1/28/99: Mom stayed home while Dad, Ruth and I went to the beach down in Makena today. While Ruth was catching some rays down on the beach, dad took me walking along the rocky shore line to hunt for opihi (sea snails). While we walked, I picked his brain about memories he has of growing up here in Makena. He was born in 1921, and developers didn’t get here until the mid-1970s. He has seen a lot of change in his 78 years… We came across a guy standing on a rocky cliff about 20 feet above the water looking down into a small bay about 50 yards across. He was watching honu (sea turtles) swim around. I ran back, got Ruth and the snorkel gear we had brought, and got ready to swim with the turtles. I entered the water out at the end of one of the rocky outcroppings that formed the bay, the opening about 50 feet wide. As I swam into the little bay, saw several honu, but kept my distance. It is illegal to touch them or to try and catch them. I got a bit of a surprise though, when one turtle decided he wanted out of the bay so he had to turn around and face me with nowhere else to go. He looked right at me, swam directly at me, then at the last second gracefully glided right underneath me, leaving about two inches of spare room between the top of his shell and the skin of my stomach and legs. I simply stopped moving my arms and legs and let him swim on by. He turned out to be friendly, and I hope he thought the same of me. I did not want to bother or harm them, only to see them in their world. Talk about a chance of a life time. After the beach we had lunch at Azeka’s, a famous burger spot in Kihei, and then indulged in shave ice up in Pukalani, on the way home.
NOTE: The photo above shows one of the honu (sea turtles) and many tropical fish that I have seen while snorkeling among the coral reefs in the waters off Makena. This honu (upper left of the pic) is just turning right around the corner of a cluster of coral about 20 feet below the surface..
