December 11th day 2-Newbie Snorkeling-Waikiki Beach

Having checked out likely snorkeling spots the day before, I planned to do some snorkeling this day.  I spent the morning in the room working on the computer and had my Spam snack and some grapes for lunch, along with another of the pastries. 

When I got out to the beach in the afternoon I found that the tide was low. I went to the best beach from the day before and noticed it was almost all covered in rocks. I didn't bring my water shoes and I planned not to wear my fins for most of the time, so I retreated back to the mostly sandy beach by the jetty with the overlook at the end. I had my Fuji waterproof camera. 

My goal was to get familiar with my new snorkel set and more comfortable in the water. I hoped the water would be as warm as it had been in St Maartin island in the Caribbean last spring, but it was as I expected, a little chilly, more like the water at Coco Cay. After I immersed I found that my eyes were really burning and stinging from the salty water. I wondered if this ocean is more salty than the Atlantic around the Caribbean. 

View from where I was snorkeling

The water was murky from the low tide and from the influx of water from the baffled sea wall where I was swimming. Most of it was shallow enough to stand up and sandy, which was ideal for what I was doing. I find I am still quite nervous and panic easily even in this setting, which seems silly, but then I didn't know until I SNUBA dived last spring what an almost phobic feeling I would have about being in deeper water and breathing through a tube. I knew I would calm down as I continued in the water, and the depth was similar to Coco Cay, where I could stand up most anywhere, so I just kept working with it. 

I had problems getting the mask to seal around my nose, maybe more so than when I was using the one last spring that I borrowed from Wayne's son. I can't put the tube in my mouth without losing the seal as my mouth stretches around it. Tilting my head up also tended to break the seal.  I know there is a technique to it, so I kept trying different things. What worked best was pressing the mask against my face to expel air and create a vacuum. The snorkel tube worked great and didn't accumulate any water at all, so I never needed to use the valve to clear it. 

Very bad photo of  Needle fish

I really wanted to see and photograph the needle fish from underwater. They were so visible the day before and pretty, with their colorful stripes. What I found out though, was that they are always so close to the surface that I had to tip my head back to see them and I'd lose the seal and have to stand up to empty water and re-seal the mask. Also, they are very fast and would swim away when I tried to get close to take their photo. I got the shot above by holding the camera under water and pointing it towards them as they shot by. If I tried to half submerge upright to see them underwater that way, my legs and rear would immediately float up and put me on my face in the water-back to square one. Oh well, I guess they are just better viewed from above.

'My' school of fish!

I didn't take a lot of photos because of the visibility and scarcity of fish. I mostly just cruised around and practiced maneuvering through the water and keeping a seal on the mask. At one point I was pretty far from the wall in the sandy center of the water and suddenly found myself face to face with this dense school of fish. I grabbed out my camera and took a couple of shots before they moved away from me.

Eventually I felt a little chilled and went back to shore to warm up a little and get my new fins so I could work on getting more comfortable with them. I had used the fins last spring a little bit but eventually took them off because I felt like they floated my feet at the top so much that I couldn't get them underwater to kick properly. Then they were a little hard to bring down and forward as fast as I wanted when I wanted to stand up again. I was only moving very slowly and could do most of the moving around I needed to do with my arms and hands. But I felt that if I had more time to work with them I might be able to get comfortable and use them effectively.

I put on the fins when I was standing in about 6 to 8 inches of water. They were more awkward to put on than I expected. They floated, so I had to bend and lift one leg and put one on, then standing on that one do the other, only standing on the first one destabilized me so I almost fell over.

Then I tried to walk in deeper. Oh, what a comedy and a disaster!  The fins are curved, so each step I took the front dug down into the sand. Then I had to lift the fin, plus the sand it was inserted into to take the next step. I tried over and over, and almost fell over, and ended up crossing my feet and almost falling over. I couldn't make any real progress forward. I imagined how this was going to work when I was deeper in and falling sideways into deeper water, and gave up. I guess the ones I borrowed last spring were flat, because I certainly didn't have anything like that kind of problem with those. I wish I could find a short, flat flipper that would be easier to walk in and stand up in and still give a little extra kicking power. I wonder if these were made for getting off a boat straight into the water.

Meanwhile, I was aware I'd been presenting a laughable spectacle to anyone watching on the beach. Visualize fat older lady floundering around in flippers... So I just walked out of the water carrying my fins and laughing at myself a little. Can't do anything about looking ridiculous, so I might as well enjoy the humor also!

I swam with the mask and snorkel some more until I had salt water burning in my nose and throat from the difficulty I was having with the seal on the mask. Even with all that I enjoyed myself.

I spent a leisurely time then walking back down the beach and sitting and watching the water and the people before going back to the room and showering and having a rest before Harry came back from work.

He came in rushed and anxious to get me to Walmart where I planned to finish my shopping. He is not good in city traffic and was over tired and way stressed, so I was glad I could bring up a map on my phone that showed our progress and let me zoom in to be sure about each turn and street name. He was anxious about parking downtown, and I said there was probably a parking garage. He disagreed and when it came time to turn down the street the store was on he went straight instead and parked on the street. We walked around to the store entrance, and sure enough, there was a big parking garage. He grumbled that anyway, it would be full because everyone would be using it. He headed for an escalator marked with a small sign, 'To Sam's Club'. and said, 'Come on, here's an escalator', I answered, 'Ok, we could do that, or we could just go in the store,' as I pointed to the entrance to Walmart opposite to where he was headed.

To my relief he parked himself in a fast food called L & L, with a soda and I did my shopping. After I was done he suggested we eat there and we both had Saimin ramin noodles, me with teriyaki BBQ chicken, and him with Spam...? He doesn't like spam but wasn't sure if that was what it was. He did like it ok that way though. I wanted to eat light because of the heartburn the night before from the heavy meal.

Then it was home and a little TV and to bed by 9:30.