With the tail(!) end of whale season upon us, we were not tempted to swim out in the deep water whale highway as weeks past. We swam along the old familiar cliff edge. It was fun again to experience the old haunts, The Elevator, The Slosh, The AARP Ride, The Corridor, Bubble Point, Bruce's Cave, Point Cave. Low tides prevented the features from being a full blast of water movement, but still fun to play and realize their potential for next time.
A big turtle surprised us as she came out of the depths of the cave we were peeking into. She filled her lungs with three big gulps of air, and back into the cave she tucked herself.
We couldn't resist taking the deep water route on the return swim. We continue to hear a distant whale song, so still a chance of a swim by. Not today!
What are you doing tomorrow? If you are going to the baby shower/party (dad and men included makes it a "party" and not just a "shower") be sure to sample these plump tomatoes, fresh off the vine, with fresh basil from friends' garden, fresh Mozzarella from package and fresh Newman's Own bottled dressing.
I am very proud of my crops! I am feeling like such the farmer! I have a living fruit salad in my yard!
My Hayden mango tree is laden with baby mangos. Yum! Yum! It will be a juicy good eatin' summer! My guacamole tree is sosososo full of blossoms I will have to give away bags of avocados for guacamole. The orange tree is past the fragrant blossom season and now has plentiful baby oranges. I am happy to report the papaya trees I planted this winter are about 2 feet tall, and have thus far escaped the dreaded white fly. The volunteer papaya tree is over 6 foot tall and happy to report it is a female, with blossoms, soon to be fruit. Thanks for that, after the disappointment of my other mature papaya tree being a male, and thus no fruit! What's the good of that?
Just today I noticed the jacaranda tree across the street is beginning to blossom the gorgeous purple flowers!
Families seem to have their routines, I was an invited guest, and well tended to. Madir, Nigama, Ginger "Gigi" Hokule'a, their canine child and myself set out for a kayak adventures hoping to have whale encounters. Not a whale was to be seen. Sad as that is with the tail (!) end of whale season, encounters these days are more up to luck than a given. We did have a wonderful floating picnic. Nigama pulled out a thermos of warm, rich roasted grain coffee and Madir's homemade mochi puff pastries. My hosts brought me my own cup and served me, passing me pastries on my paddle. Not a single precious pastry was lost on the bumpy picnic blanket, the ocean.
We gave up on whales and snorkeled on a gorgeous reef. We found turtles, nudibranch, and varieties of fish. I was tethered to my kayak on our swim, but decided to pass it off to Nigama on the kayak prior to swimming through the underwater arch! Since Gigi loafed on the kayak, Midir thought Gigi needed some exercise. Gigi warmed up for her swim workout on Madir's back, then, down dove Madir and Gigi was left to dog paddle beside Madir with the aid of her custom PFD, personal flotation device, doggie style!
Fun was had by all! Mom and baby had a long siesta on the surface, basking in the welcomed sun and calm ocean. Once in a while, by surprise, would pop up big boy escort with a loud bellow blow. Then under he would disappear, staying protectively nearby.
The fun gang of whales were the low level competition pod of 3 males in pursuit of a female, following her with attempts to impress with lunges, spy hops, rolls and lots of surface activity. We were able to keep up and observe their show for quite a distance, until their slightly quicker pace left us behind to recap the antics.
Sarah and I were contentedly bobbing in the beauty watching distant whale breaches and pec fin waves, when from nowhere came a loud singer directly under me with a sudden, loud song, so loud to be heard above water and the vibration felt in my butt, back and belly. Then silence. Again, the loud cry and vibration. It was my cell phone vibrating in my seat pocket! Usually it is packed away in silence, there only for emergencies. I prefer not to be reminded of life on shore.
Pink Cap Swimmers don't let those stinkin' sharks keep us from having fun! No! We harness those bad boys and ride 'em!
This shark fin rock is the landmark of Bruce's cave, which lies in the waters below. The architect planned that one well! We found Bruce, the reformed fish-eater of Nemo fame, sitting on his cave doorstep. He was happy to pose, flashing his gleaming teeth.
The swimmers were jubilant to finally have blue skies, sunshine and no white caps, as our color of choice is pink caps on the water. Being between Spring Equinox and the New Moon has turned on the force of the currents and tides. The extreme low tides prevented us from swimming some of our shallow adventures. We did get an adventure drift ride to the distant turn-around point. We started to bob and chat prior to reaching the cliff. It must have been a great conversation because when we looked to shore, we had drifted the entire length of the cliff! That made for "swimmill" swimming home, bucking into the current on the swimming treadmill. There was no chatting on the return swim, or we'd loose ground drifting backward.
