With the heater going next to me here in Britain, the thought that I was in
the warmth of Maui only a week ago, well, sniff! But it wasn’t a dream — I was
there and in fact did a lot of snorkeling and one dive. I got to see Maui’s
green sea turtles on two occasions.

The first turtle spotting was during an actual dive. I learned to dive over
10 years ago on my big trip
that I’ll someday finish writing about. I highly recommend it to anyone. For me,
it’s the closest I’ll ever come to being in outer space, I imagine. It’s amazing
to spin on your back and look safely up through the water at the sky and see the
sunlight shimmering down. But most of the action is looking down and around, at
the sea creatures below.

I used to just snorkel, and it’s certainly a lot easier. I was thrilled when
both my young sons got the hang of it with me on this trip. Our smallest would
see fish and shout out in amazement through his snorkel, making my wife and I
laugh to here the noise coming forth.

I still enjoy snorkeling, but it’s great diving in that you can spend more
time under the water and follow things more deeply, if you want. I’ve managed to
get in a trip at least once every three years, never anything major — but if
there’s an opportunity, I go for it. Next time to Maui, I plan to do much more.

On the dive, we came across two turtles. The current was fairly strong, so rather than sitting on the bottom, they
rocked back and forth almost like they were playing.

It’s also the first time I used a film camera for literally years. Weird not
to see what you shot. My kids used to ask "where’s the picture" if people came
by and took a photo with a non-digital camera at home. I imagine if I tried to
load a program on our computer with a cassette tape, it would blow their minds

Also, a learning lesson for me. Using the flash underwater often
makes the picture worse, not better.

The second trip was snorkeling off the beach in Waimea, near the
Maui Prince Hotel. The beach
in front of the hotel is completely open to the public and accessible through a
side area. Along the rocks, there were several turtles playing in the shallow
water:

Because they were so close, it was easy to get the kids over to see them, so
they had a good time. There were also plenty of fish. These are longnosed
butterfly fish, or so my fish chart says:

A spotted pufferfish:

And a neat one I can’t identify:

And finally, a self-portrait: