Once I booked this trip to Hawaii, I looked for a snorkeling excursion. Charter Oahu is a small family company, and they were terrific! The four crew members were all female, and there were about ten snorkelers. (Some ships had 25-40 people without the personal attention we got.)
As we set off, it was extremely windy, which rocked the boat a bit. I was fine, as I am an OLD Salt. We were told there is a $10,500 fine for touching a turtle, so we needed to stay away. (And no, that's not a typo.)
Green sea turtles, very common in Oahu, are the largest hard-shelled sea turtles in the world, reaching lengths of four feet and weighing over 300 pounds. They live at least 70 years and can live to 100 years. Males have longer tails than females, and they all spend a lot of time on the reef sleeping/eating (Nina, one of the crew members, called this the "living room"). Green sea turtles have
high concentrations of hemoglobin and red cells in their blood and
myoglobin in their muscles, which enables them to store oxygen during dives.
Angelina Venturella was the photographer, and armed with an underwater GoPro, she was accomplished at free diving (swimming to the bottom while holding her breath) to get her exceptional pictures.
Once in the water, I was happy to see that the mask/snorkel combo I had brought along worked great. The fins were tricky to get used to, but eventually they were fine. Nina kindly tethered us together, which I really appreciated as I didn't want to float away. She also pointed out turtles on the reef and when they were surfacing. I did not have a wetsuit on, but I wasn't one bit cold, too distracted, no doubt, by all those amazing turtles. We spent more than an hour in the choppy seas enjoying the incredible views of turtles and fish. It was the most awesome nature experience I've ever had.
Nina was my right-hand buddy, showing me things I would have missed. (I'm holding a sea urchin here.) She also lent me an extra wide noodle so I was well-balanced in the choppy seas.
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