Manta Ray snorkel

... continued from Day 9.

There's not a lot of traffic so luckily there’s time to stop by the hotel and change clothes before we leave for the dive shop. When we get to the shop I get fitted into a wetsuit and then we head for the marina.

The boat doesn’t leave until 5pm and I'm a little bit hungry so we stop by Bite Me restaurant where we split an order for fish and shrimp taco’s with huge side salad. Hmmm so yummy!

I take a picture of the nice big boat I’m about to go on only to find out I’m going on the second smaller boat, uh oh. Well here's the big boat anyway.

Although I've done quite well recently I’m still a little bit worried about getting sea sick. Not sure if eating a meal right before getting on board was the smartest thing to do ... good thing I took some bonine! 

Sandy drives off for a quiet night at the hotel pool -- she tells me later that the view of the luau from there is pretty good -- leaving me by myself, but I quickly befriend a fellow first-time manta ray snorkeler called Suzie.

We'll be the only two snorkelers on a boat with 4 scuba divers, plus Jonathan, April & Mike, our 3 crew members for tonight ... yep, definitely the smaller boat, but I'm starting to think that might turn out to be a good thing. Such a fun group of people!

Conversation is flowing easily as we speed across the open waters. Quite bouncy at times and we're throwing up a lot of spray at times, but so far no seasickness.

Tonight's dive site, Garden Eel Cove by day ... "Manta Ray Heaven" by night. It's also referred to as the airport site at times.

Some of the other boats are already at anchor, but the most flamboyant of the bunch motors in shortly after we get there ... it's a little raft with live bag pipe musicians. Why? Who knows.

We're all turned towards the open ocean when we suddenly are rewarded with a magnificent sight; a large whale breaching out of the water! Wow, this really makes me want to go on whale watching cruise! Just in case it comes up again I start up my camera again, but by then the whale has disappeared back into the depths.

Jonathan does a nice, informal presentation on manta rays while we're watching the sun set. Then it's time for some last minute scuba instructions (I'm really hoping the stuff I picked up will come in handy some day ... definitely something to add to my ever growing bucket list) and a brief snorkeling review.

After a quick visit to the “bathroom” (aka ladder at the back at the boat ... talk about awkward!) it’s time to gear up and get into our wetsuits. Check out my cool neoprene socks! They've really come in handy walking over sharp rocks, plus they keep my feet nice and warm.

Some of the other boats are already letting people in the water, but we wait until it's completely dark out and then some ... no sense in getting cold and wet before the manta's show up. When we hear excited shrieks coming from the snorkelers in the distance we know the mantas have arrived. Time to get in the water!

The scuba divers step off the board first, leaving Suzie and I to bring up the tail. Flipper, the dive master from the larger boat is supposed to come pick us up, but Mike says I can swim over to them myself if I want to. Just when I'm about to jump in he spots Flipper swimming towards the boat so we decide to wait for pick-up.

A short while later I push off into the deep, dark ocean … and boy is it dark! We all have LED lights dangling from our snorkels and the boats are lit, but you can't see what's below the surface at all. My flippers are bright yellow and I can't even catch a glimpse of them! Flipper is laughing already -- I think he is the jolliest person I've ever met.

After a bit of encouragement my fellow snorkeler joins us in the water and together we snorkel over towards the group. It doesn't take long before I can see lights in the distance ... phew, kind of a relief to see there's no sharks to be seen.

Flipper guides us over to one of the rafts. Bright dive lights are mounted on the underside of the raft, while divers are holding up bright lights of their own near the bottom; this creates a channel of light that attracts plankton and what do manta rays eat?

The mantas are identified by the black spots on their white bellies as well as other physical characteristics that set them apart from the others.

Suddenly there’s two unexpected guests shooting through the channel of light: dolphins! Picture is very poor quality, but you can just make them out on the left (white blur on the right is a manta ray wing).

As you've probably figured out by now it's very hard to take pictures under these conditions. Luckily the camera also has a video option. They're all pretty similar so if you're only going to watch one of them I recommend the second video. (You can watch bigger versions on YouTube).

Full of grace

My favorite video

Lots of fish

Lefty blocking out all the light

Couple more in case you're as fascinated as I was. See the little cleaner fish?

Back on the boat we strip out of our cold wetsuits and nibble on banana macadamia nut chocolate chip bread to celebrate the advanced open water certification of one of the scuba divers. Yay! There’s also hot coco which is perfect right now.

April gives us an impromptu astronomy lesson as we turn back towards the marina. The sky out here is so clear and we see Venus and Jupiter along with many, many constellations. What an end to an amazing day!

PS. Still no sea sickness on the way back.