Day two in Hawaii, Humpback Whales and Snorkel with Turtles.

On Thursday we circumnavigated the Big Island. We saw the Lava Tree Molds. These holes were left when the lava surrounding trees hardened before the tree wad destroyed. There were several holes like this at this spot. Some of the tree molds were quite large and deep. Looking closely I could see an impression of the bark of the tree that once was there.
After the Tree Molds we went farther south to the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. This is quite different from the beaches I'm use to in Florida. The black sand is much coarser that the sand on our beaches. One thing I have noticed about the beaches I've been to in Hawaii is that there are no shells on the beach. Everywhere we have gone I have not seen the shells I normally do when at a Florida beach. Don't know why. There were lots of coconut palms at the beach and it looked like people would just pick-up the coconuts and crack them open right there on the beach, because there were lots of coconut husks in piles around the beach.

There were quite a few people there but not many in the water. The beach was not very big, the picture here shows about half the beach from one direction.
After we left the beach we drove south and toward the tip of the Big Island which is the southern most point of the United States.
Then turning back north we headed up toward Puakō Boat Ramp where we met up with the girls running the Adventure X Whale Watching and Snorkeling tour. Because of taking the long way to the boat ramp and the tour group changing the arrival time because of we arrived a little late. But Jan called and the captain assured us that they would wait for us.

They did and we were soon off to see some whales. Jan and Leslie took up position in the crows nest while Kent assisted with lookout and navigation.

It was not long before we saw our first whale. It was a Mama and her calf. The put on quite a show and it turned out that being late was to our advantage in seeing the whales.

Here you can see the mama and her calf

We also saw some of the whales breaching and slapping their fins on the water.

After this we went to swim on a reef and look for turtles. I did see one turtle and a lot of fish.

The turtle is being cleaned by yellow tangs. The turtle was down about 20 feet so I could only get down to about 12 feet while holding my breath so the shot is a little blurry.
All and all it was a very fun day and we got to see and do things we have not done before.

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