Teenage Green Sea Turtles

Because the tides have been somewhat the opposite of primary waking hours, snorkeling in the bathtub has been limited. Yesterday, just to have some practice, we went to Waimea Bay. This is one of the most ferocious places on the North Shore during the winter and basically an inland lake during the summer. It seemed like a pretty good place to try out the gear and set of sense of snorkeling. So, after a Shrimp Truck lunch (yum!) we hopped off the bus at Waimea Bay. There we snorkeled for about 2 hours, spending about 1 hour of that time watching 2 or 3 green sea turtles feeding on the reef. They eat algae. One swam right toward me, which amounted in me squealing into my snorkel, which is a weird sound effect. The squeal had no effect on the turtles. This was a peak experience, so very cool. The turtles were completely oblivious to the other snorkelers, the swimmers, and the crazy young people jumping off the rocks just a few feet away from the reef. This site Waimea Bay Beach Park has a great shot of the bay looking pretty much like it did yesterday but without the swarms of people. That huge rock formation at the bottom of the picture is where the kids were jumping off.