So yesterday morning was one of those experiences you'll remember for a lifetime. We went whale/dolphin watching/snorkeling. We chose SeaHawaii because they didn't tout their on board buffet. Many of these outfits are on large boats with "tourists". Might as well just go to an aquarium for as close up you'll be.
SeaHawaii is run by two native brothers, Walter and Tommy. Great guys. Walter picked us up at 6:30am for the hour drive to the west coast.
We boarded the small zodiac boat and headed out to sea. We had nothing but good luck.
About 10 minutes out we spotted a whale. Over the course of the two hour trip we saw that whale and another surface a few times, spout water, and breech 5 times!
Soon after the whale spotting we came across a school of Spinner dolphins. They were in fairly deep water of about 40 feet. It's on the verge of too risky due to shark territory. They just weren't coming in any closer so the decision was made to jump anyway.
We all jumped in and followed the school for awhile. We frightened them so they swam at the bottom . Still, because of the amazing clarity of the water that day we were able to see them easily. Yet another piece of luck. Oh, and the Pacific was very calm.
We boarded the boat when we lost track of the school. About 10 minutes later we found them again and dove back in. As before they headed to the bottom. We again followed them above. Suddenly they all began surfacing about 50 feet in front of us. It was heart stopping.
Back on board the boat we headed closer to shore to snorkel over the coral reefs. We swam amazingly close (5-10 feet) with giant turtles and saw a great array of colorful fish.
If you aver head here SeaHawaii is who to hook up with. I tried taking some pix of the dolphins and whale but no luck.
I'll post a couple pix of the boat.
