humanFish
Contributor
OK...so I'm back from the Hawaii trip...and bored enough at work to comment on it now.
I was in Hawaii in February for 10 nights....6 on lanai, 4 on maui....
I did 7 dives total. 4 with Trilogy. 2 with Mike Severns. 1 beach dive with my wife.
Being that we stayed on Lanai, we only had the option of diving with Trilogy. The best part of this was that there were only 6 divers on the first day and 3(including myself) on the second. We hit first and second cathedrals the first day and first cathedrals and monolith the second day.
I really like first cathedrals, with all the arches and swim-throughs. Saw lots of eels, jacks, glasseyes, and unfortunately several crown of thorns sea-stars. there were also no other boats in the area on any of these dives which was also nice. My major complaint about trilogy was that they don't go out every day. I was on the island for like 4 days before I was able to dive....arrghhh! Well, it was a family vacation after all...so it wasn't so bad, I guess.
We also did a self led beach dive at Hulopoe. Yes, it was shallow, which allowed for lots of bottom time. Viz was decent. The best thing we saw here was several large spiny lobsters tucked away in the cracks. The reef fish got a little monotonous after awhile. An easy dive...although an hour after we walked back to our spot the ranger told us that we should have had a diver down flag with us. Didn't occur to me, I guess...
My favorite experience on Lanai was when, after the second day of diving a pd of spinner dolphins was in the harbor. I donned my snorkeling gear and swam off the rocks and a few minutes later I could hear the dolphins. Then they came and greeted me. I was in the water with them for 30 minutes or so. A mother and her baby were pretty inquisitive. After the pod circled me several times I decided to count them. I got to about 60 before I gave up...I could look left or right and see other smaller groups of 10-20. I estimate there were about 150 in the pod. I took several pictures...perhaps I'll post them when I get around to scanning them.
Once on Maui we went out with Mike Severns for two dives. We did reef's end at Molokini and saw the garden eels, and many other morays. I saw a large moray swimming 10 feet about the reef which was cool. I was disappointed that we didn't get to do the back wall. The conditions seemed perfect but I guess there were too many new divers on the boat to do this. They were nice, quizzed us on our experience and what we wanted to see. They grouped my wife and I in the first group and we got in the water. When we got back to the boat, everyone in the second group was already back on the boat....a couple people were dumbfounded that we were down so long...I though that was amusing and uplifting at the same time. A leisurely dive bottoming out at about 90fsw.
On the way to the second dive we saw several humpbacks and checked them out a bit. The second dive site was called CAM 2. Essentially, it is a series of cleaning stations for green turtles. We saw half a dozen of them and were able to get reasonably close. A very easy, leisurely dive in no more than 60fsw.
speaking of humpbacks...we saw dozens of them from the surface...full breaches and all....amazing!
I was in Hawaii in February for 10 nights....6 on lanai, 4 on maui....
I did 7 dives total. 4 with Trilogy. 2 with Mike Severns. 1 beach dive with my wife.
Being that we stayed on Lanai, we only had the option of diving with Trilogy. The best part of this was that there were only 6 divers on the first day and 3(including myself) on the second. We hit first and second cathedrals the first day and first cathedrals and monolith the second day.
I really like first cathedrals, with all the arches and swim-throughs. Saw lots of eels, jacks, glasseyes, and unfortunately several crown of thorns sea-stars. there were also no other boats in the area on any of these dives which was also nice. My major complaint about trilogy was that they don't go out every day. I was on the island for like 4 days before I was able to dive....arrghhh! Well, it was a family vacation after all...so it wasn't so bad, I guess.
We also did a self led beach dive at Hulopoe. Yes, it was shallow, which allowed for lots of bottom time. Viz was decent. The best thing we saw here was several large spiny lobsters tucked away in the cracks. The reef fish got a little monotonous after awhile. An easy dive...although an hour after we walked back to our spot the ranger told us that we should have had a diver down flag with us. Didn't occur to me, I guess...
My favorite experience on Lanai was when, after the second day of diving a pd of spinner dolphins was in the harbor. I donned my snorkeling gear and swam off the rocks and a few minutes later I could hear the dolphins. Then they came and greeted me. I was in the water with them for 30 minutes or so. A mother and her baby were pretty inquisitive. After the pod circled me several times I decided to count them. I got to about 60 before I gave up...I could look left or right and see other smaller groups of 10-20. I estimate there were about 150 in the pod. I took several pictures...perhaps I'll post them when I get around to scanning them.
Once on Maui we went out with Mike Severns for two dives. We did reef's end at Molokini and saw the garden eels, and many other morays. I saw a large moray swimming 10 feet about the reef which was cool. I was disappointed that we didn't get to do the back wall. The conditions seemed perfect but I guess there were too many new divers on the boat to do this. They were nice, quizzed us on our experience and what we wanted to see. They grouped my wife and I in the first group and we got in the water. When we got back to the boat, everyone in the second group was already back on the boat....a couple people were dumbfounded that we were down so long...I though that was amusing and uplifting at the same time. A leisurely dive bottoming out at about 90fsw.
On the way to the second dive we saw several humpbacks and checked them out a bit. The second dive site was called CAM 2. Essentially, it is a series of cleaning stations for green turtles. We saw half a dozen of them and were able to get reasonably close. A very easy, leisurely dive in no more than 60fsw.
speaking of humpbacks...we saw dozens of them from the surface...full breaches and all....amazing!
