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 some...

Adventure dive with Jack's Heidi and the Manta Bowriding dolphins on the way to the Manta spot   Nearly a year ago Heidi and I first went on the famous Manta Ray night dive in Kona, HI. We were blown away by how close and how many mantas we saw. It is like no other big animal experience I'd ever seen before. You are with them for the entire time. This time we went out with Jack's Diving Locker which turned out to be the best choice for the day. The conditions were pretty wild with Kona winds from the South and surf in the 4-5ft range which is as big as Kona has seen all year. On the way out we came across a very large pod of spinner dolphins who bowrode the fast moving boat and were surfing our wake behind us. It looked like the bad weather was not affecting their playful mood at all. Once we got to the spot I could see the looks between our divemasters and captain were not ones of joy. The conditions in the usually protected bay were pretty wild to say the...