Only three days in Kauai what were we thinking? So many beaches, so little time! We hit Haena Beach this morning and got in some good sand sliding, river stomping action (once again we forgot our camera so have very little to show for our excursion except for this shot of the Dry Cave across the street.)

We were amazed as we watched our 2 year old friend play in the water. There was a place where the river met the ocean creating a pool about 2 feet deep. Sam would slide off the sandy sides of the river, dunk his head in the water and flip around so quickly that he never got any water in his mouth, nose, or eyes. The natural instinct he has for being safe around the water was a constant source of awe to us. He’s grown up around the ocean in Hawaii his whole life so I guess is comes from being constantly exposed to it at a very young age.

After playing with Sam, his parents came back in from swimming and reported that there was a pod of dolphins about 1/4 mile from shore, so we jumped on it, and swam straight out from shore to the area we had spotted them. By the time we got there they were in a different area, and it’s always a little hard to see where they are jumping from up close because your perspective is so low once you’re in the water.

We were tired from a hard swim with relatively choppy water, so we waited and rested for a while, and eventually the dolphins came back! It was amazing to be so far from shore (the first time swimming so far from shore into open water, rather than within a protected bay) and a little nerve-wracking as well since we didn’t know the shark situation in this area. The day before we had run into a local girl who had her arm completely bitten off by a shark while surfing- she was playing tennis!

Once the dolphins were in the area, I knew we were safe and I calmed down, and we watched them circle around us for at least 15 minutes, before we headed back to shore. Exhilarating!

Our first morning out in Kauai we went to Hanalei for a quick visit to the beach. It is a sweet little beach town, unlike anything on the Big Island. Hanalei Beach was crescent shaped and miles long. There were a ton of surfers sitting on their boards waiting for a gentle wave to roll in.

There had been a lot of rain a few days earlier so the water was brown from run-off (the soil there is a rich reddish color).  Jim and I  decided to do our usual mile long swim, and we headed off in the general direction of the pier. We couldn’t see a thing, not even our own hands in front of us! It was completely brown, but we kept going because we were under the impression that it was just dirt. Unfortunately, we read later in the paper that day that the island had some problems with sewage getting into the water, so at the end of the day we didn’t know if we’d really swam in sewage water or not, but we took some Vitamin C just in case!

First Kauai lesson: if the ocean is so brown you can’t see two inches in front of you, you probably shouldn’t keep swimming! Lesson noted. Don’t worry Kauai, it takes more than than to ruin our vacation.

After leaving the cave and braving the mild churn that tossed us around a little bit in the cove, we were back out in the open water gawking at the ocean floor like a couple of starry-eyed mainland tourists, marveling at this undersea forest that we didn’t even know existed earlier this morning.

We continued along the coastline until we reached a giant pillar of rock that emerges from the ocean floor about 30 or 40 yards from the shore. It looked like the coral extended out past this giant outcropping, so we decided to swim around it to see what was hiding behind this massive hunk of lava. About halfway around Beth commented that she wished she could see better, as she was wearing tiny goggles that covered only her eyes, and they kept fogging up. I was wearing my usual full mask and snorkel, and said “I would loan you mine so you can see better, but I would die out this far without my gear!”

Well, it was not a minute after I said that that I started experiencing problems with my snorkel. It has what is called a “purge valve” right in front of the mouthpiece. On this particular snorkel, the purge valve consists of a flexible piece of clear plastic about the size of a nickel that is held in place by a plastic nipple that is about as big as the tip of a ballpoint pen. If water comes in through the top of the snorkel the valve allows you to exhale forcibly though your mouth and send the water through the valve without letting any back in. Sometimes things get stuck in the valve, especially sand, which is what I suspect happened after I set my gear down on the ground while we were exploring the cave just a few minutes before. Sand causes the valve to leak and take in a little bit of water with every breath, which was what was happening now.

Unfortunately, while trying to clear the sand, the clear plastic piece vanished without a trace into the vast ocean, off to join the island of plastic (which is now the size of north America, check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rNYzSH-BA).

