|
|
| |
|
|
 |
October 1st, 2009
 When the sun shines through the window and your mind slowly slips out of a peaceful sleep and wakes to a crystal clear sky over Hualalai volcano you just know the day of diving ahead will be memorable. This day was no different.
As the boat glided out of the harbor with Captain Doug at the wheel along with Jeff and myself as crew a honu (turtle) was spotted cruising just under the surface. It did not paid any attention to us as it preceded to pop its head up to take a breath and then disappeared into the cobalt blue feeding grounds below. As the boat cleared the harbor we set our sights on heading north to one of the crew’s favorite dive sites “Golden Arches”. Everyone on the boat could hardly hold back the excitement when we pulled up to the mooring. Without a hint of wind or a ripple on the surface the water was as clear as glass.
This day was extra special; a couple who had known each other for a long time joined us. They were preparing to exchange vows to one another to spend the rest of their lives together. Also onboard were close friends and family. Rev. Dard Aller also accompanied us to commence the ceremony on the surface with the vows being exchanged underwater. I have had many opportunities to photograph weddings on land but was honored when asked to photograph an underwater wedding.
The ceremony took place just outside the south arch. The crystal clear waters gave way to the sun’s rays beaming through the water column all the way to everyone who had gathered below. Vows were exchanged using the largest etch-a-sketch pads I had ever seen. After the vows we went on a great dive filled with Kona’s best sea life coming out for the occasion. A school of (Taape') blue stripe snapper greeted us as we swam through the arch. Immediately a large white mouth moray eel swimming by on a mission for its next meal surprised us. As the dive approached its conclusion, Jeff spotted a leaf scorpion fish right below the boat.
Following the dive we went in search of dolphins.
We played our cards and hoped we would be lucky finding them near the garden eel cove dive site. Once around Keahole point, on the last leg of our ride up north, a large pod was spotted playing just outside the cove. They swam up right next to the boat playing in the wake from the bow without a care in the world. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.
Congratulations to Chris and Betsy…
Justin Hardine |
|
 |
January 29, 2009
 twas an amazing day to be a diver here on the Kona coast! We boarded Kea Nui and left the harbor with a wonderful group of divers ready for a day of adventure, unaware of what was truly in store. As we pulled out of the harbor mouth we were greeted by a friendly pod of dolphins. We didn't have to travel far to find adventure. We dropped down at the "green can", the marker buoy in the center Honokohau Harbor. Alas! The first thing we see is a 10 foot tiger shark! It is an amazing experience to swim with these beautiful giants! The Tiger Shark was surprisingly uninterested in what we are doing in its waters and seem to ignore us completely, which gave us a great chance to take some gorgeous photos! She lazily swam past us and then circled around to visit our group once more before heading off into the blue. We explored the coral heads housing eels and banded coral shrimp and watched the garden eels come up like spaghetti noodles out of the sandy ocean floor. Making our way over to the coral and up to the boat seemed to be another adventure in itself. Many rare and exciting animals revealed themselves including flame angel fish, "local boys" (black long-nose butterfly fish that are only found around our island), bi-colored anthius, and eels weaving through the corals looking for food. To top off this spectacular dive, as we were doing our safety stop, two turtles gracefully swam by to say hello.
We all surfaced, buzzing with excitement and talking about all of the creatures we encountered. As we set off to our next destination we came across a school of hammerhead sharks and watched in awe as they circled around on the surface. Moving onto our next adventure... We headed for a sailboat wreck called "the naked lady". The name of the site comes from a great and hilarious story, but I guess you'll have to come out and dive it yourself in order to get the full history in person. We dropped town to the wreck, 100 feet below the surface, and found a plethora of critters waiting for us to seek them out. Inside the sailboat we spied more bi-colored anthius and a large eel that had taken up residence in a piece of the broken mast. We swam a short distance to another piece of the boat where two enormous frogfish were amazingly camouflaged, a long-nosed hawkfish poked about near a pair of banded coral shrimp, and two Hawaiian lionfish eyed us as we snooped about. As if these were not enough incredibly rare creatures to see in one dive, in the sand we also found the small but incredibly powerful mantis shrimp and a pair of flounders skimming across the sand. A few wire coral gobys, and some gorgeous anemones kept us company during our safety stops as we made our way slowly up the mooring line. What an incredible day to be a diver! It's hard to beat this life!
Erika Dean
|
|
 |
January 26, 2009
 It was a spectacular day of diving out on the Nai'a Nui for our 2-tank advanced trip! We really got to take full advantage of the smaller, more experienced groups and extended range offered by our advanced trips by doing two exploratory drift dives, going places that few divers will ever get to see.
