Kona, Hawaii
March 2012
Today’s Swim 10,500 meters
Back into the ocean today, 4 laps to the 1.2 mile Kings Buoy in Kilaua Bay plus a slew of laps to the Coast Guard Buoy and back to accumulate some additional distance. With plenty of feeds of Maxim packed I set off at 8:00am for my 2.5 hour session. Today I am feeling very grateful, I have 4 swimmers to swim with me for the first lap.
Me, Evonne, Robyn, Amy and Karlyn, lucky me FUN FAST swimmer chicks to swim with, I am the lucky pengiun today....
The first lap is complete and lucky me Evonne is game for another lap, off we go swimming over all the colorful fish darting around below us, black fish, blue fish, black and blue fish, yellow fish, skinny fish and schools of fish that look like they are a big sunny bed of spring flowers, we soon fall into a comfortable rhythm and before we know it lap 2 is complete, Evonne is off to continue her training on land and I head off to down some Maxim and head back out to sea SOLO.
A flower bed of fish
I swim happily off , over the fish flower bed, past the buoys marking the entrance to the bay, past the boat tours filled with snorkels, fins and wet suit clad swimmers on the hunt to catch a glimpse of spinner dolphins and into the deeper water where I can’t see the bottom, I feel more at ease out here, I like the vastness, it feels peaceful and I get down to getting in my zone and knocking out 2 more good quality laps.
I stroke and I stroke, the sound of my breath is soothing, ” what’s that?” I ask myself, I listen again, this time the sound is stronger, in fact whatever it is is getting louder by the second…” Squeak, Squeak…..Squeak, Squeak”, as I am pondering the question I see 2 shapes below, dolphin shapes. ” DOLPHINS, how wonderful to be in such good company, they are doing their deal, I am not going to stop and gawk, I’m going to respect them and continue on my merry way swimming”, I think to myself.
So that’s how it went the tour boat and their wet suit ladden customers bobbing around in the bay way behind me looking for Dolphins and me futher out at sea, pulling through the water, blowing bubbles as I go, all while taking in the wonderful company below, two athletic dolphins slicing through the water. I swim and swim and they continue to stay right below me, then 2 become 4 Dolphins, then 8 more, now 12 Dolphins below me and to my right, I continue to hold pace as do the Dolphins, I snag a breath to my left and there I see a mother and baby dolphin, the young dolphin is tucked right by Mum’s side, memorable indeed.
The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin
” What a lucky kiwi I am to have such wonderful company today”, I think and with that I take a ” Dolphin Inventory”, 24 Dolphins, they slowly start rising closer to the surface, the Dolphins either side of me snug in tight we are all at the surface together, I breathe air in and out my mouth, they breathe air in and out their Blowhole on their back, I feel them breathe and I see the water disperse as their bodies emerge out of the water for air, so close to mine that the spray splatters against the side of my face and my back , there are Dolphins to my left, Dolphons to my right, Dolphins below me and behind me….I am in a Dolphin Pod, I feel honored
Finally the Dolphins veer off to the right out to the deeper ocean water and I continue on to complete my 10.5 km swim, what a morning! I head back to Karlyn’s house, through the door I go with a wide mouthed smile, ” How did it go today” Karlyn asks, ” GREAT” I reply, ” I got to swim with 24 dolphins”, I add, ” Ahh, did you swim with the dolphins OR did the Dolphins swim with YOU?” she replies with a sly smile. ” They are probably telling the other Dolphins Hey Guess what we swam with a human today!”
I laugh at the thought and head to the shower to clean up, what a day.
Coming up tomorrow: Speed Work and plans to travel to a NEW beach
Will there be BIG FISH there? I’ll keep you posted.
Closing Thought: A person who is enthusiastic soon has enthusiastic followers.