Ocean Fun

manta ray
I rarely snorkel without a camera- that's my shark insurance. I figure, as long as I'm carrying one, I'll never get a good face-to-face encounter. Chris and I went snorkeling in Keauhou Bay Saturday and when he commented that I didn't have my camera I knew we'd see something good. Off the Sheraton in about 50 feet of water was a manta ray swimming along the reef. We free-dived down to get a better look at the creature. It was bigger than I am and it struck me that an animal so odd could be so graceful. I can't decide if it reminds me of a space ship or of something prehistoric. Just when we decided to hele on we spotted another manta, more than twice the size of the first. I swam down to within about 15 feet of it and I estimate it had a 15 foot wing span. It was HUGE!

broken stuff
Why wasn't I carrying a camera, you may wonder? It's broken. After being dropped down a flight of stairs during last year's superbowl, soaked in a flood in my tent in Waimanu Valley, and carted through the Grand Canyon, my trusty Canon Powershot went kaput. I purchased one on ebay, and it's broken, too. I also broke my ipod on the same day as my camera. Apparently, ipods don't like to be operated above 10,000 feet. I knew that, why didn't I listen? I grieved the loss for three weeks, then I ordered the new 80-gig ipod classic. It'll be here Wednesday.

jelly fish
In other news, I had my first jelly fish sting today. I went for a swim in Kailua Bay after work. I had just turned around at the 3/4 mile buoy when the thing stuck to my face. I splashed water on myself to make sure it wasn't stuck on me anymore and enjoyed a tingly, stinging sensation the rest of the way back. It wasn't any worse than a bee sting, it just covered a bigger area. You can see red marks where one tentacle got my forehead, one got me across my chin, and the last one went from my shoulder down into my arm pit. Chris has good advice on such matters. If you're gonna be stupid, you've gotta to be tough. But in all honesty, it wasn't that bad.