EDWARD JACOBS

Tag: turtles

  • Thursday, February 27

    Molokai, day 5

    Our final dives in Molokai today and, like the others here, easy and pleasant.  The same boat, crew and even a repeat of sites we’d visited earlier this week.  Small craft advisories and heavy winds had me a bit nervous about the boat ride to the dive site, but along the south shore things were quite calm.

    Again, turtles galore around here, especially near their ‘cleaning station,’ but also a spotted ray, a little eel hiding in the coral, and a conch (not a conch, but a member of that family) shell re-inhabited by a sea slug.

    look at the center of the frame for the little eel hiding in the coral
    a sea slug moves in…
    Following a spotted ray
    Turtles stopping by for a cleaning

    The winning experience of the day, certainly the week, and perhaps the month, was our descent to the second dive.  A big turtle just came right over to hang out by me.  We’re always told to not touch any animals or coral so I resisted the temptation to reach out and pet him, but he was certainly within an arm’s length.

    Making friends upon descent (that’s Pattie on the left)

    The dives here are like diving with family. Always the same crew, small groups–today just 3 divers and 4 snorkelers–and very low key. It’s possible these folks, the only dive-show on the island, are getting a little lazy about certain things that other dive tours are more strict about…but we found it all comfortable and nice.

    Got a snack at the bread shop, returned home to rinse and lay out our gear to dry.  By 1pm back to getting a little work done, taking care of some Surf City-related business—trying to assure we’ll have a place to stay when we return to NC in 4 weeks (for 3 weeks).

    Tomorrow, off to Kalaupapa Peninsula for a tour of the area that has served as a leper colony…

  • Sunday, February 23

    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, so I was very excited to give it a run.  [spoiler alert; it was fabulous.]  Things on this boat ran so much more laissez-faire than on other dive boats.  They set up their gear, but had those of us with our own gear set up our own.  I appreciated that opportunity to get to know my equipment better, and all went as easily as I’d hoped.  Pattie had been chilly during the dives in Maui, so she added a short wetsuit on top of her own and that turned out to work perfectly.

    The first site we hit reminded me of “Fish Rain” from our Maui dive, though this was a different reef.  The second dive was a ‘turtle cleaning station,’ where turtles gather and are picked clean by parasite fish—everyone’s happy.  No shortage of turtles here!

    solo turtle dance
    Turtle flight take-off
    just plain lots of fish
    Lots of turtles at the cleaning station

    Post-dive we went over to the dive shop to just look around at the converted gas station.  The food truck next door wasn’t open on Sunday, but we’re told it’s good and, unsurprisingly, is run by Molokai Fish & Dive as well.

    We made our way back to our digs, washed gear and I promptly fell asleep for two hours.  The quiet and the gentle breezes are like a dreamy sedative…

    Shortly after my nap I enjoyed a great conversation with Dan Shirley as we start early planning for a song setting he’d like.  That’s a project whose deadline is many months away, but this first session was about selecting specific texts from with A Shropshire Lad.  A very helpful session, for sure, and always great to touch base with a valued colleague.