Without that stupid, coin-sized piece of plastic my snorkel effectively became a 1 inch diameter drinking straw, taking in only water instead of air. I seriously thought that I was screwed, having never been this far from shore without my snorkel before. Don’t get me wrong, I am a strong, fast swimmer, with all of my gear in place, but I have an unfortunate inability to turn my head and breathe when doing the “front crawl” stroke (freestyle).

I know that I need to learn how to do it eventually, especially so I can avoid situations such as this, but when we first started this daily practice I was much more interested in building up my strength and stamina in the water than I was in improving my breathing technique. After a while, I just got used to doing it this way, that, and as much as I would love to spend enough time at the beach each morning to both get my exercise and practice my technique, I have only been making time for one.

Anyway, so here I am, about half a mile from a place where we can safely get out of the water, and I am without my life support system. In spite of my earlier comment about dying, I was not really afraid for my life, but I knew that this half mile was going to be harder for me than any of the others I had swam over the last few months.

My trip back to the shore was an erratic one. I tried swimming my usual stroke while holding my breath and coming up for air occasionally, which didn’t really work because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to keep that up. I tried swimming like I am supposed to, turning my head and breathing, but I kept getting water in my mouth, which I suppose you get used to eventually, but I wasn’t really digging it this morning. I tried swimming the breaststroke, which allows me to keep my head above water and breathe, but mine is so slow compared to my usual stroke it is frustrating, especially not being able to keep up with Beth. My journey home consisted of a combination of these three strokes, with an occasional flip over to float on my back and rest. Ultimately I made it back to shore in one piece, if not a little flustered.

I think the most disappointing thing about this little adventure besides having to end our reef exploring journey early was the reminder that even though I go to the beach and swim every morning, I still can’t really swim. What I do is great for exercise, I am losing weight, gaining muscle, strength, and stamina, but none of these really matter in a life threatening situation if you are so dependent on a coin-size piece of plastic to make it all work.

I guess I am stuck with my “training wheels” at least for now, until I make the time to learn how to swim properly, but eventually they will have to come off. Perhaps this will have to happen the same way my real ones had to when I was five. I was perfectly content riding my bike up and down the street with the trainers on, but my mom threatened to take my bike back to the store if I didn’t learn how to ride my bike like a big boy. Hopefully it won’t come down to that! Beth hasn’t got a threatening bone in her body, and it would be a long flight for my mom to come out here and yell at me!

Just after watching the sea turtle swim by for a few minutes Beth and I poked our heads above water to see a cave which had been carved out of the jagged lava rock cliffs right in front of us. Beth had visited this cave before with our friend Trisha, but did not remember that it was this close to the beach. I will admit that I am a little less brave and a lot more cautious than Beth, especially because we are among the 45 million Americans currently without health insurance (go, go, President Obama) but since the water was so calm today I felt perfectly safe swimming towards shore to check it out.

The shape of the cove leading into the cave is such that on a rough day the combination of the waves and rocks hiding just below the surface could be likened to swimming into a blender on the “pulverize” setting, but today, it was set to a nice gentle “stir.” Beth was quite pleased that I would get to experience the cave too, as she thought that it was much further from the beach, and figured that I would never risk swimming into an area that I would typically compare to a kitchen appliance with a rotating blade.

As far as caves go, it is pretty small, but it had a floor covered with nice rounded pebbles that were comfortable to sit on to take a break for a few minutes to catch our breath in preparation for heading back into the open water. It was neat to look at the ocean from within the cliff, a perspective I had never seen before, and might not see again for quite some time.

After ten or fifteen minutes in the cave we decided to continue our reef exploration adventure. Just was we were leaving the rocky cove, a set of waves came in, and the blender decided to speed up from “stir” to “whip,” not a huge deal, but it was just enough to freak us out a little and bang up our knees and skin our elbows on the way out. We had already done and seen quite a lot for what was supposed to be a lazy Sunday morning, but our adventure was not to end there!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when Beth and I swim we generally swim the same route day after day, starting at the south end of Hapuna Beach and swimming our way north, except on days where the current in particularly strong, when we swim with the current instead, again, as mentioned earlier.

Today was a particularly calm, sunny, beautiful day. The water had the kind of stillness and clarity that you only get a couple times a month. On these days the water is so clear that you can see the coral reefs from the coastal highway, which is always a treat!

