Navatek Snorkel

Day 5
May 13, 2000

Day 5 began with a morning snorkel boat ride aboard the Navatek II. Since we had been to Molokini to snorkel before we wanted to try something different. The Navatek goes to the island of Lanai.

The ship is a futuristic looking tri-hull vehicle with these special stabilizers below the water.

They said its the boat used in the movie- "Jurassic Park- The Lost World" although I don't remember it.

Anyway, they served breakfast, lunch and drinks on board. The crew was friendly and also entertaining.

This Navatek crew member was a native and wove this hat from palm leaves which I won at the end in a trivia contest! He also performed a hula dance and entertained the crowd.

Check out the shots below of Kelli & Ilynn on the bow, Carol searching for Dolphins, and the southern end of the island of Lanai.

Ilynn and I tried SNUBA which is a combination of snorkeling and scuba diving. You are tethered to a floating raft that holds your air supply while you breathe down below the water. The only bad part I felt was that you feel like a dog tied to a tree in the yard. You have to go in the same direction your partner goes to move the raft that holds your Oxygen tanks.

Ilynn and me tethered to our Oxygen flotation device

By the time we figured out what the hell we were doing we were out of air and had to surface. The snorkeling was fun though and we should have some nice underwater pictures which we'll have developed when we get home.

Ilynn practices her decompression technique

Eric strikes an underwater pose

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After the boat cruise we head back towards Wailea for some tide pool exploration.

Although you can't tell, the waves here were crashing at about 5 feet.

The beach shown in these pictures is just a couple hundred yards from the Polo Beach Club It offers some interesting photo opportunities but not much else.

Tomorrow is planned to be nothing but a beach day. I've rented snorkel gear for the week and the snorkeling right out in front of our condo is superb. I have some pictures taken with an undewater camera which I'll have developed and upload to the site when we get home.

I also rented a boogie board and the waves are perfect for body surfing.

For now, its back to the PBC to catch yet another sunset and have dinner on our lanai.

Its so nice to have a condo as opposed to a hotel. Carol can do a few loads of laundry, we have a full size kitchen, coffee maker, microwave, etc. You can truly make yourself at home. Plus, its less than half the price of the pricey resorts that surround us.