Active volcanos – Highest mountains in the world – Night diving with manta rays – Freediving with spinner dolphins – Karen is on board again! READ ON!!
As the sailors we are, we still spend most of the time close to the water or in it. Having said that, yesterday we rented a car and did a good sightseeing on the “big island”, Hawaii. Karen came on board the evening before and did not get to choose what to do..
The number one thing to do on this island is maybe to see the active volcanos. This is the biggest of the Hawaiian islands, evidently bigger than all the other ones together. The island is still growing, something we witnessed when walking on the south side of it. We planned to get to the volcano site just before sunset to see the spectacular colors in the dark, and we were definitely not disappointed. The rocks we were standing on were hot, it was almost as they felt soft. As mentioned, we witnessed that the island is growing as one rock 15 feet away from us suddenly got bigger and the lava flew out all around it.
On the way to the south side of the island we drove straight over, between the two highest tops. They are almost 14000 feet above sea level (4500 moh), but what is another fact is that if you count the hight of the mountain from the foot of it – the base of the Hawaiian through, it is actually 33.500 feet high (10.000 m) making it the highest mountain in the world. It is a very fascinating landscape to see and be in. We took the trip as far up as we could get by car and then walked for a bit towards the top. We came up to around 12500 feet which make it the highest altitude for Maren and Karl Otto. It is also cool to be above most of the clouds!
Before Karen came on board we did some more diving. Night diving with the big manta rays was on the program and these animals are spectacular. What we really did was to go diving with the algaes, using powerful light on the bottom which attracts them, which again attracts the big Mantas. They are huge and it was a fantastic experience to see them close. To try to describe how close we get to them; it is not recommendable to bring the snorkel attached to the mask as it may hook on to the manta when it passes. On the way to the manta site we saw a lobster, some crabs, an octopus, a big green moray on tour and as normal a million nice small fish feeding on the reef.
We did mention the dolphins a couple of days ago but these animals are so cool. They are visiting our anchorage almost every day and seems to be very happy with us swimming together with them. They make some great photos as well. This is the spinner dolphins and they are relaxing during the daytime in the calm bays after hunting through the night for squid and fish around the coral reefs.
Karen is now on board and we are planning to move some miles north today. Find a nice snorkel spot and enjoy the evening and morning there before crossing the windy alenuihaha channel north to Molokini or some place on Maui in a couple of days.