Diving Maui

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="005fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.tsandm.com" TARGET="_parent" TITLE="http://www.tsandm.com"> </A></FONT><A HREF="http://www.tsandm.com" TARGET="_parent" TITLE="http://www.tsandm.com">Return to TSandM Home Page</A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><A HREF="http://www.tsandm.com/forum" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.tsandm.com/forum"> Please feel free to comment on the TSandM Forum.</A>    <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >     </FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lynnes Food for Thought">Lynne's Food for Thought</A>   |   <A HREF="id9.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gigi Aug 17">Gigi Aug 17</A>   |   <B>Diving Maui</B>   |   <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diving journal">Diving journal</A>   |   <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hausberger clinic">Hausberger clinic</A>   |   <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="March 27, 2005">March 27, 2005</A>   |   <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ahnold">Ahnold</A>   |   <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="First Pictures">First Pictures</A>   |   <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="South Sound July 8, 2006">South Sound -- July 8, 2006</A>   |   <A HREF="seduced_by_socal.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Seduced by SoCal May, 2007">Seduced by SoCal - May, 2007</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="006d2b03.jpg"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> A description of my first warm-water diving experience, not to mention my first (and not entirely successful) independent dive with my husband :)</div> <div> No pictures with the text, but you can see them <A HREF="http://www.tsandm.com/maui05" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.tsandm.com/maui05">here</A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Diving Maui</I></div> <div> They told me that diving here would be so easy I would not believe it, and they were right.  They told me that being able to see would make a big difference, and they were right.  They told me I would have so much fun, and they were RIGHT! </div> <bR> <div> We got up at the ungodly hour of 4:50 am (which is not so bad, if you realize that it is actually 7:50 body time) and drove down to the boat dock.  We loaded onto the boat and cruised out to Molokini.  There were about twelve of us on the boat, and to my complete amazement, only 3 of us were certified divers, and one other had EVER DIVED BEFORE!  It astonishes me that you can take people out and just throw them in the ocean and get away with it, although Molokini is pretty easy diving (but you can get deep there, because we did).  But you think about what would happen if somebody panicked, or lost a regulator, or had an inflator go wild, or any of the other mishaps about which I have read.  It is obviously a huge tribute to the overall safety of scuba equipment and diving in general that any company can get away with this on a regular basis.</div> <bR> <div> Anyway, they assigned me and Peter an instructor (because we were officially doing the "boat dive" specialty course for PADI) and off we went into the water.  It was 81 degrees and absolutely clear.  From the deepest part of our dive, at 120 feet, you could see the boat on the surface.  </div> <bR> <div> And Molokini is, of course, like diving in an aquarium.  Hundreds and hundreds of fish of all sizes and shapes.  Early on, we saw two white-tipped sharks cruising, a small one and a medium sized one.  We saw several morays (I love the juveniles with their black and white speckles) and Peter worked at taking pictures of them.  The instructor quickly figured out that we were okay, and took us down to see the garden eels, which are apparently unique to Molokini, and we found them at 120 feet, which is the deepest I have been and I was surprised to realize we were down that far.  </div> <bR> <div> I was utterly delighted at how well I managed my buoyancy.  I descended down the anchor line, but as it turns out, I probably didn't need to, and once we were at depth, I managed my trim and my kicks and didn't scare any marine life doing it.</div> <bR> <div> To my surprise, Peter had to call the dive early because he ran out of air.  They say the camera needs its own tank, and they are right, I guess.  The instructor and I cruised around for another 15 minutes, and I still came up with more air than Peter had!  Peter got several pictures of me, and I'm really pleased at my posture and attitude. </div> <bR> <div> We came up and I actually managed to climb onto the boat without taking off my gear, which is something I didn't think I could do, but may have had something to do with how much less weight I was carrying (14 as opposed to 21 pounds).  We then cruised over to Ulua beach, which is where we snorkeled yesterday, and did a reef dive. </div> <bR> <div> This time, I descended without reference to anything (except the surface and bottom, which was quite enough) and managed it perfectly, leveling out right where I wanted.  And then we went among the turtles.  We saw so many, I don't remember all of them.  Some were resting, some were swimming, and at least one swam right past me, almost close enough to touch.  I have always loved to see them, but it is something quite other to be down there WITH them.  