Capturing the Moment

  I took advantage of the kids syncing up their mid-day nap schedule and bolted down to Turtle Town in Makena. It is a quick 20 minute trip from our house, so I was in the water in no time. The entrance is picture on the left, and it was quite serene with a little ebb and flood of the ocean. However, just beyond the safety of the rocks the conditions got wild. Luckily for me the view underwater was pristine and clear, so I was determined to get some photos, despite the huge waves crashing overhead.    Two long lava 'fingers' stretch out from a cove here at "Five Graves." Sea turtles tend to be numerous here so they were my target for today. The clear water gave me the opportunity to photograph some impressive coral bommies on my way out. It turns out I wouldn't have to go very far before seeing my first turtle.    It is all green sea turtles here. They feed almost exclusively on algae that grows on the underwater rocks. The waves crashing overhead wasn...

  Whenever there is a big swell at Honolua I get a bit nervous. There can be some very big waves there, and some very good surfers. This time was no different. The surf forecast was calling for 5-7ft waves, which could be well overhead at a place like Honolua Bay. The nerves usually give way to excitement, or stoke, as us surfers like to say. This is especially true after I catch my first wave.   It has been a while since I have had the chance to surf 'the bay'. I wrote about one of my last surf sessions here on this blog which you can check out thru this link: Surfing Honolua with Ben . This time the waves were bigger, but it was still early swell and long periods...which meant long waits. Add about a hundred or so people there to surf and I wasn't sure if I would get any waves. Luckily I snagged a few fun ones before having to leave. Honolua perfection   I wasn't sure how the crowd would be since there are almost no tourist on the island now thanks to a mand...

Rocking the sea kayaking Our lanai awaits! Afternoon walk with the family   It took almost a month to find a way back home to Maui and to my family from the expedition cruise ship I was working on thanks to this crazy coronavirus pandemic. Everywhere around the world started shutting their borders, including their ports, which made it very difficult to repatriate the crew, myself included. But I finally made it to Maui, and then entered a 14 day in house lockdown quarantine that all incoming passengers must do. Luckily I could do it in my home, which is way better than being stuck in a hotel room like tourists are currently.    But now I am free! I out and about, while safely social distancing, but I get to enjoy Hawaii with my family and without a bunch of tourist and boats zipping around. To celebrate I grabbed my surfboard and headed out to one of my favorite secret southside breaks and scored it all to myself. Conscientious social distancing indeed. ...