Mike in the Wild

Hurricane Lowell had drenched Maui over several days before I arrived for my September vacation.  Fortunately there was little damage in the way of flooding or erosion.  However the storm left snorkeling conditions less than ideal at one of my favorite spots, Honolua Bay in the island's northwest corner.  A freshwater stream was flowing stronger than I've ever seen it as I followed the adjacent path to the rocky beach, resulting in brown patches in the normally turquoise cove.  Murky water can not only diminish visibility, but it can indicate bacterial, chemical, and physical contamination.  Nevertheless, I entered the water and headed to the middle of the bay where vibrant coral formations came close to breaking the water's surface.   However before I reached those outcrops, I spotted a completely different sort of animal: my first ever shark in Hawaii.  A couple of months ago a shark sighting in Hanalei Bay on Kauai left me unnerved while I snor...

I am not a thrill seeker.  I eschew zip lining; I'd rather hide in a blind in the same treetops to actually see the birds that others speedily glide past.  As a child I avoided roller coasters in favor of Ferris wheels where I could enjoy the scenery from a bird's eye view and at a very human pace.  So I'm wondering how I reached a point on my 55th birthday where I deliberately chose to swim with sharks.  Most of the Bahamas lie above the Tropic of Cancer but it still has a mild winter climate that is more tropical than temperate.  Nowhere is this more evident than out on the coral reefs that encircle the nation's more than seven hundred islands and cays.  Diving and snorkeling, not to mention sport fishing, are a mainstay of its important tourist economy.   So on a stop in Nassau on New Providence Island during my birthday cruise I was eager to snorkel on a teeming and picturesque reef. Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas offers fully escorted dives a...