Our first day in Hawaii we went scuba diving with Jack's Dive Locker. (Good company. I would recommend them.) I hadn't been scuba diving in about 7 years and Richard's first dive was a couple years ago. I had forgotten how seasick I get on a boat!
We hit some ginormous waves and I wasn't as excited to be there anymore. But the ocean is beautiful. The dolphins swam along side our boat and on our first dive we saw a manta ray swim by, fish, coral, helmet shells, garden eels, and other creepy looking eels.
I know I look extremely scary in this picture. I was feeling a little tense. But I put it up here anyway to prove that I was really diving.
The second dive was in the evening after dark. They put a some lights on the ocean floor to attract plankton. Then the Manta Rays would come feed on the plankton. Seven Rays came for dinner.
These animals are HUGE. The bigger ones had a wingspan of 10 feet--they can get up to 20 feet! Their mouths are 2 feet wide and they do somersaults in the water to catch the plankton.
One of our guides, Keller, is a manta ray expert. He knows them all by name (60 of them altogether). They have these distinctive dots on their bellies and that's how he tells them apart. Now I must admit I didn't go on this dive. Richard was there 50 feet underwater taking these pictures. My nauseous self was floating on top--snorkling while they were feeding. So majestic. I wish I had gotten pictures from my view too.
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