We couldn't have planned a better rendezvous! Four different sets of friends launching kayaks from 3 different locations at 4 different times and we meet up on the gigantic ocean! What's the chances? Well, it was a sunny, windless Saturday during the tail (!) end of whale season! What better things would we be doing, but meeting our friends for a whale kayak?
We had close encounters of a few sets of mom, baby and escorts, and felt the vibration of a very close male singer when we were swimming. Cheryl's baby in her belly got the healing of the whale song. The baby may be making some strange sounds when it is newborn!
Then, off we paddled in four different directions. Don eluded the photo. See you all tomorrow morning for our Sunday swim!
Why not kayak in the rain? It is a water sport! And when the whales are singing I am in and out of the water listening to the underwater serenade. There were lots of jellies to observe underwater, boxes, ribbons, spaceships with lights twinkling up and down the length. This one looked more like some kind of an egg chain, held together by a gelatinous web which didn't show in this macro shot.... As I was frolicking in the water, mesmerized by jellies, up comes a white light from below. Turned out to be the exhaled bubbles of a whale, from behind the bubbles appears a whale. He made an appearance, took a few breaths and took off. Nice visit!
Today is an eerie calm before the storm, due to hit Maui softly this afternoon. Maui's southern neighbor, Big Island has flash flood and winter weather advisories, with up to 3-5" snow expected on the summit of Mauna Kea, which appropriately means White Mountain.
I finally got flat and calm waters on my morning kayak session. Quiet waters they were not. The song of a humpback whale could be heard above water as I sat in my kayak. Sure enough, when I dove in, the song vibrated my belly it was so loud. The heard but not seen nearby singer sounded like a creaking squeaking gate in a barnyard, as secondary sounds from him or others were a cacophony of barnyard animal sounds.
I launched from Cove Park and paddled past the hydrophone buoy of www.whalesong.net. If you were listening this morning from 8:30-10, you heard the same whale live. Tune in now, see if the same song is playing. Do you agree that sounds like a squeaky gate in a barnyard?
I love living on an island! If you don't like the weather, scenery or vibe where you are, drive 15 minutes along the shore, and it will change. Our Sunday morning rendezvous was rainy with choppy, uninviting seas beyond. The few die hards decided to drive south to the end of the road in search of something different. It paid off with light wind, no white caps on the bay, only pink caps as we jumped into the chilly water.
"The Aquarium" is one of my favorite swims along the rugged lava shore into a protected bay of multitudes of fish with some rare varieties. In the Aquarium, waters were calm with some welcomed warm spots of fresh water flowing from the warmed lava rock shore.
What a sensation when the squall dumped rain on us. The downpour made sparks on the water, causing the surface to dance. It bought out shrieks of laughter from us. Oh no! We are getting wet!
The whales are out there and once again I am dry docked due to wind and rain! This winter, the weather has prevented me from getting on the water more often than I have kayaked.
It was so great to have sunshine and no wind this morning! It feels like it has been weeks of clouds, wind, intermittent rain and an occasional sun ray. One day when I am looking for a land activity, I may have to hike into this crater of Pu'u Ola'i. Whenever that is, who knows, I am always drawn to water activities. That is why I live Maui!
I got an hour on calm water before the wind came up, the sound of whales all around and one close blow, I was practically in the spray! I followed whales far off shore and was sitting peacefully with my ears turned up listening for blows and sounds of body parts hitting the surface. I began to hear a distance rhythmic pulse. It was the start of the white caps coming up and breaking on the surface. Soon, I was surrounded in white caps and began to head back to shore. Luckily, the whales took me in an upwind direction, so the paddle home was down wind, down swell. Nice ride!
Whales are everywhere! On, under and breaching over the water during this peak of whale season. Today, on my kayak, even with a swell bumping up the surface, and the wind blowing the spray and sound away quickly, I could observe and hear whales close, far and way distant.
When I heard a swish, I looked to my left to see a huge, up to 45 feet and 40 ton whale in full breach. The whale seemed to rise out of the water in slow motion and do a twist in the air. He was stalled in the air for a moment as I could hear the water running off his body. The thud he came down with was felt in my belly. What a thrill!
Whale photography is extremely challenging. After missing the shot of a whale breach right next to me, I have now perfected holding my camera in my hand while paddling, ready for that prize photo op. I am still waiting!
The prize photo was obtained when a mom and baby swam under my kayak and I held the camera under the water. That is baby looking straight up at me, zoomed in,with mom next to her. When I zoomed out, there they go, swimming away.
