Snorkeling
Bumping up the number of Species
I have always enjoyed
snorkeling. It's a calm way to explore a whole new world that
often just feet away from shore. Underwater cameras at a
reasonable price are getting cheaper the gear to get out onto the
water is pretty basic. Maui added a few twists - the trade
winds pick up in the morning so you want to go in the morning.
The places around our hotel were mostly sandy beaches so you want to
go to a "hot spot" like Makena Landing Park where the water is
calmer. It's obvious you are in the right space when you find
the bay full of snorkelers and party boats.
The fish generally like to be close to the coral and rocks which can
be shallow and a little scary with the waves. I recorded a
little video of what it's like flying over the rock and watching the
fish go by.
Snorkeling with kids a bit of a new
challenge. I started with one kid (in a life jacket) and
myself - it works well because you can give guidance, but you have
to swim out and back each time you swap kids. On our second
day I took both kids out together because they figured out how to
keep themselves safe and not step on the reef.
You often lie face down, arms outstretched taking photos trying to
get your target fish in the view finder. Rarely I tried to
duck dive down to see something deeper but that seems to scare the
fish more the a floating thing on the surface.
Makena Landing is sometimes called turtle town - we saw turtles
every time we went snorkeling. There are caves at the bottom
of the rock walls and we saw a turtle swim out from one, surface to
breath and then swam back to the cave to rest. The turtles
really don't seem to care about the people around - we twice had
turtles swim under us from behind which is quite a shock when they
enter your field of view. There is a small rocky beach where
the turtles haul themselves out to sun themselves.
Nara's Camera
Nara is a strong swimmer and seemed pretty comfortable out on the
water. She had her own camera and took quite a few pictures
on her own. I was surprised that even though I was near her
the whole time, she got photos of fish species I didn't see on
this trip.
If we were to return to Maui, we would probably setup more days to
be early (before 8am) snorkeling trips. We consider heading to
other beaches but the Snorkeling report suggested our section of the
Island actually had the best conditions for the days we were
there. There was a lot we didn't see at Makena Landing so it
would be good to go back.
Tags: Hawaii(14), snorkeling(14), fish(9), sea star(2), turtle(2), camera gear(1)
People: Nara(1), Claira(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Snorkeling
Last Modified Saturday, April 2nd, 2022 at 21:10:30 Edit
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