Capturing the Moment

  One of the amazing parts of taking a boat between the Hawaiian islands on this amazing Un-Cruise itinerary is the ability to see how unique the islands are both above and below the water. This past week we snorkeled near the southernmost point of the United States, at night with manta rays, on a partially submerged volcanic crater, and over the wreckage left behind from a huge hurricane back in the early 90's. It was among this wreckage of the old Mala Pier off Maui's west side that we completed the snorkel wildlife trifecta, turtle, shark, and a ray!   Hawaiian green sea turtles often hover over the wreckage of Mala pier to let tangs and surgeonfish have a chance to clean off their algae covered shells. The turtles hover a few feet over the wreckage and all of us would watch as fish would calmly swim up to grab a free meal as they cleaned off the turtle's shell.    The wreckage also provides a hiding spot for resting white tip reef sharks. Scuba divers sometimes f

  A weekly treat aboard the Safari Explorer's Hawaii itinerary is a chance to spend an afternoon cruising the deep offshore waters of the Big Island to search for different kinds of marine mammals. The underwater topography drops off to thousands of feet just a couple of miles off the Kona coast, and this is where very interesting odontocetes like pilot whales, spotted dolphins, sperm whales, false killer whales, beaked whales, and other rare encounters are most likely.   We were lucky this week on our search as our chief mate Amy spotted some splashing over where a few fishing boats were maneuvering. As we crept in to investigate it became apparent that we had a huge pod of active pan-tropical spotted dolphins most likely going after the same fish the fishermen were. The dolphins wasted no time in zipping over to our vessel to ride the bow wave and our wake just behind the boat. I had a great time trying to time the shutter just right to catch the dolphins right as they would

  Every week I like to push the guests to try something new and to embrace new adventures. Traveling with Un-Cruise here in Hawaii can be filled with these new experiences. It is not uncommon for our guests to be on the more adventurous side already, but one excursion that usually puts people a little more out of their comfort zone is the night snorkel with manta rays. A Hawaiian Flagtail Fish  Manta in the Night Lights   It all starts with a warm up snorkel to make sure everyone who will go out at night has already gotten used to their gear and being in the ocean. Then during dinner we bring in a manta ray expert, usually Ian or Katie from Kona Dive Company, to talk about manta rays and answer questions.     As soon as dinner wraps up we head out on the back deck to get into wetsuits, snorkel gear, and wrist glow-lights. Then we load up into our skiffs and motor a few hundred yards over to the manta snorkel area. From here six or so guest will jump in and surround a spec

  It is December and the humpback whales are still scarce here in Hawaiian waters but are on their way from their feeding grounds in Alaska. In the meantime we are having a blast with the year round resident dolphins that call Hawaii home. Large groups of spinner dolphins show up along the coast, pilot whales can be seen a few miles off the Big Island, and a few good encounters with Tursiops truncatus , bottlenose dolphins, have delighted the guest.    Without the ship changing course or speed these bottlenose dolphins swam over to the Safari Explorer and delighted the guests by bowriding the pressure wave created by the moving ship. Passengers were squealing with delight which mixed in perfectly with the squeaks and squeals coming from the dolphins. And as we looked down at the dolphins one would occasionally turn and swim on its side, looking right back up at us.         Dolphin and Whale Pictures  Here's Looking at You

Rare Encounter with a Pelagic Jellyfish, Maui, Hawaii   A rare encounter with a pelagic jellyfish occurred off the southern coast of Maui last week. We spotted it while at anchor on the Safari Explorer. Someone spotted something colorful about five feet under the surface. We could see it was a big jellyfish but it was until I jumped in that I could see all the juvenile fish that were making the bell and tentacles of the jellyfish home. I only had a point and shoot underwater camera but it was good enough to capture these images of the rare encounter. I had my friend Amy take a picture as I dove down next to the jelly to give a size reference