NIGHT SWIMMING WITH THE MANTA RAYS OFF THE SHERATON HOTEL WITH THE WINNS.

Diving with the Manta Rays has been the highlight of our tourism, swimming under the moon and the man made lights of the Sheraton Hotel and the dive boat had a wonderfully peaceful rhythm to it, as did the Hawaiian music wafting over the rocks and ocean. The dive lasted almost two hours with instructions and all, a video diver recorded the snorkeling for us as the Manta Ray’s kept eating right in front of our faces; the DVD will be about 15 minutes long and will be set to Hawaiian music. The Winn’s and we will share one DVD, I’m going to try and post it Saturday.

There where two Manta Rays tonight, one was six feet wide, the other was ten feet across.
The dive boat has lights, as does the Sheraton Hotel, plus the dive boat has divers that go
down to twenty-five feet with lights. The lights act like the Sun, which attracts the plankton, 
the Manta Ray feeds solely on plankton, so when the Rays see the lights, they know that food will be there.

The Manta Ray swims in shallow water below the plankton and then they do
back flips with their mouths wide open, by swimming they suck in the plankton.
When they did their flips, they came within 2 or 3 inches of us. Tonight two Manta Rays put
on a show for an hour, we could hear each other laugh and shout out joyful sounds as they
would flip below us and arch themselves so their giant gaping mouths would come straight at you.
The visibility was excellent, and the sea life came to action as divers, lights, camera and food were all in action.
Great, great time.