Today was Maui's Polar Bear swim. Yes, the water was close to freezing, hovering around the 70 degree mark. The great thing about Maui was even though this was a pseudo-race, swimmers stopped to pose for me. Well, mostly, except for those all-too-serious ladies in the photo below.
Click HERE for lots more photos from this morning's swim.
The thing about artists is - well - they're artistic. There, I've said it.
I do not have a creative bone in my body, but the woman sitting next to me at dinner tonight was infused with inspiration. She distractedly doodled in the birthday cake frosting left on her plate and it was beautiful. Mine - not so much.
Congrats to Dillon on a great first birthday party with wonderful frosting.
This is why Maui beaches have such nice clean sand. This is the same section of beach and I took these two photos five months apart. You can see that the ocean takes the sand away to scrub it (top, today) then brings it back all shiny new (bottom, last August). Now if only I could get the ocean to clean my house . . . or . . . maybe not.
I faced a moment of uncertainty this morning.
I heard strange noises while swimming, looked up and saw a competition pod of whales heading my way. This is a mating frenzy when a group of male whales chase a female in heat.
The female passed by me (photo above) at a respectable distance, but where were the crazed males? They are the ones who are out of control in this situation, and I didn't want to be too close to them. Then I saw them swim under me, which is when I couldn't decide what to do. Climb into my teeny tiny little kayak? Untie myself from my kayak? Or stay where I was? My pulse began racing as they dove straight down and out of sight - quickly, far too quickly. Where would they come up?
Fortunately, they surfaced near the female who had moved on, so the peril had passed. Another boring day in paradise . . .
No, I am not being paranoid, they really are following me.
Every time I looked back during my ocean swim this morning, there was a small flotilla of kayaks following me. I swam right, they turned right; I swam left, they turned left. Finally the main group headed back to shore and the small remaining group paddled right up to me.
"Are you following me?" I asked.
"No, we are following the whales which have been following you for the past forty-five minutes" they answered.
Well, that explains the dark shadows with flashes of white I saw every now and then underwater.
I have to swim slower from now on, the poor whales can't seem to keep up.
I spotted my buddy, Joe, digging holes in the sand this morning. He wasn't trying very hard, when I get into a sand trap I keep digging, and digging, and digging . . .
Strangely enough I have seldom taken photos of the moon. On a whim, I took a quick snap this morning and it came out well enough to post here.
Hooray for our Sunday ocean swims! If not for them I would never leave my computer chair. Work, work, work, work, work. I need to replace my chair with an ejector seat which should be programmed to throw me out of the house at least once each day (walking to the mailbox does not count). Click HERE for more photos from this morning's swim.
I love it when I'm out in the middle of the ocean and I hear someone call my name. This morning Esten and Steve paddled up on the Maiden Voyage (plus one) of their new outrigger. Looking Good!
They should know better.
Nearly everyone was frightened away by the threat of murky water and high surf this morning - but they shouldn't have been. Conditions were ideal for a Sunday ocean swim and got better the farther we went. Don't be such scaredy-cats. Click HERE for more photos from this morning's swim.
I had a whale of a good swim this morning when a Mom, Baby & Escort swam by to check me out. Click HERE for more photos from the encounter.
South Maui beaches were trashed this morning. Keawakapu beach is usually spotlessly clean, but runoff from the big storm yesterday along with increased surf brought lots and lots of debris out to sea then back to shore. Most of it was landscaping detritus. I was glad to see people picking up and carrying away what little trash there was. It made me feel good about the human race.
We, too, have been having a crazy winter here on Maui - but that can't stop me from swimming in the ocean. Calm conditions would have been nice, but wild water is FUN. Dragging a kayak sure slows me down when the wind is howling like it was again this morning, but I'm in no hurry to get anywhere. It is all about the journey (and how much salt water I can swallow).
Deep water, shallow water, it's all the same to me. Some passing kayakers asked me if I could touch bottom, they were panicking at the thought of being in water over their heads. I grew up liking deeper water because of summers spent on a small lake with a mucky, snapping turtle infested bottom in which I hated to stand. It gives me the willies just thinking about it.
We got to share our clear ocean water this morning with a young contingent of swimmers down from Vancouver. I love getting to experience our Sunday swims through fresh new eyes. Click HERE for more photos from this morning's swim.
My ocean swim started out so nicely this morning, but then the clouds rolled in and the rain began. I was out over a mile and when I stopped I noticed that I was surrounded by kayakers. Were they following me? I never got a chance to ask because the wind started howling and the kaykers were blown away. I could see them paddling like crazy for shore, and then they were gone.
Within a couple of minutes of their disappearance a juvenile Humpback Whale surfaced right next to me. Wow! I guess it was wondering about this strange creature (me) which was splashing around in deep deep water. It circled around me to get a better view and then swam quietly away. I love how friendly the ocean critters are.
Koi fish are like me, beautiful body and ugly face. No, wait, I said that wrong - we are both strange colors and have scales. Yes, that's it.
These guys swam underneath me during my deep-water ocean swim this morning. They briefly consulted: "Should we surface and say 'Hi!'?" before deciding against it and swimming away.
My poor car has been making horrible, frightening noises. I asked my mechanic about it and he suggested that maybe it is time to buy a car from the current millennium. Because I just purchased my first home, and don't have a lot of cash lying around, I opted to take the car into the shop instead. They called me this afternoon in a state of chagrin. They did not admit to wrongdoing, blaming the problem on a defective part they had recently installed, but my car now runs perfectly and I was not charged a penny.
It felt sooooo good to get back into the ocean this morning. I wasn't motivated to swim on the mainland where air temperatures were below freezing. I missed the warm tropical waters of Maui, and it seems that they missed me. Little fishies kept swimming up to me to welcome me home. I am glad to be back
