The morning started off right- a humpback whale sighting
(which I missed) and two bottlenose dolphins who rode along the bow of the ship
for about 10 minutes, breaching the surface occasionally. They looked like they were having fun!
After breakfast we had a choice of a 3-mile kayak paddle or
a skiff tour. I chose the kayak option,
of course, and was paired with an Australian passenger whose wife took the
skiff tour. He took the back seat and we
managed to stay ahead of nearly everyone else most of the trip- except when we
stopped so I could take pictures!
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| This is a blowhole; water rushes into a closed space at such pressure that the air in the space is compressed and forcefully pushes the water back out. |
They’d said we might have swimming off the boat later in the
morning but then decided that conditions in an area called The Aquarium were
gentle enough that we’d have an “impromptu snorkel”. Less than half an hour after the kayak paddle
I was out on the skiff to the reef with my bag of snorkel gear.
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| Snorkel and flippers, ready for anything. |
They really did save the best for last. There was a much wider variety of fish around
the reef, and larger numbers of the same species. I took a ton of pictures, grateful I’d had
some practice on earlier trips, and got a few species I’d missed before. I deleted about half after previewing them
but was happy with some of the good results.
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| Achilles tang |
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| One of the guides moves in for a closer look |
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| Black Durgon Triggerfish |
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| Yellow tang |
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| Yellow tang and parrot fish |
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| Snorkels, fins and vests after being given a final wash by the crew. We'd noticed that our equipment was starting to smell a little funky! |
Molokai was an interesting place; it's far less developed than some of the other islands and that's intentional. We had some time to explore it in the afternoon and I found this beautiful gecko on an equally beautiful bird-of-paradise flower.
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