It is Monday night, May 11, 2015. The four Wagnersons drove to the Kona harbor at 6:00 pm to hook up with Kona Ocean Adventures for our night time snorkel trip to see the Manta Rays. This was the same group that took us last Tuesday on our first snorkel adventure to the Captain Cook Monument and gave us our first taste of actually swimming with dolphins. Again, these guys did not disappoint. We headed out of the harbor on our boat and turned north for about 30 minutes. There we dropped anchor and waited until the sun went down and it became dark. They brought out a tray of snacks and fruit, chips and salsa as we waited for the sun to go down. They passed out wetsuits for us to put on since being in the water at night will certainly be cooler than swimming in the ocean during the day. For snorkelers, they have a rectangular floating platform that they put down in the water which we will hold onto while in the water. This platform measures about 6 feet by 3 feet with powerful lights that shine down into the water. The plankton in the water is photosensitive and is attracted to the light. As the plankton gathers in the light, it looks like little bits of snow in the water. Fish which eat the plankton are attracted to the plankton, including Manta Rays which only eat plankton. They have no stinger, they have no teeth, they have a huge mouth which they open and turn loops to take in as much plankton as they can while staying in the cone of light.
There are a total of 9 snorkelers including Doug, Barb, Lynda and me. We are given instructions about appropriate behavior….like holding onto the floating platform and trying to stay flat in the water with your fins up so if and when the Mantas come close we won’t hit them with our fins. We are NOT to touch the Mantas. If they want to touch us, that’s okay, but we are not to do that. The sun is down and it is now dark outside. We’ve already put on our wetsuits. We now don our fins, masks and snorkels and slip into the dark waters off of the back of the boat. Holding onto the floating platform, Momi, a native Hawaiian diver pulls us along on the platform to an area away from the boat. We aren’t in the water two minutes before we see our first Manta Ray swimming beneath us.
After only a few more minutes in the water, the “show” begins! These massive Manta Rays appear beneath us and begin performing barrel rolls closer and closer to us feeding on the plankton. Some of these Mantas are 16 feet long and 8 feet across. I took several videos of this experience and have spent the last 8+ hours trying to upload them to youtube so I can include a link on this blog. These massive creatures are so fluid and deft in the water they leave you breathless as they approach again and again. I am between Barb and Lynda. It was so AMAZING. Unbelievable, or incredible are other adjectives you might use. When you watch the videos which I will attach to this post (once they download), you can hear either Barb or me giggling, oohing and ahwwwing through our snorkels as these graceful creatures come closer and closer. One of them in the second video actually did brush me. I was afraid at one point they might come so close that my camera would end up in his or her mouth. Fortunately for me that didn’t happen but wow, what a truly exhilarating experience! I’ve attached YouTube links to two of the videos here — part one and part two. Enjoy.
After about 50 minutes in the water, it is time to head back to the boat. That’s okay by everyone because we’ve all started to get a little cold. Taking off our gear we climb back up into the boat one by one where Rick, the captain of the boat has a hand held hot water shower that he uses to rinse us off with hot water to instantly warm each one of us up. As we put on dry clothing, hot chocolate is passed out as each one of are talking non-stop about what we have just seen and experienced.
With everyone back on board and warmed up, the anchor is pulled up and we make our way back to Kona Harbor. Wow…..this was a 10 out of 10 experience. Absolutely incredibly amazing!!!
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