A Snorkler's Paradise...ish

As part of our Hawaiian adventure, we decided to spend three days on Hawaii's Big Island. We hiked to waterfalls, watched the volcano erupt, and explored some of Volcano National Park. We also spent an entire day snorkeling...

We heard about a bay that is great for snorkeling, but only accessible by boat. When we called the boat company, we discovered that they also do a night snorkeling adventure with Manta Rays...and if you sign up for both, you get a crazy discount. So we of course signed up for both. It was well worth the money. We did a morning snorkel at Kealakekua Bay. It was about a 45 minute boat ride. On the way out, they served breakfast, and then once we were secured at the bay, they had a barbeque on the boat. We snorkeled for a while, at lunch, snorkeled some more. It was fantastic.

Now, I'm always the littlest bit queezy on boats, and this was no exception. Usually by closing my eyes and breathing deeply, I get over it. However, this time, it didn't seem to matter how many deep breaths I took...as we headed back to the dock, it seemed to get worse and worse. Just as we neared the end of our journey, they stopped the boat and announced that we were being followed by dolphins--which is truly wonderful, unless you think you are going to throw up, in which case, you simply want the stupid boat to go back to dock. As everyone rushed to the edge of the boat to watch the dolphins, I sat on the bench breathing deeply and trying to identify the best place to puke. Fortunately for the people down below, I had already noted that puking over the side of the ship would actually only land on the people below, so when I passed the point of no return, I headed for a large garbage can. It was a little awkward as I started wretching next to some excited Asian tourists madly taking pictures of the dolphins, but there wasn't really that much I could do about it.

I felt much better after puking, and we arrived at the dock shortly thereafter, so all seemed fine. We headed to our car for a nice afternoon nap (since we'd gotten up at 5:15 am in order to drive from Volcano to Kona) and prepare ourselves for the night snorkel. I was optimistic that things would be fine, since the night experience only involved a 5 minute boat ride. Oh, how I was mistaken.

First let me say that snorkeling with Manta Rays was amazing. It was worth the puking that was to come. They literally swam within an inch of you with their huge mouths open wide. We were lucky in that seven gigantic manta rays actually showed up that night, so we were totally surrounded by them.

But let me continue my tragic tale of sea sickness. We rode the five minutes to the spot where the mantas come, and I felt fine. Then we had to wait for it to get dark (because they come out at night to eat plankton). So we sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for the sun to set. Meanwhile, the boat was just parked in the bay rocking back and forth. As everyone lined up to jump in the water, I headed to the edge of the boat to throw up. Yup, right into the ocean. The crew kindly offered me some water and suggested that I might feel better in the water. This probably would have been true if we weren't just floating on top...because after about 30 minutes of watching the mantas, I started to get that feeling that told me I should probably swim away from the rest of the group. Sure enough, I got ten feet away and threw up right there in the ocean.

At this point, I seriously considered just swimming back to the dock because getting back on the boat didn't sound like a great idea, but I got back on the boat anyway, wrapped my towel around myself, closed my eyes and started breathing deeply. Everyone else continued snorkeling for about 10 minutes, and then we headed back to the dock. Just for good measure, I went ahead and puked one more time over the edge, just to make sure that the fish got every last bit of my dinner.

It's hard to explain how truly terrible I felt--especially knowing we had a 2 1/2 hour car ride back to Volcano that night on windy roads. Even though we were off the boat, I couldn't seem to get the ground to stop rocking. I also thought that I should probably try to at least re-hydrate myself, so I had Justin stop and get me some Gatorade. I took one small swig...and that was enough. Good thing I'd told Justin to get a plastic bag just in case! What an exciting day. I will say that despite all the motion sickness and throwing up, it was still a very fun day, and quite the adventure. I think I will just avoid boats for the rest of my pregnancy, and maybe a little beyond as well.