Day 12 (Tuesday, June 24) by Mike

Sailing with Dummies (Hawaii to Alaska Edition)

We went scuba-diving today. The wind was light and it was sunny. A perfect day for diving. Cathy does not scuba so she served as our on-the-boat safety person.

We drove around to our first spot and got our gear ready. As were just getting ready to jump in we saw a shark swimming around the in the water behind the boat. It was about four feet long and we think it was a Galapagos shark. These aren’t supposed to attack people. So we piddled around, delayed a few minutes, and then jumped in.

The visibility was really good. We decided to stay together so we could all come up and get out of the water if anyone saw a bad (tiger) shark. Nobody saw one and the dive was great. There are all kinds of fish here that I have never seen before.

Both of our dive spots today were inside the reef on the atoll. The first one had some deep narrow canyons (maybe 15 feet deep). It was really neat to go down in them. The four of us swam single file down several of the twisting paths. Some of them actually turned into tunnels for brief sections.

The second spot was a coral mound in the middle of a lot of sand. It was probably 150 feet in diameter. There were lots of these mounds scattered here and there. This one was rich with fish life. It was like being in an overcrowded aquarium. There were thousands of fish in that mall area. And I would guess more than 50, maybe as many as 100, different kinds of fish.

We plan to dive again tomorrow. And the next day.

Daily Cuisine:

Fried eggs sounded good this morning so I whipped up eggs for all takers as we motored out to our first dive spot. We dined on micro-waved nachos in between our dives.

Fishing Report:

Fishing is still not allowed in this national monument.

Arts and Entertainment:

I did some laundry this evening using a real washing machine and a real dryer. That sure beats a bucket, clothes pins, and lifelines.