Fun in the sun, and a rescue...of sorts.

Interesting day today.

Almost witnessed someone drown. I was snorkeling at Hideaways beach again this morning. When I got there there was a lady there and someone snorkeling just a bit off shore. I asked how long she’d be there since I preferred to have someone else around for safety. She said they just got there and they’d be staying for about an hour.

Perfect.

So, I put my gear on and I waded out. I was out for only a minute or two and my mask fogged a little so I lifted my head to pull it away and rub the inside. I noticed the lady waving in my direction. I didn’t know if she was waving at me or at her husband that was a distance beyond me. I thought it was a bit out of place for her to wave at me, a total stranger, but every time I looked up she waved at me again. I thought, this cant be coincedence and it was enough to make me paddle in and see what was up. Essentially she wanted to know if I thought her husband was in trouble. I look out and he’s like 250 yards out in the ocean. I said I know the reef goes out that far and he looks like he’s just lollygagging but I couldn’t tell if he was in trouble. I told her he probably floated out there unknowingly. But he was really far out so I hung out for a few minutes to try to get his attention and see if he’d respond.

Now we're both waving.

He kept getting further and further away and would rise and fall with each wave making him appear and disappear over and over again. Eventually we we saw that his snorkeling turned into “bobbing”. He didn’t have his mask or snorkel anymore and these mondo waves were pounding over him. At that point his wife was in a panic and I was a bit worried too. She went to call for help and I weighed the options before me. I’m not a great swimmer so I was worried about swimming out with that red thingy and then getting stuck out there too. There were some surfers coming in and I decided to see if one of them could swim out and see if the guy was OK.

It was a kid, probably around 17 and he agreed to go. I gave him my fins and he swam out to the guy. Turns out that the guy was following a couple of sea turtles and before he knew it he was way in the #%&@ out there. He said his fins broke and he couldn’t keep them on to swim in. Truth is I think the guy would have lasted another 10 minutes out there, tops. I can’t even imagine if another scenario had played out. Once the guy was out of the water the rescue guys showed up since his wife had scampered up the cliff steps to call 911. They spoke to him for a minute and chastised him for another minute then left. I’m just glad I was able to find someone who was capable of helping. I think the guy was in shock. He really didn’t converse too much when he got on the beach and he was breathing like he’d just sprinted a mile. It was completely plausible that he would have drown and that would have really wigged me out big time.

It was completely crazy.!

I did manage to snorkel a bit after this whole ordeal and saw a sea turtle. Don’t know why those seem to be the pinnacle creature to see in the ocean, but I floated over it for about 5 minutes just soaking it in.

Anneka had her surf lesson today. Her instructor said she was a natural with amazing abilities for a first timer. I think she made it look easy. The waves were small, which is perfect to learn on, but she’d just get going and hop right up. Her knees are so bruised right now though from hitting the shallow bottom at the end of each ride. I think she really enjoyed it though.

The sun was out in full force today. But it still took till early evening for there to be no clouds covering up the cliffs of the NaPali coast. So we finally saw them in their entirety today. I scheduled my helicopter ride for tomorrow morning. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. I just hope the weather holds and that it is as amazing in real life as it appears in all the pictures and postcards I’ve seen.

More later,