Indoc and Snorkeling!

Aloha!  Given that we had the weekend off for Labor Day, and Stephen and I wore ourselves out yesterday, this post is coming one day late.

I spent the whole friggin' week doing my indoctrination for the base, since with a base this large, orientation is a bit of an undertaking.  Some of it was really cool in terms of mission and political climate, and some of it was so far above me that one of the commanders (O-5 for those who want to know) said even he was struggling to keep up.

Once I returned to the land of the living, Stephen and I went up to Snorkel Bob's to procure equipment.  Of course we got a mask, the snorkel, the higher-quality set of flippers, and the free bag, but they also gave us a cool coffee-table type book of fishies and the cards that we can use to help us identify our fishies.

We were debating between Hanauma Bay, which is supposedly the best snorkeling (and most touristy) on the island, and trying to find a few off-the-beaten-path locations.  In the end, we did both.

On Sunday morning, we drove out to the west side of the island to Makaha Beach Park.  It is a great big valley on the leeward side of the island and is the place where big-wave surfing started.  I noted on some websites that the snorkeling is good in the summer, but in the winter, the waves really pick up and it becomes one of the most popular surf spots.

When we got there, we definitely saw some larger waves and some surfers, so Stephen asked the lifeguard.  He said that if we stayed to the middle, we would be good, but definitely stay away from the boats and the surfers because otherwise we'd get run over.  He also asked if we had flippers and were strong swimmers, because while we might see some fishies immediately, the better fishies are a good distance out.

The nice thing about Makaha Beach Park is that it is all the way out in Wai'anae, a kind of shabby-looking area.  There were all of five people out on the beach, and I'm pretty sure they were all local.  We grabbed our snorkel gear and went out, and sure enough, we saw fishies right from the start.  Here is a quick stock-photo tour of what we found (since we didn't have a camera):

Coronetfish

Banded Angelfish

4-spot Butterflyfish

Moorish Idols

Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse

Manybar Goatfish

Pinktail Durgon

Saddle Wrasse

Spiny Pufferfish

Reef Triggerfish

And of course it wouldn't have been a day of snorkeling without seeing this guy:

Green Sea Turtle

That's not a picture we took, either (but I wish I could say our pictures were that good!)  That picture pretty much sums up his attitude, though.  He just floated by us in the shallow, sandy water and cast us a glance that said, "What?  I own this beach."  Then he continued on his merry way.

After about an hour, we got cold and stepped out to lay in the sun, warm up a bit, and figure out our next plan.  We saw a bunch of snorkelers way out near some boats.  We think some of the snorkelers came off the boat, maybe on a guided tour or something, but it wasn't so far out that we couldn't swim.  We headed out there, and for a bit there the water was deep and there wasn't anything to see.  Then we randomly happened upon an enormous school of fish!  There were a lot of the Convict Tangs (the striped guy that appears in the picture of the Moorish Idols) and Bandtail Goatfish.  They liked to tag along for the swim.

Anyway, we were out for a little over another hour, so when all was said and done, we were out on the beach for four hours.  Now I have the sunburn to prove it.

Working on my tan

Working on his tongue's tan

The beach at Makaha

My sunburn

So after a full day of sun and snorkeling, what do you do?  Go again the next day!

This time we brought a camera along, and this is what we ended up with:

Saddle Wrasse and two Goldring Surgeonfish (kole)

Whitespotted Surgeonfish ('api)

Yellow Tang.  Just for you, Mom!

Bluefin Trevally ('omiliu)

Christmas Wrasse male ('awela)

Surgeonfish of some variety we can't figure out yet

Threadfin Butterflyfish (kikakapu)

More Convict Tangs (manini)

Convict Tang jailbreak.

Brown Surgeonfish (ma'i'i'i) and a Christmas Wrasse

Orangeband Surgeonfish (na'ena'e) and Sailfin Tang (mane'one'o) before Stephen figured out how to use the flash

Orangespine Unicornfish (umaumalei) -- yes, even though his spine looks blue

Another Sailfin Tang and an Orangespine Unicornfish (notice the orange spines near the tail)

Thank goodness for the "enhance" button on iPhoto!  It's too bad it can't make up for bad focus and bad aim.  Oh well.  We also saw a bunch of different kinds of Parrotfish and I saw another big sea turtle!

We went early, and even then it was getting crowded with people who really didn't know what they were doing.  By the time we had to leave at 10am, it was crazy crowded and almost not fun.  We did our best snorkeling out by the buoys where the stronger currents kept all but the people with fins and experience away.  That's where most of these pictures came from.

We also took a few pictures of ourselves at the bay as we left!

We snorkeled to the right of the breaking waves.

When we left: crowded

Looking extra salty after the swim

Selfie at the overlook

Stephen at the overlook

One of these days, I'm going to stop feeling like I'm on vacation every weekend and start feeling like I'm living here, but I guess as long as we're living in a tiny space with none of our own stuff except two suitcases of clothes and our cats, it's still going to feel like we haven't moved in.  We are still renting cars while we wait for ours to ship over from the mainland, and at this point it's getting ridiculous.  We are trying to find a beater that can hold us over until we get our car, but we've been renting for three weeks now.  We'll probably end up with our car before we actually find a beater that we can mildly trust.

Our things are scheduled to arrive either this week or next week, and then we'll have the wonderful adventure of trying to fit our real lives into 550 sq. ft. of space.  We have to figure out what will stay and what will go, and then we'll have to figure out where to store what stuff stays.

I just needed to take a second to remind everyone that while life's a beach, it's not perfect!