, snorkel, and scuba dive in so many places. But there is really nothing like having world class reefs right out of your doorstep. The fish above is called a Sailfin Tang. It is already beautiful with its yellow stripes and bright yellow tail but it really shows off when it feels threatened and throws up its fins like a sail. I took these pictures at just the right time to catch it in all its glory. The lobsters below have been pretty hard to find out here. They do hide deep in crevices and caves during the day, but I feel its more an effect of the pressure that lobster hunters put on them. I had to go to the marine reserve, a 'no-take' zone to find these two.

We are nearing the end of whale season here on Maui. I can already tell that I am going to miss these gentle giants of the sea. But there are a few other sights and creatures that will keep me going until the whales' inevitable return next winter. Here are just a couple of those...

d e What a trip! My sister Lea visited me in Maui and I made sure she didn't have a moment to catch her breath. We kayaked, snorkeled with sea turtles, hiked, whale watched, saw petroglyphs, stood under a 400ft waterfall, drove the road to hana, watched sunsets, experienced a nude drum circle, forged rivers, threw spears, went to a luau, and even took a 2 island helicopter tour. Phew. Here are a just a few of the pictures from our great time together!

It is not everywhere you can walk from your house to the beach and see whales breaching and playing out in the ocean. But the real experience is from a boat. Sometimes you see the humpbacks from far off but every once in a while they seem a bit curious. We had a male and female play hide and seek under our boat for about 40 minutes yesterday. The male would blow a line of underwater bubbles as he furiously pursued the female. The male also had some interesting rake marks on the topside of his back which you can see in the picture above. Whether he got these from fighting with other male humpbacks or from some predator when he was little I don't know. As for below...sometimes you have to enjoy Maui's beautiful blue water, because you never know who you will run into out there.

Maui's mysterious winter visitors, caught on camera.