Blog Archives

Sunday, February 23

Feb 24.2020 / / / Setting off.

Molokai, day 1

Everything about this place seems super-relaxing.  The place we’re staying is spacious, airy, and quiet.  After a great night’s sleep we were up and at ‘em for a 6:15 departure/drive to the harbor.  It turns out we were one of three cars leaving this apt complex at that time.  A very pleasant drive allowed us to chat over coffee while in the sparsely travelled road at that hour—or any hour, it turns out.

Molokai Fish and Dive is the only game in town, we learned.  They had two boats going out; one for whale watching, and one for snorkelers and divers.  We were eight divers with two lovely dive guides, and I’m not sure how many snorkelers were watched by the boat’s captain.

This was a maiden open water voyage for a piece of equipment I recently purchased...

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Saturday, February 22

Feb 23.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui to Molokai

Travel days are different, but this one was particularly challenging as it involved saying goodbye to Jackson, Cristin, and Joe.  What a fabulous few weeks we’ve had together, and words really can’t capture the sheer joy we feel when we’re taking care of Jackson.

We finally got on our way at 10:30 to return the car, check bags, etc.  The airport experience in Maui was easy.  We flew to Honolulu first, then connected to Molokai via a much smaller plane.  The prop plane loaded passengers through a back door, put cargo in front, and it reminded us of flying between Charlotte and Greenville.

boarding our flight to Molokai

Maui to Molokai

Travel days are different, but this one was particularly challenging as it involved saying goodbye to Jackson, Cristin, ...

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Friday, February 21

Feb 21.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 13

A perfect day begins with retrieving a smiling Jackson, freshly awake, ready for play.  I was able to get in a tad of writing before seeing his happy face at 6, then brought him up to our apt since Pattie was up early today.

Joe and Cristin were off for a morning dive (the dive we did last Tuesday, but they had much better luck finding hammerheads and dolphins!), during which Pattie, Jackson, and I ran some errands—sending home 25 lbs of excess!—then went to the aquarium for a bit.  We met up there with Joe and Cristin at 2 and, at 2:40 Joe, Cristin, and I checked in for our dive into their tank.  A unique dive, for sure.

The pre-dive briefing was particularly interesting, as it included much of the history of the aquarium, its mission, and its inception in the l...

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Wednesday, February 19

Feb 21.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 11

Road to Hana

The day begins with this little guy’s smiles and laughs

A long day in the car, but a good one.  The weather held out nicely for us until about 2pm, when the rain became a bit steady and, at times, heavy.

Lots of pix to come…

Somewhere on the road to Hana…
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Tuesday, February 18

Feb 18.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 10

Up early to write, and feeling like “Let Them Not Say” is very close to finished.

Off to the “Hammerhead” dive.  A very rocky boat ride out to the dive site—capt said 9-10’ swells, and felt like a roller coast ride for about 45 minutes.  Thankful that I seem to have figured out the pre-boat ride regime (patch behind the ear the night before, anti-nausea pill in the morning, as well as meclizine), so not seasickness, at all.

The site is known as Rain Fish, and it’s clear why.  We descended over a reef absolutely teeming with fish.  Some schooling, but more just seemingly ‘raining’ through the water...

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Monday, February 17

Feb 18.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 9

Joe and Cristin had a big diving day today—morning and afternoon—so Pattie and I had a good day with Jackson.  He greeted me with smiles when he woke up, and was just plain fun all day long. 

Also got lots of headway done in planning time in Kauai, specifically four days of diving.

We hit the hay early, while Joe and Cristin went out for dinner, as the morning will bring time for some writing before we leave at 6:15am for our dive in Lahaina.

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Friday, February 14

Feb 17.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 6

Today’s a dive day, heading to see the “Lanai Cathedrals”.  We’ll do today’s dive with Lahaina Divers (same outfit as Wednesday) with Joe joining us, which will be fun.  Plan is for the dive, then lunch closer to Maui Dreams for our Nitrox class at 3.  Then Pattie and I will watch Jackson while Cristin and Joe enjoy a Valentine’s Day date nite.

Although i’m still clearly not using the correct filter for the GoPro, there is still some good video of the diving in the Cathedrals, some of the schooling fish, and even some friends who joined us on the ride back to shore.

Inside the Cathedrals
Pattie says “Hello” and “wish you were here”
Schooling fish
playing with the boat

After the dive we went in for our Nitrox class, where we learned the steps ne...

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Sunday, February 16

Feb 17.2020 / / / Setting off.

Maui, day 8

Nice that we all got to spend the day together today.  Since it was a two-tank shore dive, we all went and just switched off for the second dive.  Joe, Pattie, and I did the first dive; Joe, Cristin, and I did the second.  We dove the Olawalu site, which is really just about 20’ north of where we’re staying in Kihei. 

What made this dive different, and fun in new ways, was that these were dives with underwater scooters.  I didn’t know what to expect, so left my GoPro on shore…so you’ll simply have to believe me when I say we had a load of fun. 

The visibility wasn’t great near shore, but got much better as we moved away from shore, following a sand channel between mounds of coral...

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