Good Morning Honu!
Today (Feb 15) I went out with Veto & Deirdra on the Lilikoi Dawn. The air quality was better so the sky was slightly clearer, and the water was glassy calm.
As we pulled out of the harbor, we met an unusual Honu (sea turtle). His shell was tall and almost cone shaped, and it reminded me of a protruding volcano. He’s a well known character who hangs around the harbor, and rumor has it he’s nearly 80 years old!
The Disappearing Whale… and Bottlenose Friends
We motored towards Kehole Bay, where we soon saw a large whale resting on the surface. As we approached, she slipped under the water. While we were waiting for her to come up for a breath, we noticed a small pod of bottlenose dolphins playing in the bay.
The clock kept ticking and there was no whale in sight… but the dolphins seemed to be congregating in the shallow part of the bay. After 20 minutes we were about to give up on the whale, but Veto decided to put us in the water to see if the bottlenose dolphins would swim close enough for a view.
Deirdra & I jumped in to immediately meet six bottlenose dolphins. We swam parallel to them, and were thrilled when a momma turned towards us and swam her baby closer so that we could see the little one. Bottlenose are larger than spinner dolphins, and they aren’t typically interested in human interaction. We were happy to see that these dolphins were at least as curious about us as were about them!
Spinner Dolphins heading south
Once back on the boat, we traveled north in the hope of finding spinner dolphins. We spotted several mantas swimming along the current line in search of plankton.
Within moments, we saw a small army of fins & splashes coming our way from the north, so we tucked into Naia Bay to await the pod of spinner dolphins. There were 70 or so members of this smaller pod, and they were split into roughly two distinct groups as they swam towards us.
Capt Veto dropped me in the water to swim to & ‘escort’ the dolphins as they gravitated towards Naia Bay. He pulled the boat in farther south, and I soon connected with the first group of dolphins to swim to with them to the vicinity of the boat. They were moving slightly faster than I wanted to swim, so I just set a comfortable pace and observed as the gang sped past. A few stragglers accompanied me in a side by side formation for a few moments at my slower speed until the 2nd group of dolphins swam by us.
When I arrived at the boat, all snorkelers were in, and the dolphins had sped past them. We waited a few minutes for them to return, but they weren’t cooperating!
Distracted by a Manta
So we relocated the boat closer to the pod, and tried again. This time there was a little more interaction, but I was soon distracted by the sighting of a manta! I slipped beside a woman who was looking out in the distance to see a manta on the move. I kicked for a few minutes to observe the manta from afar, then turned to re-join the dolphins.
On the way towards the pod, another manta was spotted hovering a foot above the rocky reef below at about 20 ft. This was a large animal, whose wing span easily stretched 12 feet across! I waited until the snorkelers disappeared, then dive down to have a closer look at the graceful creature.
I held onto part of the reef to offset the current, and watched as small fish cleaned the manta. I was able to slide right next to him, to get a good look into his eye. He lifted slightly off the reef and tilted his belly to me, but soon settled back onto his cleaning station. I dove down several more times to admire his masterful ability to remain in a fixed location on the reef despite the blowing current. His wings would undulate in effortless rhythm, while I worked to stay in a perfect viewing position.
When I rejoined the snorkelers, I learned that the spinner dolphins had moved to yet another location, so we climbed aboard the boat to try for another in-water encounter.
A Dolphin-Ball & Mantas!
Finally, the pod seemed to have settled to one general area, so we splashed in to try to join them. By this time there were several other boats involved, and the dolphins were spread out in small clusters, but they appeared to have decided upon a resting area.
I was attracted to a rowdy group of 20 densely packed dolphins who were making voluminous noise. The were swimming as though glued together – like a big ‘dolphin-ball’. I was able to swim alongside for brief moments, until the pod-let sped up and spun out of range.
They had just moved off a bit when I looked down at the sandy bottom (15 – 20 ft depth) to see two huge mantas swimming along the ridges of brownish colored sand. My attention was split between the speeding dolphin-ball and the flowing mantas. I dove down towards the mantas just as the dolphin cluster caught up to me, and became encapsulated on all sides by dolphin bodies. It was outrageous!
I got pulled along by the momentum of their wake… like being caught for a moment in a swift current. Amid dolphin beaks & eyes, I could see the sandy bottom below us and the gliding mantas skirting out of the way.
I swam as a pod member for a few minutes, kicking like a wild-banshee-dolphin to keep up as we swam in rolling circles. We had a frolicking, rollicking good time!
Torpedoed by Spinners
After awhile I spun outside of the mass to just float for a moment to catch my breath. The dolphins swarmed under me, twirled for a minute… and began to rise directly up as I watched from above. Several looked up as if to hone in on their ‘target’ as they torpedoed towards the surface. I just hung there like a ‘sitting duck’ as the pod exploded all around me! They all veered in various directions to avoid making contact with me at the last second… and the explosive burst of dolphin energy was indescribable!
The group had fractured in two and I spent the next half hour swimming between the groups and just enjoying the spectacle of wild, playing dolphins. Right after the dolphin burst, I noticed Ryan the videographer (from China’s boat) who agreed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!