I kind of felt like the Wicked Witch of the West today as I biked headlong into the roaring wind towards Ka'anapali. My friend, Alfredo, was riding ahead of me and I stayed directly behind him and let him break the wall of wind. We rode the three miles from Lahaina to Ka'anapali so we could snorkel at Black Rock.
When we left the sunny and windless Lahaina, we were certain we were in for a perfect day of snorkeling.
As we turned onto the highway and passed the turnoff for Front Street, the wind kicked up and small beads of rain began to smear across my sunglasses.
All of a sudden, I wasn't so sure about this snorkeling thing.
We continued to push hard into the wind for another two miles. We pulled off into Ka'anapali and locked our bikes up at Whaler's Village.
We decided that we were still going to snorkel Black Rock since the water looked clear. We had a long streak of stormy weather last week, and the ocean is no longer murky from all that runoff.
Alfredo and I walked along the pedestrian path past the restaurants, shops and hotels toward Black Rock at the Sheraton. We dumped our stuff onto the beach and embraced being pelted by the sharp needles of sand as we got our gear together.
I just swam out with my Speedo swimming goggles and a borrowed pair of fins from Alfredo. The water wasn't as cold as I had anticipated, and there was no real current this afternoon, so it was easy to slice through the water with Alfredo's fins.
PS--as much as I enjoy ocean swimming fueled by the power I generate through a graceful stroke of my arm or the fluttering kick of my own bare feet, swimming with fins has a lot of advantages: I can swim further and deeper on one breath of air with fins, which means that I can see a lot more fish before coming back up to breathe. I may need to invest in a pair.
photo from www.examiner.com
On our swim over to Black Rock we encountered a honu, or sea turtle. A pair of snorkelers had stumbled upon it first, and we all enjoyed watching the turtle float along until one of the snorkelers swam up to the turtle and pushed hard on its shell. It was as if the snorkeler wanted to provoke the turtle into reacting in some way. The turtle looked startled as it adjusted its equilibrium from the force of the snorkeler's push.
I was furious. The law here prohibits touching or chasing the turtles. I was upset that this snorkeler ruined this peaceful encounter with the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle.
Before I could say anything, the two snorkelers took off to shore.
Most of the sea turtles I have encountered have never been afraid of swimming with humans. In fact, I feel as if they are almost oblivious to our presence unless they feel too crowded. It upset me that these snorkelers would disrespect the space of this turtle.
After we watched these snorkelers take off, Alfredo and I left the unharmed sea turtle behind and continued toward Black Rock.
The water was super clear and calm underneath the windy surface. I could hear whales singing in the far distance whenever I slipped my head under the water. I watched hot pink parrotfish, banded in bars of yellow and blue, swim by me, and I played in the bubbles bursting up from the scuba divers that skimmed over the ocean floor below me.
Black Rock is definitely one of my favorite places to look at fish. It's a great swim from the beach to the pinnacle, and the fish are plentiful all along the lava rock. Once you swim around the bend; however, is when you are apt to see the best variety of fish.
After our swim, Alfredo and I quickly toweled off, got our gear together and retreated from the stinging beach. The wind was still in full force, blasting any sunbather with sheets of sand. It was not an afternoon to soak up the sun--not that there was lots of it at Ka'anapali today. It was mostly overcast, and I was cold from our swim.
We had lunch at Hula Grill. I really wish I could have had a Hot Chocolate, but we had a cold (but delicious) Ceviche appetizer instead. I ate the Gado Gado salad (brown rice mixed with greens, grilled and chilled veggies and a drizzle peanut sauce) topped with Ahi. Alfredo had the fresh Ahi sandwich (smeared with a jalapeno aioli sauce), and we split the ice cream sandwich dessert. The ice cream did nothing to stop me from shivering in the wind and light drizzle.
Thankfully, our bike ride home warmed me up. And the hot shower I took the instant I walked through my door at 4:30 pm.
Now it is 7:16 pm, and I am starving. Must have been all that swimming.
After we got out of the water today, Alfredo was calling me a "mermaid" and a "delfin" (means "dolphin" in Spanish). I love being in the water. I definitely need to make ocean swimming a bigger priority and do it much more often. Who's with me?!
Speaking of dolphins and Spanish...I had to share this Far Side cartoon with you
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