Our dive experiences during our trip were so inspirational that it is difficult to give a short synopsis here, but I'll try. This photo was taken on the dive boat on the way to our Molokini-Turtle Town boat dive. Everyone was very excited and the visibility at Molokini was said to be 200+ Feet, a great range to see all of the wonderful creatures around us during the trip.
The first order of business in preparation for our boat dives was to prepare Christopher and Julie for the day. They didn't have prior dive instruction, so were required to attend a short resort course in order to familiarize themselves with a few skills and equipment needed for their dive. Seth elected to attend the class with them, although he had completed the full PADI dive course prior to our trip. I jumped in to snap a few photos of them during their first scuba experience in the pool at the Wailea. The instructor emerged from the pool at one point and told me that he could tell that they were from a dive family and what great pupils they were! I was proud of them all and happy to be able to document their first underwater scuba experience.
The next day we were at the dock to meet our dive boat at 5:45 AM. Those of us who love to dive were very excited to go to Molokini and to Turtle town. The range of visibility is wonderful there and we were hoping to see some aquatic life that we hadn't experienced prior to our dive, needless to say none of us were disappointed.
Upon our arrival, Todd, Melissa and I as certified Open Water Divers were put into one group and Christopher, Julie, Seth and Madi were in another group that had less experienced divers and more instructors present. We then took the plunge! When I entered the water I was astonished at the range of visibility and completed my decent along with Melissa and Todd in record time. I watched as Seth, Madi, Julie and Christopher jumped in and started to descend along the anchor line. As you can see, Melissa even poses for photographs under the water and we attempt to accommodate all of her requests. What a ham!
As you can see we had the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of underwater creatures during our outing. I have included photos of some of our favorite encounters. First, there were countless tropical fish that were so beautiful and full of vibrant colors. I think all of us enjoyed those and even had a chance to get up close to them on several occasions during the dive. Another highlight for us was our interaction with an Octopus! Melissa, Seth and I had a chance to hold one and all of us loved that. We were on a shore dive at the Grand Wailea with the owner of the dive shop, Charlie Dolfun, who found and helped us hold the Octopus. We were all very impressed with that encounter and loved diving with Charlie, what an expert!
We also sighted the endangered Green Sea Turtle on numerous occasions during our trip. The beach at our hotel is one of the best snorkel sites in the world and these magnificent creatures like to hide in the reef off the coast in that location. We saw several of them while snorkeling and also during our dive at Turtle Town. Julie, Christopher, Seth and Madi, along with their dive group saw 7-8 during their Turtle Town dive. Seth and Madi were especially impressed with that encounter. Julie and Christopher also enjoyed their first experience with scuba diving, although Christopher was a little bit congested and had some trouble equalizing his ears during his dives. Overall, everyone loved the adventure and I think that Julie and Christopher are looking forward to their next chance to dive.
Todd, Melissa and I had the most amazing experience during both of our dives. As scuba divers, there is always the possibility of an encounter with one of the most amazing animals in the ocean, the shark. The more we have had the opportunity to dive, the more we have been excited to have that experience for the first time. We had been told that it is a somewhat rare occurrence, so we weren't really holding our breath or even expecting to have that happen in the area that we were diving. At Molokini, our group made our decent first and quickly split from the other group and made our way to a deeper area of the crater. Since it is a dormant volcano and protected from weather and currents, a wide variety of aquatic life resides there. About 20 minutes into our dive I turned to the right and saw something moving in the distance, and guess what it was? !!!
A White Tip Reef Shark!!! I couldn't believe it. We knew that there were sightings of these beautiful creatures in the location, but didn't really expect to see one. We have all talked about the first encounter we would have with a shark on numerous occasions and what we thought our reaction would be, fright, excitement, etc. Well, now I know. I got so excited and couldn't get Melissa's attention so I yelled "shark" into my regulator since it is difficult to get the attention of someone in front of you while diving due to the lack of vocal communication. When I finally got their attention, we just enjoyed the experience until we could no longer see it. This experience really changed the views that some of us had about sharks, especially for Melissa. This shark completely ignored us and went about his business like we weren't there at all. I had been told that they don't pay attention to divers and that information was definitely correct. It was an awesome experience, one that Todd, Melissa and I will never forget.
We completed our dive at Molokini, talking about our encounters on the way to our second dive site for the day. We all had a great experience there and were ready for our second dive. We stayed in the same groups and again split up shortly after entering the water. This time we experienced some very large Green Sea Turtles and then made our way to a small cave. I waited for Melissa to enter first with Todd following behind me. Right after Todd took this photo I entered this cave and couldn't believe what I saw. Another Shark!!! This time it was 5-6 Feet from me in this cave. There was a very large turtle resting inside the cave, and I think the shark was checking it out, maybe he wanted some dinner. I, again, attempted to get Todd's attention since he was holding the camera. He entered the cave and tried to get a photo, but this one didn't come out to clear.
If you look closely in the center of this picture, you can see the white tip on the shark's fin. Todd barely made it into the cave in time to snap the shot, but he was able to get this picture. We couldn't believe that we had seen a shark AGAIN, twice in the same day. What an amazing day, we loved it.
After the dives we all got back into the boat and headed to the dock. We then went to Fred's for breakfast and got to talk about our experiences under the water. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go again!!!