Our group of four divers began the day with a drift around the westernmost edge of Kaiwi point, the so-called "hammerhead point" that gets its name from occasional sightings of hammerhead sharks. We tried to find one for ourselves today, but alas they were all off hunting elsewhere. We did see a staggering number of sergeant majors, pyramid butterfly fish, and chromis swimming around the coral-encrusted reef, along with a lone divided flatworm and small snakehead cowrie hiding in an antler coral head. The highlight of the dive was at the very end, while my divers were ascending, I swam over a perfectly camouflaged octopus that darted away when I was right on top of it which scared the bejesus out of me! And then right before surfacing, we spotted a school of massive, 4-foot-long bluefin trevally, the biggest I've ever seen!
On our surface interval we cruised down to Red Hill, and en route we came across a pair of humpback whales cruising north. We stopped for lunch to watch the pair swim off, and just as we were eating our sandwiches suddenly out of nowhere a full-grown adult whale leaps out of the water not more than 100 feet from the boat, and fully clears the water! It breached once more after that, but wasn't quite as energetic as its first leap, and showed off a few tail and fluke slaps afterwards. Amazing to see a 50-ton animal throw itself in the air like that!
We headed to the Dome next, but although the surge was too strong to stay in the lava dome for too long, we did manage to see a reticulated cowrie and hundreds of orange cup coral before cruising out south along the reef. As we came to the Dome's mooring ball we found a little baby turtle feeding on the algae growing on the mooring, it was no bigger than the ball itself! Then as we cruised past, the whales began serenading us underwater for the remainder of our 60-minute bottom time. An incredible day of diving in Hawaii!
Steve Nace |
|
 |
December 23, 2008
 Today I led six of the best certified divers I’ve ever seen. They had perfect buoyancy skills, followed the tour, and had great air consumption. They were truly the dream team when it comes to taking people diving.
Our first dive was at Kaiwi Wash Rock. The visibility was probably close to 150 feet and the sun was illuminating the reef and marine life. Sue P. started the dive out right with a sighting of a very large White mouth Moray out where we could all see him. These eels like to hunt in the day and this one is a resident of the Kaiwi Reef. We then headed to Fish Rock where Raccoon Butterflyfish, endemic Milletseed Butterflyfish and endemic Saddle Wrasses swarmed us in hopes to get a chance to eat the eggs of the Sergeant Fish attached to the rocks. We cruised the drop off and noticed a big Trevally Jack (Ulua) looking for a meal. Later in the dive, we found a shy Flame Angelfish - a bright red fish with blue/black flames on the sides. We then swam through an arch and explored a mini-cave where one of my divers found a Hawaiian Lobster – a bright red lobster with short green hairs.
On the 2nd dive, we went to Old Airport or Shark Fin. Sue P. was on fire today and found a puka (hole) with 2 Conger Eels. These eels have crushing jaws and no teeth. They have a long dorsal fin and funny little round pectoral fins that look more like Mickey Mouse ears. This was a big find – Way to Go, Sue! We also spotted a Reticulated Butterflyfish – a black and white spotted fish that looks more like an Angelfish and is not very common in Hawaii. A great day of diving.
Wendy Laros |
|
 |
November 13, 2008
 Today we went to Kaloko Arches for our morning dive. We had lots of yellow fish such as Lined, Four Spot, Raccoon, Threadfin and Millet seed ButterFlies. We also had a small school of Blue Line Snapper under two different arches. In the sand patch we saw two Indigo Dart Fish which are not only beautiful but also pretty unusual.
At the end of the dive, under the boat we found a small octopus that came out and played peek a boo with us. Near by a large Helmet Shell was half buried in the sand.
On our afternoon dive we went to Lone Tree arch. While we swam west, towards Suck ‘em Up Lava Tube, we came upon a very large Green Sea Turtle swimming east. She slowly swam among the divers in our group. At the Lava Tube we found a pair of Harlequin Shrimp in a coral head. After going through the tubes we went back towards the boat. Out on the edge of the reef we found a second coral head with a pair of Harlequin Shrimp! That’s pretty amazing to see two let alone 4 Harlequin in one day. Near the bottom of the mooring a Pink Leaf Scorpion Fish, sitting on the top of a head of cauliflower coral, caught our attention. Very Nice!
Keller Laros
|
|
 |
October 30, 2008
Dive highlights for the advanced two-tank dive on 10/30. The first dive was at Touch of Grey. We dropped down to about 75ft and went through a really cool arch. We spotted a huge yellow margin moray right off the bat. One of my divers spotted a male whitley’s boxfish and I spotted an eagle ray. On the surface interval we got to swim with dolphins. The second dive at Pipe Dreams was amazing, we spotted a manta right off the bat. After seeing that we dropped down to 75ft and I spotted a turkey fish. Half way through the dive I spotted one of the biggest zebra morays that I have ever seen. To end the dive properly we followed a huge school of heller’s barracudas and bumped into another manta ray.
Jim Gordon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
