The Captain’s Travels: Oahu – Day 6 – Journey to Atlantis!

(This post originally appeared on Facebook before I started this blog.)

Captain’s Log, Day 6

Found an alternate portal to the world below. Observed the natives without interfering. Star Fleet would be proud. Traveled north and swam with more domesticated natives. Private Nick was wounded in battle when the local gods sent him tumbling, including injuries not noticed until later. Fortunately, my improvised medic skills saved his foot. Perhaps one day he’ll walk again.

Submarines are cool. Today’s excursion brought us back under the sea by way of Atlantis Adventures. We dove to approximately 100 feet (~30 meters) and toured around a few wreck sites, noting varied marine life along the way. Note to self: while I’m not yet certified or experienced enough to dive responsibly to 100 feet, these wreck sites would be amazing to see up close in person!

After the submarine tour, we broke for lunch then made our way back to the north shore, stopping to see many beaches along the way. We spent most of our time at Shark’s Cove, where Nick and I braved the rocky ground of the tropical swimming cove while Dave and Jeremy stayed ashore. Neither of us had the foresight to bring swimming shoes, so walking through the shallow waters was a bit perilous, since not only did many of the rocks have sharp edges, but the seafloor was also covered with sea urchins.

The natural rock barrier protected the swimming area from the worst of the wave crashes coming in from the ocean, with many strong waves crashing into the barrier and providing a much more gentle wave ride toward shore. Nick, being the most adventurous among us, viewed the rock barrier as a challenge. He swam to the edge and climbed atop, somehow avoiding obvious immediate injury, even as a large wave crashed into it and sent him tumbling. He resurfaced with only a few scrapes on his backside, and we returned to shore.

On the way back to our hotel in Honolulu, we stopped by a farmer’s market selling fresh local produce of all kinds. There’s hardly anything more refreshing after a full day’s excursions than fresh pineapple and coconut milk consumed straight from the coconut.

As we showered and prepared for our night out, Nick revealed he didn’t escape without injury after all. He stepped on a sea urchin at some point during our swim, causing it to embed one of its spines into his foot. The spine continued to dig deeper for the next few hours unnoticed. Nick attempted to remove it himself, but was unable to stop himself from cringing and instinctively pulling his hand away from his foot. He asked for assistance, so I stopped by his room. He wouldn’t let me amputate (no matter how many YouTube video tutorials I promised to watch beforehand), so I performed open-foot surgery with a pair of tweezers, thus saving the day.

We returned to Goofy Cafe to have my final Hawaiian meal in the same establishment where we had our first before I said aloha for the final time, leaving Nick, Dave, and Jeremy to stay in tropical paradise for a few more days while I begrudgingly returned home and to my work desk, concluding my first tropical adventure.

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