Snorkeling Adventure

For our first day on Maui, we woke up at 6am to go on a 7am snorkeling trip with Blue Water Rafting. Despite the early hour, we were feeling pretty good. Our 5+ hour snorkel trip was aboard a Zodiac raft with twin 225hp outboard motors. That thing can go fast. Our captain, Brad, made sure that we had an exciting ride, crashing over 10 foot swells in some places.

The trip started with a cruise to the 200 year old lava flow at the south end of the island. Very cool. We went right up along side the rock, and we could see all of the different types of hardened lava. We even went inside a giant lava cave. The waves at that part of the island are too rough for snorkeling, but it was cool to see the flow and learn all about it. Now we really want to go see the lava fields on the Big Island.

Oh, I almost forgot. On our way out, we saw a pod of spinner dolphins. Very awesome. Probably the highlight of the trip. There were probably about 100 dolphins. The young ones were having fun jumping out of the water, much to everyone's delight. When they jumped, they would spin around multiple times before landing back in the water. It was great being surrounded by them as they played. And they swam fast, too.

Anyway, after the lava field, we headed back north toward where we started. We made two stops for snorkeling. At the second stop, we could see a manta ray and turtles from the boat, but they were gone by the time we got into the water. We were about to get out of the water when the turtles came back. Katie, who had seen sea turtles before, was already out of the water and didn't want to get back in, but I was still in the water near the boat ladder, so I swam over and snorkeled with the turtles. Very cool! They are huge, but really cute. It was great to see them from in the water. Hopefully Katie will get another chance later on our trip.

We then headed back to the dock, where we dropped off some people only going for the first half and picked up a few more for the second half. We saw more turtles from the boat near the dock, but we didn't go into the water with them.

For the second half, we went out to Molokini Crater. We did a 45 minute drift snorkel, where we saw an eel and a reef shark, along with lots of fish. The water was crystal clear and very shallow, so visibility was excellent. Seeing the shark was cool, but it was too far away for a photo and we didn't want to bother it. Molokini was definitely the best snorkel spot, except that there were no turtles. They also took us to the backside of Molokini, a 300 foot straight drop. The surf was rough, and snorkeling made us a little sea sick, but it was cool to look down into the inky depths, and there were some fish near the surface.

By the end, we were exhausted, but we had a great time. Seeing dolphins, turtles, and a shark was amazing! A very cool snorkel trip, with great guides (Brad and Devon). And the ride on the Zodiac was great, too. An excellent start to our Maui adventure.

Now we will take a dip in the pool, then head off to a Lu'au in Lahaina.