I have lost count of how many times we've gone whale watching with Captain Steve's Rafting! Since we were not on Maui during whale season we decided to go on his Deluxe Dolphin Lana'i Snorkel Adventure and we weren't disappointed!
Beautiful coral and lots of colorful fish!
The snorkeling was wonderful!
But the highlight of the day was the dolphin show! The natural dolphin show!
Yep, they get this close to the boat! And they do tricks....all on their own!
There is a reason they are called 'spinner dolphins'! This particular dolphin just kept jumping and spinning and coming down hard on his back. I asked why he would do this and was told that he probably had some sort of fish attached to his back that he was working hard to get off! I'm sorry he was being irritated but it did make a boat load of tourists very happy!
This is the largest pod in the Hawaiian islands, around 400 dolphins today swimming in two different groups!
Captain Steve surprised us and we actually got to swim with them. Hawaiian law prohibits people from getting in the water when the dolphins are all around your boat BUT there is no law in going about 1/2 a mile ahead of them, dropping anchor and waiting until they get close. Then we got to slip quietly into the water and swim into their path. I got about 10 yards from them and just watched in awe as they swam past. The really amazing thing is that when I put on my snorkel and looked under the water, I realized that there are twice as many under the water as above the water. And we could hear them communicating with each other. Remember the old TV show 'Flipper'? Well they sound like Flipper, a high pitched squeaking sound plus you hear them all take breaths when they are above the water. Definitely a highlight of our trip and of our anniversary!
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