Beautiful Dives: Capt Joey, Corsair and Keanu's Reef

[Cacia]

Matteo joined Leesa today for a two-tanker on the Nori-Z today, and I tagged along.
My friend Joey always dishes up great dives, you just may not know what they will involve! We checked out Spitting Caves but decided the surf and viz was less than top shelf., so we motored out to the Corsair, which is usually a pretty good bet in rough seas. Well, this was the interesting part, because Joey asked if we would mind filing off seals style and use the Aquazone descent line. Current light Makapu'u, so we all went for it...great job to the divers who rolled with the plan! The current was so light we had no issues hitting the fighter plane. With 120 + viz, we could see her resting on the ocean floor clearly on descent.

How wonderful to see a huge variety of fish today! I need to look up a couple I have never seen. We hammed around taking some photos and checking out the aircraft. It is really nice that the chain is no longer on her propellor.

We then had a very short surface interval and cruised over to Keanu's Reef and dropped in for a drift. This reef has beautiful branching coral and is teeming with a healthy variety of fish. Keanu, a baby turtle is still not home....it seems maybe he grew up and flew the coop. The max depth was 65-70 ft. So we got into a little deco due to the short SI. We followed a slow sloping ascent profile to drop our deco and blew the marker about the remaining third from about 45 feet so that Joey could spot us in the big swell.

We went to cha-cha-cha for mexican food and margueritas. The dives and company were great!

garden eels....

 

[Aquanautchuck]

As usual great picture's Catherine. I liked the BW one of the corsair best. How did you get so close to the garden eels? I have laid on the bottom for 20 minutes several times and never gotten them to come out that far.

Charles

 

[Cacia]

hi Charles, I don't know what was with them today! For some reason, they were not shy today...not sure I have ever seen them like this. I was pretty close too, that was taken with a 24mm.

I have been mostly doing wrecks lately, and so I really enjoyed diving this side of Diamond Head for a change.

 

[Jcsgt]

Great shot of the Corsair!

Those darned garden eels usually wait until they're just within camera range, then poof, they're gone. Nice job.

 

[justleesa]

Yes, it was a wonderful set of dives. It was my first time on the Nori Z and I must say it was comfortable diving off of. Nice and spacey

I love the Corsair and was happy to finally make it back down for a visit. In addition to all the "regular stuff" we found an interesting Jeweled Anemone Crab and a peacock flounder. I haven't seen one of these in ages and now I've seen 2 in the past 2 weeks! Of course I didn't have my camera and Catherine was busy taking pictures of the wreck

Now this 2nd spot was new to me and the topography was very, very interesting. It look like the surface of the earth was cracked and the plates shifted and hardly any sand on them. When we jumped in there was a school of pennant fish - at least 100 pennants...I hardly see them on the South shore. There were HUGE healthy coral heads dotted here and there. Found some interesting shells, most still alive. THE BIGGEST crown of thorns I had ever seen. It was as big as a trash can lid!!! I wish we could have stayed there a bit longer. Thanks for showing us around Catherine

 

[Cacia]

I was relieved to see Potter's Angels today...lots of juveniles at Keanu's Reef. This is out of focus...but they are shy and hard for me to shoot. leesa...we need to go back on a photo-hunt. Okay, I am going to look up that eel like white fish that was darting around....and those neon blue ones that traveled in pairs. I swear, I have never seen either of these in four years.

"we"...leesa finds everything (One of those people)

 

[justleesa]

"we"...leesa finds everything (One of those people)

lol

Yes, we gotta go back....when I come back from Chicago, huh?

 

[Cacia]

yea. We need a kayak like Gilligan.

 

[justleesa]

Well things might be different by then

 

[Cacia]

TONS of these.....juvenile wrasse, I forget?

very exciting to see so many, they are really pretty. (So was that Japanese couple!) She sure was perky once she got underwater and away from that boat!