Snorkeling in Hawaii

One of the joys of visiting a tropical island on a summer vacation is the opportunity to explore the beauty of the abundant underwater life in the waters surrounding the island.

Glass bottom boats allow tourists to observe the passing undersea life through the glass beneath their feet while sipping their rum punch as the captain slowly steers the boat through the waters above areas of great undersea beauty.

For the more adventuresome, there is the opportunity leave their deck chairs and cocktails, don a mask and fins, jump overboard and tour underwater in person.

Adding a snorkel allows the visitor to swim around and observe without having to take their head out of the water for air, while putting on scuba gear enables one to go right to the bottom and spend thirty minutes or so face to face with the undersea life.

While visiting the big island  of Hawaii a couple of years ago my family and I took a boat trip along Kona coast where we were staying on the island of Hawaii.  
The boat did not have a glass bottom but it did anchor in three different coves where we were able to jump into the water and explore underwater ourselves.

Not knowing how long before our next opportunity to explore the undersea world surrounding a tropical island, we visited a local Wal-Mart the night before and brought a couple of underwater disposable cameras at a cost of about eight dollars each.

These two cameras allowed us to not only photograph underwater but also take pictures of each other and the boat while swimming.  

Actually, taking pictures underwater, even with a simple inexpensive camera, while swimming is a challenge to say the least.

We elected to go snorkeling rather than renting scuba gear, which none of us had any experience doing.

Lacking the weight of scuba equipment, it was difficult to stay still in one spot to take a picture underwater as the air in our lungs kept causing us to float upward when we weren't moving.

The fish and other sea creatures also were not very cooperative about staying in one place and posing for us.

However, we did manage to get a few good pictures underwater as well as see a variety of colorful marine life, including a couple of green sea turtles.

The trip itself took about four and a half hours. We arrived at the dock around eight and the ship left the dock about 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning and we didn’t return until early afternoon.

It was a beautiful day and the cruise along the Kona coast of Hawaii alone was worth the cost of the trip to say nothing of the adventure snorkeling and swimming with fish and sea turtles in the coves where we anchored.

On the way out we were served a nice brunch on deck as we enjoyed viewing the coast and other boats around us in a sea as blue as the sky. While on the way back we simply relaxed and enjoyed the sea breeze and passing scenery.