Tour is a dream come true for dolphin lovers

It was a memorable wedding, to be sure: The 75 unexpected guests that showed up at Puuhonua o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) for the May 2002 sunset nuptials drew as much attention as the bride and groom.

“The dolphins appeared right when Michael and I were standing in front of the kahuna (Hawaiian priest) and the ceremony was about to begin,” Melainah Yee said.

“They stayed in Honaunau Bay, spinning and leaping out of the water the whole time. It’s unusual for dolphins to be in the bay at sunset, so we knew we were being blessed with something really special.”

Yee, who grew up in Savannah, Ga., had felt a connection with dolphins ever since she was a young girl. She and her friends would frequently see them cavorting off the Atlantic coast.

“We were taught early on that if dolphins were near we didn’t have to worry about sharks,” Yee said. “They have always represented safety, comfort and healing to me.”

In 1998 she went to Kona on a spiritual retreat that included several ocean swims with dolphins. She met Michael the second night she was there, and when she returned to Kona the following year for what was supposed to have been a two-month sabbatical from her job as an optician in Atlanta, she never left.

“I knew I wanted to be with Michael and the dolphins in Hawaii,” Yee said. “It was like I had been called here by this island and the dolphins. I felt I had been called home.”

Both captains licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Yees have gleaned much of their vast knowledge about dolphins from firsthand encounters with them. The name of their company, SunLight on Water, refers to the sparkle of the sun’s rays on the ocean, which Yee describes as “one of the best visualizations we have of heaven meeting Earth.”

Daily tours transport guests on a 40-foot boat, Uhane Nui o Naia (Great Spirit of the Dolphin), to areas off the Kona coast where they can swim and snorkel with Hawaiian spinner dolphins — often dozens at a time.

“Spinner dolphins are year-round Hawaii residents,” Yee said.

“Where we go on the tour, how many times we stop and how long we stay at those spots depends on the dolphins and the weather. We follow the dolphins. We might stay in one place or move numerous times throughout the morning; it’s all up to them.”

Some guests might be swimming in the ocean for the first time. Others might never have seen dolphins up close before. Everyone is thrilled to watch the sleek, graceful creatures gliding beside Uhane Nui o Naia and performing acrobatics above the waves. During the tour the crew might also point out manta rays, eagle rays, sea turtles, whale sharks, pilot whales and, during the winter, humpback whales.

But the stars of this adventure are the dolphins. “It’s a privilege to be guests in their world and to play among them for a little while, always remembering to respect them and the ocean environment,” Yee said.

“Every day, our boat returns with guests whose faces reflect that incredible experience: awe, wonder, excitement, joy. It is magical!”

Dolphin-watching etiquette

>> Enter the water slowly and gently.

>> Avoid kicking hard, making loud noises and big splashes, and using fast overhead swimming strokes. Instead, move in the water quietly and leisurely with your arms at your sides or behind your back.

>> Dolphins will decide how close they will come to you or how close you can come to them.

>> Never feed dolphins.

>> Never touch dolphins. We have bacteria in the oils of our skin from which they have no immunity.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.