Thursday, September 26, 2019

Flash flood warnings on the islands Wednesday and Thursday

Luckily we are in a 4th floor condo so no matter what happens we are likely going to stay dry. Today we snorkeled in our somewhat protected cove but a wave hit my wife in the face when she came up from snorkeling and she swallowed some sea water so wasn't a happy camper. I was okay out in the bouncy waves snorkeling but worried about sort of getting seasick bouncing up and down so much so I finally came in. The larger fish were sort of uncomfortable with snorkelers today because they were having to deal with the extra wind and rain and currents and so were a little irritated too. So, I didn't stay out more than 1/2 an hour before I went to find my wife. She said the surf was hard to negotiate going back into shore and to even stand up while getting pushed and pulled and knocked down by waves. So, she went to the heated swimming pools at the resort to recover nearby.

But, also she grew up a heavy weather sailor on yachts growing up and so was sort of a surfer girl in the 1960s and 1970s too just like I also was a surfer, scuba diver, snorkeler and body surfer growing up in Coastal California too. So, we understand the ocean better than people from the U.S. who live further inland. So, even if we get hit in the waves in the mouth and swallow seawater we are much better prepared for this than most people from non-ocean places around the world.

In 2015 near Kona, on the big Island I was also hit in the mouth with a wave coming up for air and took on seawater unexpectedly. If I hadn't had a boogie board to use as a float with a leash I likely would have drowned that day too. So, ever since I insist in my wife and I always having a boogie board for safety when we snorkel in the Hawaiian islands.

Also, when you choose a snorkel the simplest ones are the best. When I try the more supposedly advanced ones I almost drown with them. I like a straight tube with nothing on top with a non-return valve below the mouthpiece so I can grab the cut off part of the snorkel with my thumb and blow out any water out the bottom of the snorkel when it builds up before I breathe it in. As you are snorkeling sometimes waves over top your top of your snorkel and you have to blow out extra water. Or when you dive down to see something or get something you have to clear the snorkel then too.

Someone even found money while snorkeling today on the bottom of the ocean where we are. Someone must have had it in their swimming trunks and forgot it was there and it fell out.

I was trying to get the rental car to lock. It is the single most automatic car I have ever driven which turns it's own lights on and even goes to high or low beams automatically. I don't like a car that does everything for you because it seems like it is blinding people before it goes low beam sometimes.

But, at least it's not as bad as the people sleeping on video in their Tesla as it drives them home with both driver and passenger obviously asleep.

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