Having a great time on Maui so far! We’ve had an easy start to the trip; relaxing at the condo we’ve rented, lounging at the beach, and trying new restaurants and cafes in the area. All of us are of the mindset that a vacation shouldn’t be work so we haven’t been too concerned about trying to get out and “see it all”. Our first priority is to enjoy our vacation and relax. So far, we’re doing just fine on that account!
Yesterday I set out on my first dive excursion of the trip. I joined Ed Robinson’s Diving Adventures for a three-tank boat dive that took me and two other divers out for some adventure dives. The diving was really incredible! For the first dive, we motored out to Molokini Crater and started with a 130 foot dive to check out the “shark condos” where we saw a small white-tip reef shark along with loads of fish, corals, and a couple HUGE lobster.
We then ventured around to the backside of Molokini Crater where we did a shallower dive along the backside wall. While we only dropped down to about 80 feet, the wall of the crater dropped hundreds of feet below us and had all sorts of life growing on it. Our guide showed us wire coral gobies and a blue dragon nudibranch; both of which I would have otherwise missed. Perhaps the most exciting and unexpected sighting was a ten-foot manta ray that cruised by at a distance.
For our last dive, we attempted to see a couple wrecks; an old tank and landing boat that had been sunk around World War II. Unfortunately, we missed the wrecks entirely but got to see a few small satellite reefs that were home to a myriad of fish, shrimp, and a few eels here and there. While the last dive wasn’t as exciting as the first two, I still had a great time and would definitely recommend Ed Robinson’s Diving Adventures for more experienced divers looking for good diving in Maui.
The bummer in all this is I did rent an underwater camera for this adventure however when I got back to the shop where I rented the camera from, they couldn’t get the images off it; the camera had flooded and because the memory was integrated with the camera, all the pictures and videos were lost. I was disappointed since I had captured some pretty exciting things (including a video of the manta ray) however it’s only given me an excuse to go out on another dive and see what else I can find! I’ve signed up for another dive on Friday. Better luck next time!