Whoa! What a trip! It was to say the least, very eventful. I headed over to Honolulu from Los Angles on August 5th, 2008. I was flying on American Airlines. Yep…I was on THAT plane; you know, the one had to turn around to return to Los Angeles after about 50 minutes because of an odor and smoke in the cabin. Alarms started sounding, oxygen masks on half the plane dropped, the other half of the plane had to pry their masks out of the compartments. I was sitting on the side of the plane that got their masks but only half of the masks were delivering O2, so I elected to provide the working masks to the kids sitting next to me. We arrived safely back onto the ground and used the slides to evacuate the plane (that was so much fun!!
).
We finally arrived about 10 hours late to a horde of press wanting to take our statements. When I realized that I wasn’t getting any oxygen via the mask, I took a few photos of everything going on which I passed on to a reported when she asked for a copy of them. They were used during her report along with footage of an interview with me; kind of cool.
I made the choice of doing all of my diving with Gabe Scotti (he's a ScubaBoard member ScottitheDuck) of Kaimana Divers Kaimana Divers: SCUBA Diving in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, Waikiki based on a recommendation from another ScubaBoard member. (Thanks Lisa!) I was able to get in 8 boat dives and 2 shore dives (no, this wasn’t a dive vacation but a vacation with a little diving
).
I can’t decide what site was my favorite. I was set on seeing a Dragon Moray Eel, a Frogfish, and a Shark or two. Why not set the bar high to start with???
Our first dive was onto the Corsair. What a cool site. This is Oahu’s only non-intentional wreck that recreational divers can dive. The pilot of a US Navy F4 Corsair had to ditch his plane outside Maunaloa Bay in a training mission in 1946 due to mechanical problems (the pilot survived). There were some large morays on this wreck as well as many different tropical fish hanging out.
We were off to Angler’s Reef for the next dive. I saw so many eels from zebra morays to whitemouth morays to stout and yellowmargin morays! What a nice relaxing but enjoyable dive.
The next day August 7th, I met up with Gabe and Nicola to dive the YO-257 and Horseshoe Reef. Nicola is visiting from the UK and is working on her Dive Master. We dropped down onto the YO and immediately started swimming over to another close wreck, the San Pedro to look for a couple of sharks that hang out there. Unfortunately, there weren’t there but we did see a turtle napping in the sand and a very nice-sized Great Barracuda. We headed around the wreck and then back over to the YO where we spotted another turtle! As we were beginning our ascent, the Atlantis submarine came cruising by with all of the passengers waving at us. I wonder how many future divers are on that submarine. We then took our surface interval by slowing sailing over to Horseshoe Reef. Gabe mentioned that there is a very shy Dragon Moray that hangs out there but while we both looked, neither of us could find it. Bummer. We did see several eels, butterfly fish, and Moorish Idols. Someone in another group found a pink leaf scorpionfish and I snapped a quick photo, but it didn’t come out.
I didn’t dive on the 8th, but headed out to the North Shore. While we were visiting Sunset Beach we got to see a Monk Seal that was resting on the beach. It was wonderful to see it but also very sad
knowing that they are endangered.
On August 9th, I met up with Gabe and Nicola again. This time there were a few more people and I was to be buddies with Jonathan a diver from Ohio. Perfect, as we were both taking photos and are experienced divers. Today, I was doing the two morning dives and then meeting up with a ScubaBoard buddy. We started with the wreck of the Sea Tiger where Jonathan pointed out a frogfish. Awesome! We then went over to Horseshoe Reef again which gave me another shot to find that elusive Dragon Moray. No luck on seeing the little devil on this dive either. I was invited to join them for the afternoon dives on Turtle Canyon and Kewalo Pipe so I sent a quick note to my buddy apologizing and backing out. Yes, I know I am a bad person for doing that and I missed a good opportunity to meet a friend but guess what? I FOUND A DRAGON MORAY EEL! :luxhello: We also saw many turtles hanging out on Turtle Reef.
Our final dives were shore dives off the North Shore! Cool, I dove the North Shore!!! We did both dives at Shark’s Cove and went through the various swim throughs. During the first dive Gabe found two, yep 2, red Hawaiian Lionfish. Amazing little fish!
