Molokini

The full moon was sinking, a wild rooster in a tree was crowing, and it was still very dark when we walked down to the dock in Kihei this morning at 5:40. The dive boat crew were waiting, as well as a few of the other passengers.  Soon everyone was on board, waivers were signed, but before we could leave, the Captain had a question: "are there any bananas on board?" Huh? It seems bananas are very bad luck on a boat here - they were very serious about it - so we had to confess to having two bananas in our bag - we handed them over, and they were left behind on the dock. "Trust me," the Captain said, "they'll be there when you get back."  And they were!
The good part about leaving so early was that we were the first boat to arrive, and as the sun lit up and coloured the clouds to the east, the scuba divers got suited up, checked their gear and jumped in the water. Molokini sits three miles off Maui's south coast, and is the partial rim of an old volcanic crater.

The divers came back raving about the 150' visibility, colourful reef fish, moray eel, the manta ray, barracuda and the reef shark in the distance.
Back near the coast, we stopped at Red Hill for a drift dive. This time I got in the water and snorkeled, following the divers below at times, as it was shallow (30 - 40'); I saw lots of fish, and a green turtle swam right in front of me!
Photo by blau17 on flickr