Dive Trip!

We did a SCUBA trip with Seasport Dive Shop today off the South Shore. After a short lesson on the beach, we did two tank dives. The first was at Stonehouse, where there were some pretty neat things to see. This was mostly to get the feel of diving, for those of us beginners. Andrew stuck with me, even though he is certified. The second trip was out at Sheraton Caverns; this was significantly more interesting. These are collapsed lava tubes: Kauai is the oldest of the islands, and this is where lava initially flowed out to the ocean, creating tubes where hot lava flowed in the middle, cooling to form outer shells, or tubes as the outer layer cooled. The ocean has battered and worn these over centuries, creating these open caverns. In this particular area, green Hawaiian turtles come to hang out and rest. They shove themselves into the shelves created by the worn lava, where they hold their breath for up to 3 hours (!). We got to see several, although only captured one on camera (boo). We also saw a hammerhead shark while traveling from one location to another (don't worry! not while diving!). To finish off the day, spinner dolphins followed our boat for a ways. Whee!