Manta Ray Dive

Diving with the Manta Rays was something I wanted to do since we got our dive certification.  A few friends have done it and their videos are absolutely stunning.  We had planned on going when we visited the Big Island on our post deployment vacation but early winter swells and weird weather caused most of the tours to be cancelled.

Part of the drive to come back instead of going to Kauai was this dive.  We were able to book a spot with Big Island Divers and headed out on our last night there.  To try and help calm my butterflies of doing a night dive we decided to book the two dive charter -- one at dusk and then the big event.  I cannot say how happy I am that we did that.  On our first dive we went to 78 ft (deepest I've been), saw fours mantas, a monk seal and a bunch of coral/eels/fish.  After a surface interval where we watched the sunset, we were finally ready to go in.

The idea of diving at night is just unnatural.  Every part of me tells me not to go into the water at night.  If a shark is going to come attack me I would rather have the opportunity to see it coming versus it sneaking up on me and that's it.  Thankfully, this was a great introduction to night diving.  There is a big "campfire" of dive lights on the bottom of the ocean that faces up.  All divers have a light that you can use to look around with on the descent (I spotted a huge eel out and about) and then you face it up once you're settled.  Snorkelers float above on surfboards with lights on the bottom of them.  The phytoplankton (the mantas food) come into the lights and try to photosynthesize, which bring the mantas out to eat.

To say it was a once in a lifetime experience, and probably the best dive we're going to go on, is an understatement.  We saw 13 different rays including Big Bertha, a pregnant 16 ft wide beast.  A few came so close to our heads that I ducked and ones tail brushed against us.  Being able to sit and watch these beautiful animals underwater is an experience that I can't even begin to put into words.  You can find a video below the pictures! For those interested, there's a longer one on our YouTube page!

Tidepools & Dragons nostrils

This is one of my favorite places on island, and actually my second time blogging about it.  I first went to the tide pools with our wardroom for our halfway party during deployment.  I was finally able to take Nic and was excited to swim around and relax in the pools.  Once we got down we were greeted with some absurdly large waves.  Needless to say we didn't get to relax in the pools, but I was able to get some awesome pictures.  There's a less visited pool that I've wanted to go down into, but there isn't an easy path to get to it.  In true Nic fashion he figured out a way to get there and I'm excited to go adventure once the waves die down.

Diving Sharks Cove

Island Divers, who we were open water certified with, has a monthly dive club. They went to Sharks Cove for their event in May and we were so excited to go until we realized Nic had duty and couldn't find a switch.  Thankfully they decided to go back to Sharks Cove in June and we were able to get our dive on.

It's a fantastic deal. If we were going to be here longer we would just purchase the club membership, but instead it's $25 per certified diver, per dive and that includes all equipment rentals and you can dive twice if you want.  I haven't been out since we were certified so it was a good refresher.  Our friend came with us and tried out discover scuba which is actually a cool concept.  If you're interested in getting open water certified, but not sure if you like the idea of breathing under water, you're able to try it out!

It was a little bit of a dreary day. The drive to North Shore was overcast and rainy, which was terrible but once we got there we were greeted with a bit on sunshine!  Either way, once you're in the water it doesn't really matter if it's raining.  The walk down to the water was awful.  If you're going and have fins with booties you will be so much happier than your counterparts without them.  It sucked because of mud and the weight of the tank, BCD and weights but I felt relatively secure with my footing thanks to my booties.

Sharks Cove is gorgeous but we weren't terribly impressed with corals or the fish we saw.  We did see a turtle which was gorgeous.  If you can go while doing a certification, or during a cheap dive event we recommend it.  If you have to pay a ton just snorkel it and take a boat charter out diving.  If we were to go back again we would try and go in the overhangs/caves but I still would rather do a charter and just snorkel there vs pay a ton to dive it.  BUT I am SO happy we did it especially because we figured out that I need a new mask.  Leaking and fogging caused problems the entire time, and I can't imagine doing an advanced certification with that thing.

Yay for checking things off of our Hawaii Bucket List!

 

SaveSave