Back home and trying to catch up on Mainland life! But before I get too deeply into the mundane stuff or everyday living, I will file this report on Kauai and Hawaii.
We started our island trip with a week on Kauai and had the good fortune to hook up with another Board Member, Kauai_Diver. We dove with him and the gang at Bubbles Below. The boat, the Kaimanu, holds 8 divers and the crew--just the kind of boat we like. Our first two dives took us to Palama Point for a 56 min dive with a max depth of 94 feet. The notable fish were large whitetip sharks and some Morwangs and Boarfish...and lots of very large Pacific Spiny Lobsters. The Boarfist are remarkable for their elongated, concentric mouth/lip conformation. The lobsters really caught K_D's attention and I think he was planning to return there later in the month with a collection bag!
Our second dive was at Happy Talk for 76 min at a max depth of 68 feet. And besides all the usual Hawaiin fish, we saw a spectacular Frogfish. He was white and sitting on a small clump of white antler coral--white on white and easy to miss. I got some nice photos of him, but you will have to wait until I get my scanner to see him. He was very cooperative and just sat and smiled as I moved around and photographed him. What a highlight!
After diving and cleaning up we joined K_D and Mrs. K_D for drinks and pupus (snacks) as the cool trades made the end of the day perfect. Barbara and I want to especially thank the K_D's for making our first day on Kauai really special.
We dove 6 more times with Bubbles Below and want to say some kind words for Linda, the owner/op, and Byron and Becca, the DMs. They were just great! They always found something novel for us and paced the dives nicely. They also allowed us to stay down after we had come back to the mooring site until we drew our tanks down to a respectable level. Most of the time they were moored in 35 ft of water on a pretty reef and we could enjoy nice, long bottom times. Their web site is http://www.aloha.net/~kaimanu/ and we can heartily recommend them.
Two other sites we loved were Haleahonu (Turtles' Home) where we saw more Hawaiin Green Turtles in one spot than anywhere else on the Islands. We also loved the General Store for its wonderful fish life, nudibrancs and other spectacular invertabrates. I'll bet if you did a night dive there, you would see lots of Spanish Dancers because there were eggs all over the place.
After a week of Kauai we popped over to the Big Island for a three-week stint. With the exception of one morning we did all our boat dives with Sandwich Isle Divers ( http://www.sandwichisledivers.com ). They are the folks we normally dive with on Kona and we really like them. Their boat, the Hihimanu, holds 6 divers and crew. Since we dove with them 16 times, it is hard to describe all the diving we did. However, one of the the DM's, Walt, has the knack of finding scorpionfish and he found a very large one for me. It was a Devil Scorpionfish and I got some nice photos of it...someday he will be on the web. Steve, the owner of the shop, is the best octopus finder I have have ever dived with: so, I got a really great photo of Barbara with a beautiful octopus.
We did one morning with Pacific Rim Divers ( http://www.pacificrimdivers.com ) and enjoyed the experience with Patrice and Frank. They also run a six diver boat, but they took us to some different locations than we had gone to with Sandwich Isle. Most notable was a deep dive to find some Tinker's Butterflies. They tend to live at 80' and below. They are amongst the most gorgeous of the butterflyfish.
The list of beautiful fish and invertabrates we saw is too long for this note. But I have rarely seen such large fried egg nudibrancs and zebra nudibrancs as I saw on this trip: you almost did not need an extension tube!
Well, that has to do it for now. We have a lot to do do after having been away a month!
Joewr (who is enjoying the keyboard again and looking forward to seeing what all you are up to)
PS: We were on the Big Island when the WTC was bombed. It was one of the most horrific sights that we have ever seen. The impact on the island was very noticeable: a week after the bombing the streets were nearly barren at night due to cancelled trips. Hopefully we will not let these evil men ruin the lives of so many others than the ones they directly impacted...
We started our island trip with a week on Kauai and had the good fortune to hook up with another Board Member, Kauai_Diver. We dove with him and the gang at Bubbles Below. The boat, the Kaimanu, holds 8 divers and the crew--just the kind of boat we like. Our first two dives took us to Palama Point for a 56 min dive with a max depth of 94 feet. The notable fish were large whitetip sharks and some Morwangs and Boarfish...and lots of very large Pacific Spiny Lobsters. The Boarfist are remarkable for their elongated, concentric mouth/lip conformation. The lobsters really caught K_D's attention and I think he was planning to return there later in the month with a collection bag!
Our second dive was at Happy Talk for 76 min at a max depth of 68 feet. And besides all the usual Hawaiin fish, we saw a spectacular Frogfish. He was white and sitting on a small clump of white antler coral--white on white and easy to miss. I got some nice photos of him, but you will have to wait until I get my scanner to see him. He was very cooperative and just sat and smiled as I moved around and photographed him. What a highlight!
After diving and cleaning up we joined K_D and Mrs. K_D for drinks and pupus (snacks) as the cool trades made the end of the day perfect. Barbara and I want to especially thank the K_D's for making our first day on Kauai really special.
We dove 6 more times with Bubbles Below and want to say some kind words for Linda, the owner/op, and Byron and Becca, the DMs. They were just great! They always found something novel for us and paced the dives nicely. They also allowed us to stay down after we had come back to the mooring site until we drew our tanks down to a respectable level. Most of the time they were moored in 35 ft of water on a pretty reef and we could enjoy nice, long bottom times. Their web site is http://www.aloha.net/~kaimanu/ and we can heartily recommend them.
Two other sites we loved were Haleahonu (Turtles' Home) where we saw more Hawaiin Green Turtles in one spot than anywhere else on the Islands. We also loved the General Store for its wonderful fish life, nudibrancs and other spectacular invertabrates. I'll bet if you did a night dive there, you would see lots of Spanish Dancers because there were eggs all over the place.
After a week of Kauai we popped over to the Big Island for a three-week stint. With the exception of one morning we did all our boat dives with Sandwich Isle Divers ( http://www.sandwichisledivers.com ). They are the folks we normally dive with on Kona and we really like them. Their boat, the Hihimanu, holds 6 divers and crew. Since we dove with them 16 times, it is hard to describe all the diving we did. However, one of the the DM's, Walt, has the knack of finding scorpionfish and he found a very large one for me. It was a Devil Scorpionfish and I got some nice photos of it...someday he will be on the web. Steve, the owner of the shop, is the best octopus finder I have have ever dived with: so, I got a really great photo of Barbara with a beautiful octopus.
We did one morning with Pacific Rim Divers ( http://www.pacificrimdivers.com ) and enjoyed the experience with Patrice and Frank. They also run a six diver boat, but they took us to some different locations than we had gone to with Sandwich Isle. Most notable was a deep dive to find some Tinker's Butterflies. They tend to live at 80' and below. They are amongst the most gorgeous of the butterflyfish.
The list of beautiful fish and invertabrates we saw is too long for this note. But I have rarely seen such large fried egg nudibrancs and zebra nudibrancs as I saw on this trip: you almost did not need an extension tube!
Well, that has to do it for now. We have a lot to do do after having been away a month!
Joewr (who is enjoying the keyboard again and looking forward to seeing what all you are up to)
PS: We were on the Big Island when the WTC was bombed. It was one of the most horrific sights that we have ever seen. The impact on the island was very noticeable: a week after the bombing the streets were nearly barren at night due to cancelled trips. Hopefully we will not let these evil men ruin the lives of so many others than the ones they directly impacted...
I've been doing a lot of checking on photographic equipment... am gearing up to do my UW photography course as soon as I can afford it!)