We decided to take advantage of this unusual stillness and start our swim at the south end of the beach, but instead of swimming north along the beach, we turned and swam south, which we had never done before. Instead of sandy beach, this area is lined with craggy lava rock cliffs and the water is studded with jagged lava shelves and boulders, not a place you want to be swimming when the tide is coming in, that is for sure! But we had never explored this area, and had no idea what surprises it had for us, so we thought we would take advantage of this rare opportunity to check it out!

Before we get into that, here is a little story about my first Hawaii snorkeling adventure in 2003:

When we first moved to the Big Island six years ago, I was completely clueless about all of these finer ocean related details, you know, tide schedules, water clarity, large ocean predators, etc. Having never snorkeled before, I went to the store and purchased a cheap snorkeling kit, and set off for Hapuna to see what I could see. The surf was high that day, and I got just a little too close to the rocks resting near the shore.

When the tide came in I was swept up into the air and deposited right on top of a jagged rock sticking up out of the water. Before I even knew what had happened, another wave came in and washed me right off the top of that rock back into the water, tearing the back of my right hand open in the process. So there I was, floating in the water, dazed, confused, bleeding, and thinking about every “Jaws” movie I had seen as a kid, wondering how long I had before I would be gobbled up.

I slowly made my way back to the shore, but not without the ocean giving me one more swift kick in the ass before getting out. As I was trudging my way back through the shallow water to the beach one last big wave came in, and I mean big, large enough to pull the brand new mask and snorkel that I had just taken out of the package that morning and rip them off of their resting place in my forehead and wash them out to sea. I couldn’t even believe it! At the time I was working a pretty menial job, and that $25 snorkel set represented half a day of my take home pay. Unbelievable. I was ticked off, to say the least!

My bad luck was not to end there. Since I was still bleeding, my buddy Matt and I decided that it was a good idea to leave and get me home to bandage me up. I tossed my beach bag in the back of his truck and we headed home. When we got to my place, Matt pulled off to the side of the road and let me off, then sped away before I had a chance to get my bag out of the back, the bag which had my towel, cell phone, and, of course, my house keys.

I thought about calling Beth, who was working at a little gift shop down the street, but wait, I didn’t have my phone. I thought about walking down there to see if I could get her keys to let myself in the house, but wait, I was half naked and dripping blood and seawater. I didn’t want to get Beth in trouble with her boss by showing up like that, as we really needed they money from her job at the time. So I just stood there, wet, cold, and bleeding outside the front door of our crappy apartment until she got home. I know, I know…

Well, this experience was nothing like that! The water was calm, clear, beautiful, and above all, non-threatening. We swam out away from the shore and then cut south toward the cliffs. The coral reefs just around the corner from the beach were some of the more colorful that I have ever seen. Within a minute of entering this area, we had the treat of watching a honu (sea turtle) lazily swim along the coastline and half dozen different kinds of vibrantly colored tropical fish darting here and there. It was amazing to see the richness of this seascape in contrast to the relative “desert” of the sandy beach floor that we swim above almost every day.

Amazing that something so different and so beautiful could be in “our own backyard” this entire time without us knowing it. Just goes to show that it certainly pays to go exploring, even in places that are familiar with. You literally never know what might be hiding around the bend!

But our adventure didn’t end there, check out the next post…

Today was the first time we went swimming in the bay at the Fairmont Orchid on the Kohala Coast- don’t worry we didn’t sit on the chairs or use their towels! Unfortunately the water was so cloudy that we couldn’t see anything under the water. Which was funny because there were all sorts of tourists swimming out in the bay with their snorkel gear- they either had much better eyesight than I do, or they didn’t have a clue that it was a really bad day for snorkeling (I suppose maybe their vacation was at an end and they didn’t have the choice.)

The insight for today is that it is worth it to get into the ocean for even 5 minutes! I have friends who have always said this, but I just couldn’t buy it, because it can eat up so much time to drive down, change, shower off, and change again. But I was proven wrong. On a hot day a nice quick dip in the ocean is the most refreshing treat you could give yourself.