Snapturtle

After a full day on a 42′ boat I’m a little wobbly. Ugh. Regardless of that fact, today was a fantastic boat tour. Wow.

The day began at 9:30am as we pushed off shore at Port Allen on the HoloHolo Charters 42′ monohul “Northwind”. Right off the bat we saw a huge pod of spinner dolphins, probably close to 30. We saw another pod a bit further up the coast near Barking Sands Beach.

We finally hit Na’Pali Coast around 11am, viewing many of the sights up close because of the smaller boat. This is where I started getting a wee bit sea sick. Slowing down to a near crawl with large swells rocking the boat back and forth was not what the doctor ordered. This seemed to last forever until we finally hit the water at Nualolo Kai. Say hello to honu heaven.

There were at least 3 turtles the whole time we were in the water, more than an hour, and I’m pretty sure there was 5 unique turtles swimming about. We seemed to have happened upon a cleaning station as the turtles were constantly being cleaned by convict tangs with a stray chub here and there. Much to my delight I was able to get many, many photos of the turtles including shots with them being cleaned.

Much to my surprise there was also two white tip reef sharks hanging around. At one point one of them was brave enough to come within 3 feet of me before turning off course. Needless to say that scared the crap out of me. I was so freaked I didn’t even get a good picture! Argh!

I sure wish I got a better shot of the shark. But I gotta say I was pretty freaked out seeing that thing come straight at me, pictures were the last thing on my mind.

After the snorkel it was time to head back to Port Allen. But wait, there’s more! The captain had a fancy for big sea fishing and decided to drop 3 lines into the ocean and hope for the best. What he got was a huge yellow fin tuna!

All in all it was a great tour, more than anyone had expected and seeing the captain reel in that 160lbs tuna was a great closer for my money. I’d highly recommend checking out HoloHolo Charters if you’re ever on Kauai, they even take wee ones ages 2 and up.

As always, more photos in the Kauai gallery under day nine.