On the left in this picture is Keahou Bay, where our catamaran left from. On the right is a near by hotel (seen also in next pic). In the background is the most colorful pre-sunset sky.
Sheraton Keahou Bay. See the two very bright lights on the ceiling of the large balcony, second bay in from the left. There are people standing on the balcony(click on pic to enlarge), just above the rocks of the shoreline. They are there watching for the Manta Rays that come in to feed on the plankton that are attracted by the very bright light. Its a chain reaction.
One major perk of going out for a night dive, is a beautiful view of the sunset.
Tons of bubbles as the 6 scuba divers are directed to sit on the bottom of the ocean and remain still, shining their light up toward the surface. We snorkelers (19) were instructed to stay at the top , very quiet in the water, and try not to bump into one another, a feat which was not accomplished.
Our resident Manta Ray expert, Jim "Wingman", who has taken almost any footage of Manta Rays you have seen on Discovery and the Travel channel, moved around on the bottom of the with 3 intense movie type lights, which attracts lots of plankton, which in turn attracts the Manta Rays for dinner. Two join us tonight.
Manta Ray flying in front of Jim's very bright lights. You can see the huge right wing (they are 8-10 feet across in total), as it flys away from us.
Money shot. This is the best photo of the bunch, and though you can't really see the Manta well, you can really tell how close it was to all of us snorkelers.
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