Don and I got a great workout swimming to the far side of the bay to find the dolphins tucked against the cliffs. The dolphins were in sleep mode, spending most of their time deep and close together. I enjoy this video seeing the detail of the rhythmic 2-4 breaths and the crown of exhaled air above the dolphins head prior to surfacing.
I caught on camera a rarely viewed creature, Don!, who is always behind the camera on his blog photos. We had a fun bumpy ride back with the wind and waves behind us to push us along. Now and again the swell picked me up as if body surfing, and at times the wind would catch my fins and levitate them off of the surface. Fun was had by all!
I was pretty rattled for 2 days after being face to face with the tiger shark (see Sunday March 1 posting). So, I am very happy to report I was not too spooked to be in the water today. It helped to be with Don and the dolphins as therapy, and yes, I did look all around me and behind me many times. The ocean is my passion and my playground, no stinking shark is going to take that away from me!
I am in need of a bit of therapy now to shatter the image of my prior blog entry, video and experience. Maybe you are as well. This will do it! I am basking in the memories and dolphin video of my birthday party last year. Will be the same guest list this year! All are invited!
These spinner dolphins love to dance, look me in the eye and tease me to follow. I playfully do as we dive down, spin, twist and mimic one another! They cackle when they make me do silly human tricks.
Notice the leaves the dolphins have on their snout and pec fin. The leaf game is another of their favorite games. I also have a leaf in my left hip, to dive it down and drop it for a dolphin friend to pick up.
Enjoy the mom's and babies! They are so very cute!
This was the day my blog cover photo was taken by Don. Have you ever noticed that dolphin and I are both in mirror image of one another? We both have out tails bent, and pec fins are in mirror image! I also breath out of the top of my head (with a snorkel.)
Thanks Don for the fabulous photos and creative composition on this video, it is a great birthday present! Check out Don's blog at www.dolphindude.com. Don has entertaining aquatic adventures with stories and photos to match!
Our Sunday distance swimming tour had taken us along the shoreline, visiting turtles, fish and eels, though arches, tunnels, into caves and following a coral reef finger out into deep water. Now in deeper water, we were headed to view the sunken landing craft outside the middle of the bay.
I was swimming apart from others when I stopped a short distance from my gang of pink cap swimmer friends. They were motionless with all their heads down, an indication they were looking at something down under. I knew Toni, the kayaker, would tell me what they were seeing. Toni warned, "Lynne, there's a shark swimming toward you!" I put my head under, and indeed it was true, out of the deep blue a 8-10 foot Tiger Shark is headed straight to me and only me, since I was dangling out there solo.
Fright? Fight? or Flight?
Fright? There was not the room or time to be scared. I was in survival mode and knew this was a situation I need to face and get through, to stay together and face this bad boy! Flight? I subconsciously knew I could not swim away from this guy, I wanted to keep my eye on him which meant staying in place and looking at him looking at me. Fight? Yep, that is what it came down to! When he closed the gap between us, I put my hands into fists and was looking at his snout, knowing if I needed to punch him, I wanted to aim for his nose and not put my fist in his mouth.
Later, safe on shore, report was they saw the shark circling a dismembered, upside down turtle on the bottom. They are claiming he was 10+ foot. I had no reference to size him, it was only the shark and I, in a seemingly very, very small ocean. He was bigger than my friendly swim buddies, the 6-7 foot spinner dolphins.
Excuse the following video, my camera went askew when I took my head out of the water to ask Toni, the kayaker "He's got stripes, he's coming toward me, please come here!" second plea, "H-e-l-p!!"
As he came right at me to within a foot from my face, again, excuse the askew camera, I put my hands into fists, thinking I may need them for defense!
Thanks Toni for being there and staying next to me after! I am relived he was only curious. I did not feel any aggression from him, but coming that close to me was a bit too close for comfort!
Sad, You Tube "disabled" the music. Sorry! Maybe I will redo someday. Click the arrow on the lower "Blogger" video for soundtrack.
Maui, Hawaii is home and I oblige by living an enchanted life. On a good week, I will swim with dolphins, kayak with whales, count turtles as I distance ocean swim, catch a colorful sunset, star, meteor and/or moon gaze. My creativity blossoms with gardening and home projects. I relax with yoga, a great massage, an entertaining book and/or an independant film DVD. I am fed by laughter with friends and hugs of my little niece and nephews. My dreams are of international adventures.
A big turtle surprised us as she came out of the depths of the cave we were peeking into. She filled her lungs with three big gulps of air, and back into the cave she tucked herself.
