acooper
Contributor
Whatever excuse you need to go diving!
One of our fellow Keck crew left us a few months back to go work for a electronics start-up company in California. Since he was going to be back on-island for a few days we decided to celebrate properly, somewhere, underwater, off the Kohala coast. Whatever excuse you need.
Seven of us booked the day on the Kohala Divers boat. There would have been eight, but Deb was still recovering from the latest bug her students had shared. She was not happy. Thus I was without my usual dive buddy. Still, it was quite a crowd with all of our regular crew. In addition there were a few divers from California. We spent the trip out to the first dive site swapping tall stories and lies about diving, the usual.
I can recommend Kohala Divers with no reservations. A good dive outfit, nice boat with lots of room. A great staff who did a decent job of briefing us while providing good dives and safe dives. They usually go north from Kawaihae along the Kohala coast. I have always considered this area the best diving on the island.
Black Point was the first dive site, one of my favorites. We stayed shallow, 50ft or so, at least shallow for this dive site where the reef drops to 120ft. Much of the dive was spent exploring the wall that marks the 45-50ft depth contour. This features several excellent caves, old lava tubes now home to a great variety of marine life. The day started well with a couple Tom Smith nudibranch, followed by a pair of friendly cleaner shrimp.
I had never done the divers trick of removing my regulator and offering my mouth to these interesting shrimp. But this time I did, an odd experience... A three inch shrimp swimming into your mouth and picking away at any little bits along your teeth or gums with tiny claws. I allowed the shrimp to feed as long as I could hold my breath. Not long enough for the shrimp to do a proper job of it, I guess I will keep that dental cleaning appointment I have next week.
In the second cave we found even more, lobster, cowries and more nudibranch. I was happily photographing a Red Dendrodoris on the roof of the cave when I remembered to check my air... 700lbs? Where had it gone... Time to leave! Off I went, but still had enough air for a proper safety stop below the boat.
Whales! My first Humpback sighting of the season was a breach just 200yards off the bow of the dive boat while we moved dive sites. I don't remember even seeing a whale before late December last year. No whalesong to be heard on the dives, it was just a group of three, two large whales and what looked to be a yearling.
The second site was Crystal Cove, just a couple miles north of Kawaihae. The dive masters mentioned that there had been a lot of nudibranches to be seen near the mooring on some rock walls. This had apparently included some of the beautiful black and blue Gloomy nudibranches, a species I had yet to see. As there were several of us interested in nudis we made it clear that if the critters were there we would be spending the dive there. Indeed the critters were, I don't think I got more that 20yards from the mooring the entire dive. As I dropped I headed right to the rock wall. Sure enough, there was a beautiful Gloomy Nudibranch visible just as I came up to the wall, way to start a dive!
The large rock the mooring line was anchored to was nudibranch central. We ended up finding four species there, bringing the day's total to six species... Gloomy, Pustulose, Red Dendrodoris, Red Spotted, Tom Smith and White Margin nudibranch were quite a treat for the day's dives. I spent my hour underwater shooting photos until the memory card was full and the air ran out.
A fun pair of dives, a great day, and some pretty pictures to grace the pages of my blog. My wife is so jealous.
One of our fellow Keck crew left us a few months back to go work for a electronics start-up company in California. Since he was going to be back on-island for a few days we decided to celebrate properly, somewhere, underwater, off the Kohala coast. Whatever excuse you need.
Seven of us booked the day on the Kohala Divers boat. There would have been eight, but Deb was still recovering from the latest bug her students had shared. She was not happy. Thus I was without my usual dive buddy. Still, it was quite a crowd with all of our regular crew. In addition there were a few divers from California. We spent the trip out to the first dive site swapping tall stories and lies about diving, the usual.
I can recommend Kohala Divers with no reservations. A good dive outfit, nice boat with lots of room. A great staff who did a decent job of briefing us while providing good dives and safe dives. They usually go north from Kawaihae along the Kohala coast. I have always considered this area the best diving on the island.
Black Point was the first dive site, one of my favorites. We stayed shallow, 50ft or so, at least shallow for this dive site where the reef drops to 120ft. Much of the dive was spent exploring the wall that marks the 45-50ft depth contour. This features several excellent caves, old lava tubes now home to a great variety of marine life. The day started well with a couple Tom Smith nudibranch, followed by a pair of friendly cleaner shrimp.
I had never done the divers trick of removing my regulator and offering my mouth to these interesting shrimp. But this time I did, an odd experience... A three inch shrimp swimming into your mouth and picking away at any little bits along your teeth or gums with tiny claws. I allowed the shrimp to feed as long as I could hold my breath. Not long enough for the shrimp to do a proper job of it, I guess I will keep that dental cleaning appointment I have next week.
In the second cave we found even more, lobster, cowries and more nudibranch. I was happily photographing a Red Dendrodoris on the roof of the cave when I remembered to check my air... 700lbs? Where had it gone... Time to leave! Off I went, but still had enough air for a proper safety stop below the boat.
Whales! My first Humpback sighting of the season was a breach just 200yards off the bow of the dive boat while we moved dive sites. I don't remember even seeing a whale before late December last year. No whalesong to be heard on the dives, it was just a group of three, two large whales and what looked to be a yearling.
The second site was Crystal Cove, just a couple miles north of Kawaihae. The dive masters mentioned that there had been a lot of nudibranches to be seen near the mooring on some rock walls. This had apparently included some of the beautiful black and blue Gloomy nudibranches, a species I had yet to see. As there were several of us interested in nudis we made it clear that if the critters were there we would be spending the dive there. Indeed the critters were, I don't think I got more that 20yards from the mooring the entire dive. As I dropped I headed right to the rock wall. Sure enough, there was a beautiful Gloomy Nudibranch visible just as I came up to the wall, way to start a dive!
The large rock the mooring line was anchored to was nudibranch central. We ended up finding four species there, bringing the day's total to six species... Gloomy, Pustulose, Red Dendrodoris, Red Spotted, Tom Smith and White Margin nudibranch were quite a treat for the day's dives. I spent my hour underwater shooting photos until the memory card was full and the air ran out.
A fun pair of dives, a great day, and some pretty pictures to grace the pages of my blog. My wife is so jealous.
