mjarens
Contributor
In June, my dive buddy and I met up on Kauai specifically to dive Ni'ihau, off the
southwest coast of Kauai. We booked ahead with SeaSport Divers in Koloa,
for their Tuesday and Friday boat trips, which they only do two days a week
from late April through September. This trip is for experienced divers,
those who do not get seasick. The crossing is three hours over, and three
hours back, doing three tanks between the long boat trip each way. We were
lucky on Tuesday and had relatively calm seas over and mild chop coming
home. But on our Friday outing, the return ride was extremely choppy, and
a couple of people were ill from the chop during the dives so they didn't
do all three dives that day. Kind of an expensive trip if you don't get
all three dives in.
Tuesday our first dive was Key Hole - a drift dive. We saw spotted eagle
rays, bluefin trevally, black giant trevally, several gray reef sharks, a
white tip reef shark, pennant butterfly fish, pyramid butterfly fish, amber
jacks, a banded angel fish, and a coronet fish. At our second dive,
Vertical Awareness - a pinnacle, we encountered two Hawaiian Monk Seals, a
fabulous orange frog fish, several nudibranch, mackeral, a red stripe pipe
fish, and an indigo dart fish. A fantastic deli lunch was ready when we
surfaced from our second dive - sandwich cold cuts, cheeses, chips, fresh
cut fruits, pasta salads and bottled water and juices. Our third dive was
Ni'ihau Arches, which sports swim-through arches formed by lava. We
spotted some ghost shrimp, dragon wrasse, a sponge crab, and much more.
Friday the water was much choppier. We dropped in at Vertical Awareness,
hoping to find the orange frog fish we had spotted on Tuesday. Every diver
was looking for it without luck, but I finally found it towards the very
end of the dive, sitting in exactly the same spot it had been at on
Tuesday. One other diver, and the dive master were still looking, so I got
to share the find with them. The two Hawaiian monk seals were with us most
of the dive, as well as the many fish we had seen before on Tuesday. Our
second dive was a drift - from Pyramid to Lehua Rock, and we spotted yet
another Hawaiian monk seal, marybar goat fish, and tinkerbell butterfly
fish. After our final dive at a site called Puu Muu, we surfaced to very,
very choppy water, which made reboarding the boat in interesting event.
The ride back toward Kauai was more like a continuous slam, slam, slam.
Many divers, myself included, laid down on the dive deck floor on thin mats
that were available. You couldn't move around without holding onto
something, or you would get tossed to the floor. The crew stowed all gear
before we took off for home, anything loose would end up on the dive dive
too. The usual 3 hour cruise back to Kukuiula Boat Harbor would have ended
up at closer to 4 hours, so the crew pulled the 48 foot Anela Kai into the
harbor at Port Allen, where SeaSport had a van waiting to wisk us back to
their dive shop in Koloa.
The Anela Kai and her crew were great both days of our trip. Capt's
Andrew and Ryan were on board both trips, and both are a pleasure to dive
with. The entire crews attention to safety procedures both above and below
the surface are appreciated. This isn't a trip for beginning or
inexperienced divers, or divers uncomfortable with lots of boat movement.
The day is long, starting at 6:00 am at the dive shop check in, and ending
whenever the boat gets back. On Tuesday we were back to the shop at about
6:15 pm, and after being driven back from Port Allen, we got to the shop at
6:40 pm on Friday. Long, long dive days. But the diving off Ni'ihau was
spectacular, and worth the cost and the time.
southwest coast of Kauai. We booked ahead with SeaSport Divers in Koloa,
for their Tuesday and Friday boat trips, which they only do two days a week
from late April through September. This trip is for experienced divers,
those who do not get seasick. The crossing is three hours over, and three
hours back, doing three tanks between the long boat trip each way. We were
lucky on Tuesday and had relatively calm seas over and mild chop coming
home. But on our Friday outing, the return ride was extremely choppy, and
a couple of people were ill from the chop during the dives so they didn't
do all three dives that day. Kind of an expensive trip if you don't get
all three dives in.
Tuesday our first dive was Key Hole - a drift dive. We saw spotted eagle
rays, bluefin trevally, black giant trevally, several gray reef sharks, a
white tip reef shark, pennant butterfly fish, pyramid butterfly fish, amber
jacks, a banded angel fish, and a coronet fish. At our second dive,
Vertical Awareness - a pinnacle, we encountered two Hawaiian Monk Seals, a
fabulous orange frog fish, several nudibranch, mackeral, a red stripe pipe
fish, and an indigo dart fish. A fantastic deli lunch was ready when we
surfaced from our second dive - sandwich cold cuts, cheeses, chips, fresh
cut fruits, pasta salads and bottled water and juices. Our third dive was
Ni'ihau Arches, which sports swim-through arches formed by lava. We
spotted some ghost shrimp, dragon wrasse, a sponge crab, and much more.
Friday the water was much choppier. We dropped in at Vertical Awareness,
hoping to find the orange frog fish we had spotted on Tuesday. Every diver
was looking for it without luck, but I finally found it towards the very
end of the dive, sitting in exactly the same spot it had been at on
Tuesday. One other diver, and the dive master were still looking, so I got
to share the find with them. The two Hawaiian monk seals were with us most
of the dive, as well as the many fish we had seen before on Tuesday. Our
second dive was a drift - from Pyramid to Lehua Rock, and we spotted yet
another Hawaiian monk seal, marybar goat fish, and tinkerbell butterfly
fish. After our final dive at a site called Puu Muu, we surfaced to very,
very choppy water, which made reboarding the boat in interesting event.
The ride back toward Kauai was more like a continuous slam, slam, slam.
Many divers, myself included, laid down on the dive deck floor on thin mats
that were available. You couldn't move around without holding onto
something, or you would get tossed to the floor. The crew stowed all gear
before we took off for home, anything loose would end up on the dive dive
too. The usual 3 hour cruise back to Kukuiula Boat Harbor would have ended
up at closer to 4 hours, so the crew pulled the 48 foot Anela Kai into the
harbor at Port Allen, where SeaSport had a van waiting to wisk us back to
their dive shop in Koloa.
The Anela Kai and her crew were great both days of our trip. Capt's
Andrew and Ryan were on board both trips, and both are a pleasure to dive
with. The entire crews attention to safety procedures both above and below
the surface are appreciated. This isn't a trip for beginning or
inexperienced divers, or divers uncomfortable with lots of boat movement.
The day is long, starting at 6:00 am at the dive shop check in, and ending
whenever the boat gets back. On Tuesday we were back to the shop at about
6:15 pm, and after being driven back from Port Allen, we got to the shop at
6:40 pm on Friday. Long, long dive days. But the diving off Ni'ihau was
spectacular, and worth the cost and the time.