Thankfully the flight home was boring and I was met at the airport by my husband. What a great week. The diving was much better than I thought it would be. I look forward to returning with some friends and making a dive vacation of it.
Mahalo Gabe and Nicola!
My photos can be found here: my smugmug photos.
If you are wondering whether or not you should bring your dive gear to Oahu to do a few dives; just be a Nike and "Do It"! You won't be sorry!
).We finally arrived about 10 hours late to a horde of press wanting to take our statements. When I realized that I wasn’t getting any oxygen via the mask, I took a few photos of everything going on which I passed on to a reported when she asked for a copy of them. They were used during her report along with footage of an interview with me; kind of cool.
I made the choice of doing all of my diving with Gabe Scotti (he's a ScubaBoard member ScottitheDuck) of Kaimana Divers Kaimana Divers: SCUBA Diving in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, Waikiki based on a recommendation from another ScubaBoard member. (Thanks Lisa!) I was able to get in 8 boat dives and 2 shore dives (no, this wasn’t a dive vacation but a vacation with a little diving
). I can’t decide what site was my favorite. I was set on seeing a Dragon Moray Eel, a Frogfish, and a Shark or two. Why not set the bar high to start with???
Our first dive was onto the Corsair. What a cool site. This is Oahu’s only non-intentional wreck that recreational divers can dive. The pilot of a US Navy F4 Corsair had to ditch his plane outside Maunaloa Bay in a training mission in 1946 due to mechanical problems (the pilot survived). There were some large morays on this wreck as well as many different tropical fish hanging out.
We were off to Angler’s Reef for the next dive. I saw so many eels from zebra morays to whitemouth morays to stout and yellowmargin morays! What a nice relaxing but enjoyable dive.
The next day August 7th, I met up with Gabe and Nicola to dive the YO-257 and Horseshoe Reef. Nicola is visiting from the UK and is working on her Dive Master. We dropped down onto the YO and immediately started swimming over to another close wreck, the San Pedro to look for a couple of sharks that hang out there. Unfortunately, there weren’t there but we did see a turtle napping in the sand and a very nice-sized Great Barracuda. We headed around the wreck and then back over to the YO where we spotted another turtle! As we were beginning our ascent, the Atlantis submarine came cruising by with all of the passengers waving at us. I wonder how many future divers are on that submarine. We then took our surface interval by slowing sailing over to Horseshoe Reef. Gabe mentioned that there is a very shy Dragon Moray that hangs out there but while we both looked, neither of us could find it. Bummer. We did see several eels, butterfly fish, and Moorish Idols. Someone in another group found a pink leaf scorpionfish and I snapped a quick photo, but it didn’t come out.
I didn’t dive on the 8th, but headed out to the North Shore. While we were visiting Sunset Beach we got to see a Monk Seal that was resting on the beach. It was wonderful to see it but also very sad
knowing that they are endangered.On August 9th, I met up with Gabe and Nicola again. This time there were a few more people and I was to be buddies with Jonathan a diver from Ohio. Perfect, as we were both taking photos and are experienced divers. Today, I was doing the two morning dives and then meeting up with a ScubaBoard buddy. We started with the wreck of the Sea Tiger where Jonathan pointed out a frogfish. Awesome! We then went over to Horseshoe Reef again which gave me another shot to find that elusive Dragon Moray. No luck on seeing the little devil on this dive either. I was invited to join them for the afternoon dives on Turtle Canyon and Kewalo Pipe so I sent a quick note to my buddy apologizing and backing out. Yes, I know I am a bad person for doing that and I missed a good opportunity to meet a friend but guess what? I FOUND A DRAGON MORAY EEL! :luxhello: We also saw many turtles hanging out on Turtle Reef.
Our final dives were shore dives off the North Shore! Cool, I dove the North Shore!!! We did both dives at Shark’s Cove and went through the various swim throughs. During the first dive Gabe found two, yep 2, red Hawaiian Lionfish. Amazing little fish!
Thankfully the flight home was boring and I was met at the airport by my husband. What a great week. The diving was much better than I thought it would be. I look forward to returning with some friends and making a dive vacation of it.
Mahalo Gabe and Nicola!
My photos can be found here: my smugmug photos.
If you are wondering whether or not you should bring your dive gear to Oahu to do a few dives; just be a Nike and "Do It"! You won't be sorry!
