Sometime in the wee hours of the morning he nudged her awake. She was laying snuggled up between his legs, her head resting on his chest and her feet drawn up into the robe. His feet, on the other hand, were sticking out and were definitely chilly, causing him to initiate the change in venue. Once ensconced in the bed they both promptly fell back to sleep closely spooned.
It was still dark later that morning when they emerged from the hotel entrance and walked the short distance to the boat launch. There were 5 dive boats being prepped in the parking lot for the day's excursions when they arrived. The boats were all roughly the same design since they had to be light enough to launch and haul out each day but be large enough to carry 12 divers and all of their gear. At around 40' long x 10' wide and constructed of aluminum they were huge on the trailers but looked relatively diminutive once they were in the water compared to previous dive boats he'd been on. They checked in and then watched the stars fade as the black of the night sky faded to indigo. After they boarded the sky continued to brighten until all of the stars were gone and the brilliant blue was back.
The breeze was chilly as they motored out and she gladly accepted the parkas the crew handed out. (He, of course, stalwartly declined the offer.) Along the shore, the lush vegetation was broken by the black porous rock of lava flows, small beaches, and large houses. Ahead was Molokini, a largely submerged volcano cone. One side had collapsed and the caldera, once filled with molten rock, now offered a sheltered bay in the blue water.
Anchoring was prohibited in the bay but the calm water and shelter from the wind allowed the boat to stop and brief the divers. He went aft to assemble his gear while she listened to the briefing on the snuba. A small battery powered air compressor would float on the surface with a thirty foot air hose that ended at a regulator. A snuba'r could breathe at depths up to thirty feet. After the guide reviewed some additional safety rules the snuba's struggled into their wetsuits, donned their masks and fins and finally made the plunge into the water.
As she started her slow descent into the warm blue water the clearness of the water became apparent. Where from above the reef look distorted, once immersed in the warm water the reef stretched far off into the distance and it was covered with fish. The brightly colored fish she had seen from above the day before where now seen close-up. They had no fear of her as they pursued their daily business. A triggerfish, its color pattern looking painted on, darted between some coral outcroppings and disappeared, only to reemerge a little further over. A tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality and he took her hand, leading her along the edge of the reef, 20' deep on one side, hundreds of feet deep on the other. After the narrow head and gasping mouth of an eel was pointed out to her she soon discovered there were lots of them, some speckled with white, some with larger green heads.
He was pointing out a small group of red and white cleaner shrimp strolling nonchalantly in and out of one the gaping mouths like a dental hygienist when he noticed her attention was directed in another direction. Following her gaze he saw the turtle above them, silhouetted against the brightness of the surface, an impossible massive bird in slow motion flight. Her bright eyes followed it until it disappeared in the distance.
Turning around he found the eel with the cleaning crew had vanished into the maze of coral. They continued along, looking into crevices for small critters until the buzzer on her wrist went off, signaling a return to the boat. Looking around they could make out the bright, LED flashes on the boats anchor line, signaling the direction of their return. They swam slowly towards it, their eyes still full of the life in and around the reef.
After the slow assent to the surface a crewman took her snuba device and stacked it with others before helping her out of the water. She chattered excitedly with others on deck, "Did you see ...," "They were so colorful ...," "No, I didn't see the turtle ..." After the snuba'ers exited the water the few scuba divers climbed out, clumsy under the weight of their gear. After struggling free and stowing his gear he joined her on the bench, the animation of her face and flamboyant hand gestures bringing back the thrill of the first dive for him.
