This was the day I would fly home. To enjoy Kauai one last time, I got up early and went for a swim in Anini Beach just behind the house we were saying in this week. I originally thought I would swim out to the reef and do some snorkeling over the end. But the reef was quite a distance out and looked pretty rough with large waves breaking over it. Instead I left my snorkeling equipment on the beach and just swam out towards the reef. The calm water behind the reef was shallow but usually deep enough to swim in. As I got closer to the reef, however, I discovered that the water had more and more coral covered rocks hidden in it. After banging my arms and legs into a few of these while swimming, I decided to turn back. Back at the shore I put my mask on to do a little snorkeling. Looking around in the water near shore, I saw something dark curled up on my left. I thought it might be a sea cucumber egg and swam towards it. It turned out to be a small moray eel, only half a meter long when it finally uncurled itself. It had seen me first and curled up into a defensive zig-zag coil with it's mouth open and facing threateningly towards me. It was a reddish brown color with white veins between the mottled brown areas. I swam slowly around it and settled down to watch. Eventually it stretched out and slithered across the sandy bottom just like a snake. Then it disappeared down a hole in a patch of coral on the bottom.