EXCITING SNORKEL

Aloha! Jackie and I hadn't been to the south shore for quite some time so last Wednesday we decided to give it a try. This was a very good idea as the snorkeling was super. We arrived at Pk's around 9:30 this was about an hour before low tide. As we were setting up our chairs we noticed that we were sharing the beach with an Hawaiian Monk Seal. The wildlife volunteers had a pretty good section of the beach roped off to keep the people away from the seal. Glad the seal decided to come ashore where he did cause at PK'S you have a spot about 20 feet across where you can enter the water without too much trouble and if he had come ashore there we would have been forced to enter the water over the rocks. We have done this before and it is not a lot of fun when the waves are crashing. Ok back to the snorkel. Jackie and I got in the water ok. We went out to our normal spots and saw a ton of fish. The fish you see at PK's are a lot different than the ones you see at Anini. There are more butterflies and parrotfish. We stayed out for about an hour then came in for a cup of coffee. We hadn't been ashore more than 5 minutes when the seal decided to get back in the water. Jackie and I were kicking ourselves cause the seal was just hanging around in the same area where we had just snorkeled. We have swam with them before and they are really neat. They move so gracefully and they look so big when they are swimming beside you. We debated about getting back in but decided it really wasn't cool to get back in just to pester a seal. It's one thing if they decide they want to swim with you and another thing entirely if you decide to swim with them. Anyway we sat drinking our coffee and watching him cruise around after about 20 minutes he swam off for good. We sat there talking story for awhile then decided we should get back in after all its a long drive to get here and we had better make the best of it. We had been in the water for about half an hour when we decided we should probably head back in. On the way in I came across two large parrotfish. I was swimming along behind them trying to get where I could get a good video when I caught a glimpse of something big and gray out of the corner of my eye. It was what I believe to be a blacktip reef shark. This guy was between 5 and 6 feet long and about 20 feet in front of me. I started filming then looked back to see where Jackie was. She had seen the shark also and was doing her best to point him out to me. The stupid camera battery picked this moment to give up. It had been flashing for a while but one would have hoped it could have lasted for another 30 seconds as thats about as long as the shark stayed in sight. We stayed out in that area for another 15 or 20 minutes but never came across him again. I always thought if I ever ran into a shark my snorkeling would be over but it really wasn't as frightening as I thought it might be. The shark never even acknowledged that we were there. I'm sure it knew we were there it just didn't care. We might just as well have been a floating log. The clip I got of the shark is about 12 seconds long but it is not very good. If you know where to look you can see it but it is more like a shadow. It really bums me out cause I had him centered nice and stayed with him for the 12 seconds my battery lasted. Guess maybe the low battery explains the lousy quality of the clip. I will post a video taken at the same beach when Dave and Carol were here.

CATCHING UP

Aloha! Sorry for the long delay between my posts but Jackie and I really haven't had much to blog about. I think I mentioned in my last post about Jackie taking a job at Foodland in Princeville. This was a very good move as Jackie really likes her job. She has met a lot of very interesting people some of them people that live here and a lot of them people that are here visiting. Almost every day when Jackie gets home she has a story to tell me about someone she has met. I guess they must spend a good deal of time talking story while she is bagging their groceries or helping them out to their car. Other than Jackie's job not much has been happening. We have gone to the beach a few times and have made more than a few trips into Lihue shopping. The garden has been doing good. We have harvested tomatoes as well as peppers and okra. This year the fruit fly have been hitting our tomatoes pretty bad even the cherries which they normally don't bother. I have been trying to come up with a plan to detour the little buggars and my research on the internet hasn't been much help. One site will say try this it seems to work the next site will say that won't work you need to do this instead. I think my next move is to turn the computer off and get out in the garden and do my own research. I think I will start by putting a plant into a pot and building a screen to go around it. I will post some of our older pics as most of the recent pictures I have already put on Facebook.