We found two more sharks, much bigger ones, and were literally just a few feet from them.  They were sleeping under a rock ledge, and the instructor irritated them with his light until they swam away.  They are beautiful and wicked-looking creatures.  </div> <bR> <div> We cruised through canyons between masses of coral of many colors and various shapes, filled with small fish and big fish.  We saw something the instructor called a frog fish, which I can't find in any of the books, which looked just like a mass of seaweed, which is what I was supposed to think it was.  We saw several juvenile eels out of their holes, and they really are lovely.  There were many kinds of sea urchins, including the white spotted ones, which I later learned are poisonous.  </div> <bR> <div> I was simply amazed to discover we were down 60 minutes.  I still had 1200 pounds of air!  Two-thirds of the dive was between 15 and 25 feet, and never once did I lose control of my depth.  I am getting better at this! </div> <bR> <div> I can't wait for tomorrow.  </div> <bR> <div> I think you are right, and there is something about breathing high oxygen levels . . . there is an enormous euphoria to doing this, and I felt it even in the cold murk, but it is much more powerful here. </div> <bR> <div> Why did I wait 51 years to do this?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ---o0o---</div> <bR> <bR> <div> We had another good day of diving today.  We did the Shark Condo dive at Molokini, and ended up a little deeper than we should have been . . . no problems, but I feel a little guilty about it :)  We did see some good-sized sharks sleeping in the sand, and a lobster they called a slipper lobster, that looked totally prehistoric.  Peter chased another lobster across the sand with his camera, and that one had to be a yard long.  We saw a spotted eagle ray, lots of eels including a tiny one (I can't remember the name of it) and some beautiful spotted shrimp.  Another fried egg nudibranch . . . they are so dramatically marked.  </div> <bR> <div> The second dive was a drift dive, which I found very eerie.  The sensation of being swept along with the water is unsettling, and I had to keep telling myself that we didn't have to swim back against the current, that the boat would pick us up (which, of course, it did).  </div> <bR> <div> You will laugh at this:  I found myself getting VERY annoyed with the poor skills of the other divers in our group today.  Yesterday, because we were the only experienced people, just Peter and I dove with a leader, but today we were a mob, and half the people had such bad buoyancy control that they were kicking the bottom and stirring up murk, or kicking ME.  Funny to think that I have better control than anybody, but as it turns out . . . I'm better trained than I think I am. </div> <bR> <div> The end of the Molokini dive was kind of magical.  Peter had had to surface, out of air again, and I was with one instructor just moseying off by ourselves.  He pointed up, and I rolled on my back and looked up to the surface, glittering with sunlight, and between me and and that surface was a living kaleidoscope of hundred of multi-colored, constantly shifting fish.  What a trip! </div> <bR> <div> Some of the fish in the crater are so tame, from being fed tidbits from the snorkel boats, that they will come up and nose you.  I realize this is ecologically unsound, but it's still fun. </div> <bR> <div> We are going to try shore diving tomorrow. </div> <bR> <div> I am determined to keep doing this once a week, or as close to that as I can, until the weather turns.  Then we have the trip to Australia, and then I'll have to see what I can do during the winter. </div> <bR> <div> See you soon.  Hope these notes don't make you feel too bad about missing diving :)</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ---o0o---</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Well, no room on the boat today, so Peter and I rented tanks and tried shore diving.  We had a recommendation for a beach and directions from there to a reef which was supposed to be a good place to see eagle rays.  </div> <bR> <div> It must have been a very SMALL reef, because we never found it.  We did swim about a mile, I think, and saw a lot of sand and a little bit of seaweed.  We also managed to argue all the way out during the surface swim, and Peter TRIED to argue with me underwater, but the signs don't permit the transfer of very complex concepts . . . thank God.  I mean, what does it MATTER if I want to swim out on my back with my snorkel in my mouth?  Without snorkel, I got water splashing in my mouth and had to spit all the time.  With snorkel, I didn't.  Shouldn't that be my call?  Not to mention the fact that we read a compass rather differently, and that, in fact, at the end of the dive, we decided we probably missed the reef in the direction Peter kept correcting our course away from . . . </div> <bR> <div> Anyway, it was a lot of good experience in buoyancy control above 30 feet, because most of the swimming was shallower than that.  And I had a dive float I was towing and was managing the reel, as well as clearing my ears and handling my BC, so it was pretty task-loaded and I managed OK.  A little frazzled at moments, and not precisely on depth, but ok. </div> <bR> <div> And that's the end of my diving vacation :( </div> <bR> <div> Bad news:  Back to the iced pea soup.  Good news:  Back to my Seattle friends.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>