"I'll be right back"

It's been rainy and grey all week now. It's still 76-78 degrees though, so how bad can that be? No sunshine makes the water a a little dismal, albeit crystal clear.

My mom was  visiting from Hilo hoping to find some sunshine on this side of the Island. Our unusually rainy weather is typical of weather found most of the time in Hilo (the windward side of the Big Island).

I told mom I was going for a short swim and be right back. I asked her to make sure pray for dolphins and whales for me to see today. Like she has more power of prayer that I would have? Ok, I confess, Linda and I pray for things to see quite often.

As I swam out, the Body Glove drove past me about 10' feet away. I hate when they do that. I think they are making a statement because I am not right inside of the buoy lines.  What the boat captains who run boats (and do not themselves swim) do not realize is that it is much calmer a little further out. We must have the right of way. Pedestrians do? I will have to check that out with DL&R.

I noted the Body Glove had stopped ahead of me about 3/4 of a mile. There was another tour boat on the spot as well. This meant there was something notable to see.  I knew I was going to see those whales I prayed for today! I swam and swam and swam to the location. By the time I even got close, the boats had since left. Keeping in mind it is illegal to  "swim" with the whales, but if they are in the general local and swim by you, all is fair. Whales, whales, whales I kept thinking.

Dolphins. 

I saw them jumping out of the water and I could hear them, but they did not swim with me.....I guess I need to be more specific in prayer, "swim with the dolphins" means, have them swim underneath me, not in the same ocean OK! 

I also saw dolphins on the way back and could clearly hear them and see them, but again, they did not swim "underneath" me! OK, God I will be more specific in my prayers in the future! I get it!

Got back home two hours later.  Oh well, I got some great shots of this little guy. A baby Eagle Ray.

It is rainy, cold and grey today. Being that  I swam about 3 miles yesterday, no swim for today.

A hui hou and hope for sunshine next week!

WHAT WAS THAT "BLACK THING" OVER THERE?

A "Hello" fly by

It's "another beautiful day in the neighborhood".

The day started out a bit gloomy but we could see it was going to be a nice sunny day today. The Pride of America cruise ship was in so it was busy at the pier.

We got to see Ken this morning and read his joke about "five things to look for in a good man" (something akin to that)

1) Make sure they love you

2) They lavish you with fine gifts

3) They worship the ground you walk on

4)They would never lie to you or deceive you

5) That they never get to know about the other ones!

Well I told you they were pretty corny.

We were graced by the appearance of Dolphins on the way out. There were only four or five which is quite unusual. There are normally  20-30 up to 50+ in bigger pods. Just four or five today.  They were not very sociable today, but they did do a few very close fly-bys as seen here. As mentioned  previously, you do not swim with them, they swim with you!

We  continued on to our CG Buoy. While hanging out there we always try to take the time to thank God for being able to be here and ask for his blessing upon this day (and beg for dolphins). I saw something very big and black on the horizon. Now too big to be a buoy I thought. It was just past the Kona Aggressor which was anchored about 100 yards off the GC Bouy. We watched for awhile to see if it was a figment of our imagination. Then we saw the graceful beautiful tail as it sounded. A whale! So close but so far away.

The good news, bad news is that it is illegal to be within 100 yards of them, it was tempting to swim over, but no can do. We watched awhile longer and he never reappeared. It was not a singer because we heard nothing, but still enough to make our day. Want to hear the Hawaiian whales sing  live? Go to jupiterfoundation.org. It will blow your mind!

I have attached photos of a baby whale that did swim by me one day while swimming and several others taken in Tonga (where is it legal to swim with them).

Humpback Calfs in  Tonga

Remember to check out the website  if you love whales.  You can hear them sing LIVE as well as a live video cam of Puako Bay.

No blog tomorrow. I have to go to Hilo and the water on that side of the Island is not very inviting.

A Hui Hou