Hi --
I dive this site often. It's a great shore dive.
How far is the swim out? It depends -- If you start at the 5 graves side... you can come out cove and descend and bear immediately to the left (south) and follow the wall. Or, from the other side... at Makena Landing, enter at the beach, I like to swim out until I am even with the flag pole on the point -- I don't know distance -- but it seems that it is about a five miunte leisurely swim -- dropping down there will put you in 15 - 20 feet -- and swim to the right (north).
You can also take more of a straight line out from either entry towards a large Turtle cleaning station.
There are many caves, certainly more than five and each are different. The most are fairly straight forward.
The one that dfepeman described is called the 'bubble cave' There is also something called the toilet bowl which is an old lava tube that has skylights in it. There is another small cave, known as the shark cave that is really not much more than a wide ledge.
The last time I was there, I was with some fairly new divers who did not want to go into a cave, so we agreed to just look from the openings. Well, just inside the bubble cave were four white tipped reef sharks, lined up like magazines on a rack. They were each between 4 and 6 feet long. The one closest to us was having his many teeth cleaned by two small Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasses. (these fish are about three or four INCHES long). The shark is holding it's mouth wide open and the fish are flitting around doing their job. Then, you see the mouth close... and even though I knew that all was fine, I couldn't help but be a little worried for the wrasses. The sharks gills open up, and I could barely see the wrasses working inside. And then, the shark's whole body shutters, the mouth pops open and PATOOOOIE!!! the two little wrasses come flying out, almost tumbling over one another. As the human audience, we were laughing so hard we almost choked!
What is max depth -- It depends on how far out you want to go -- the caves are all along the shore so sre typically in the 10 - 20 foot range. The turtle cleaning station is about 40' at it's max. Martys Reef that dfepeman mentioned is out at about 60' max.
Visibility -- over the entire site varies with weather... could range typically from a low of about 30 to 80 feet. In my experience, in the caves, the only noticeable "stirring" is done by divers.
Other notable Maui Shore dives: Tons along the South Shore... White Rock, Holoa Point, Keawakopuu Beach, Ahihi Cove.... Depends on what you want -- I suggest you check my previous posts (I psot a lot about Maui) I also suggest that you contact Maui Dreams Dive Co (you can find them at
www.mauidreamsdiveco.com ) They are experts on south shore diving.
Also, feel free to message me for more info if you want.
Liz
