Today was a fun day for exploring the outer wall of Honaunau Bay beyond the big pinnacle on the point where Place of Refuge sits. Water was calm, but there was the prospect of a swell building during the day. I felt we were going to be out of the water by the time it hit.
The plan was to swim out to the big pinnacle at the mouth of the bay and then take a 270 degree heading west to where the coral garden slopes gradually, then suddenly into the abyss. Idea was to drop over the wall and then turn right to track the wall all the way back into the bay and the shallows where we left our float.
The presence of dolphins today led to there being many snorklers out in the middle of the bay. Many of them keep a respectful distance - after all, the dolphins are here to sleep and rest after a night of feeding. A few humans however do think the dolphins are there to play with them. This is an unfortunate thing, but all you can do is reinforce the idea of just leaving them alone, and then people just make their own choices.
We swam out to the point, during which swim I was regretting not wearing a 5 mil suit, and complaining to anyone nearby, which was Brent. Temp was 79 degrees, so under 80 and I felt vindicated. Swimming helped and soon I wasn't think about being cold.
We dropped at the pinnacle in ok vis - maybe 70 ft - and headed for the wall. The reef was very fishy and the usual intersting outside-of-the-bay structure unfolded.
Soon we were at the wall, and since it was so early in the morning and winter the sun was still low. This imparterd a deep blue to the darkening abyss before and below us.
Right turn and here we go, oops, gets deep fast if you're not paying attention. We decided to stay abvove 75 FSW to conserve gas, and make our way back into the bay.
Pretty soon we were encountering patches of plate coral, which looked very much more healthy than it did two months ago during the ocean warming episode back in October/November. Out of the gloom appeared the sillouhette of the big overhang, the one I call Godzilla Head - and as I was happily realizing we'd get back without running out of gas Brent was waving at me to look down to the sandy slop 50 feet below us. Hey, a White Tip Reef Shark, just resting on the sandy bottom. huh, haven't seen that often.
Once past the overhang we found the big cascades of Plate Coral that were badly hit last fall with massive bleaching. Most of the corals looked like they had recovered their color, with the worst of the corals from last fall still showing spots of bleaching. But overall, things are looking better.
Here's my video of our dive.
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