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Published: February 19th 2006
Whale!
We guessed this whale was about 40 feet long. It was alongside its baby whale (ok christina, "calf") that was probably the size of the boat.This has to be quick because it's been suuuuch a long day and i need to study for an early watchtower in the morning... but today was fabulous -- i probably said it a billion times; i was sooo excited to go whale watching today. So we pack some lunch and go down to Kona. Again, overcast. Not even a typical condition in Kona. But Kona heard Fran was coming 😉 Anyhoo the clouds broke for a little while and we ended up having a very pleasant day. We boated out to Captain Cooke Memorial (i know nothing about this guy, but apparently he was extremely important 😉 Buuuut we found a good stopping place where we could have lunch anddd we saw tons of fish, so we went snorkeling. It was sooo cool! It was my first time snorkeling ever; we ended up seeing the most colorful varieties of fish i've ever seen. I felt like i was in the middle of a tank at a chinese restaurant! The water was incredibly clear - it was no Jordan Lake, lemme tell ya. From the surface it was the most beautiful turquoise color you can ever imagine... Wrightsville beach is gonna
Mountain
Just beyond where we were snorkeling seem like the sewer, thanks to this place. Anyway... we snorkeled for about an hour? Ate lunch, and then headed back... we saw no whales - the ultimate reason for our tour that day, buuut we still had a blast in the water. So on the way back to dock we saw a whale in the distance. We slowed down and kinda drifted closer to it... we patiently waited and all of a sudden two whales jumped up side by side, the mother, about 40 feet long, and alongside it, it's baby, roughly the size of our boat... They were the most massive creatures you've ever seen; they were so graceful, and then they slunk back in the water with no trace. By the way if slunk isn't a word, 99% of you know what i mean, give me no grief. We anxiously scoured the water for another trace of the whales, as we heard the most eerie noise coming from the water; it sounded like a dying cow, for lack of better imagery. Then we saw a spout of water from about 40-50 feet ahead of our boat, and up came the whale, followed by its calf. This happened
Blue water
The water was sooo blue; you could see straight to the bottom several times, each in a different place, and everytime we saw it, it was as if we saw it for the first time. The kids *really* got a kick out of it. It seemed to circle us for awhile and when it got super close, Dave decided to jump in the water with his snorkel gear, despite his kids grabbing him and insisting he would be eaten by a great white shark. The rest of us just looked over the boat, cheered him on, and took pictures, haha. He said from under the water he could see the belly of the two whales - he said they were just kinda sitting there, probably looking at him with as much interest as he was them. He saw as they were going up, and then of course we saw them exit the water. How cool?? As we headed back, we saw a few more whales in the distance, and as we were pulling the boat in for the day, we saw a huge manta - (basically a giant sting ray) come up to our boat. I happened to have my camera out and i got a pretty good shot of him -
Fish
We put some muffin crumbs in the water... the fish came up soo fast he was just as close as the picture shows. Haha ok i meant i didnt zoom or anything. Anywayyyy it was a wonderrrrful day and we saw more than we expected! We ended the day by eating dinner at a beach with picnic tables as the sun went down. Couldn't have been more amazing. Ask me if i'm coming home? 😉 I'll post more pictures from today later, half are on dave's camera. Talk to you all later.
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pumpkin
non-member comment
What's up with you and muffins? Was it a whole muffin or just muffin bottoms that Whole Foods sold to Hawaii for fish food? Ahhh, so that's what happens to them, Marquita! Nyway, sounds like this was an awesome experience and using the word "slunk" made me picture it all the better. But one more question: What did you mean by you saw the whales "exit the water"? Did they morph some legs and walk out onto the beach for a campfire? ;) COME HOME!