Like California, except a little warmer: Turtle Pi and Golden Arches south 3/30/21

 Another drizzly, overcast spring day in Kona.  So here we go on the dive boat.  Kind of a mixed south and west swell today so we head south toweard Pawai Bay.  Right at Eel Cove it looks terrible further on so Johnny flipped Honu One around and the Ohana dive team for Kona Honu Divers retreated north.

When we overran the Turtle heaven ball I began wondering where we were going.  Turns out, to a spot I didn't know about and had never dived.  Turtle Pi.  Hmm, can't see the bottom.  Rob comews up from jumping the ball.  "It's green," he says, and not in a good way.  But here we are.

Once in the water and descending it was definitely green, but you could sort of see the bottom about 30 feet below.  That's a good day in California. Except the water was 75 degrees instead of 46, which is what it probably is on the north coast today.  That counts as a little warmer, but to my acclimated senses it's cold.

The reef here is so healthy.  Lots of vibrant finger coral, and even some plate coral and lobe coral.  lots of reef fish and a few eels.  A couple of Maninis were doing something together, being friendly or fighting; I could'nt tell.  Moorish Idol, Pinktail Trigger, and Laura found a Steindacher's moray.

 

Navigating was tricky beacuse a lot of the terrain was at the same depth.  We'd tried to stick together because of the limted vis, and about an hour into the dive Rob, and I saw a large Tiger Shark out over the sand flats.  That was a tipoff that we were not that close to the boat.  After a quick look on the surface we adjusted out compasses and headed back to the northeast toward the mooring.  I did the last few hundred meters on the surface because I was low on gas and wanted to keep my eye on the boat in case of current.  Gave my Ok hand signal and then relaxed into swimming.  The KDC boat was just out on an adjacent mooring, and I steered clear of them.

  This episode reminded me of so many times in California and Channel Islands low visibility I'd had to get surface bearings and then beat it back to the boat, usually against a good current.  

Off we go on SI heading back north toward north pine Trees.  The sky was clearing and the sun was peeking out.  The ocdan was calming down, all good signs.

Destination Golden ARches.  Nice, a relaxing dive that is a navigational no-brainer.  We moored on the south arch and went in.  Immediately the sun was on the reef making everything look folorful and inviting.  And the fish were out.  Black side hawkfish, Blue Snappers under the arch,  some Flamebacked Coral shrimp in a hole, and a four spot butterfly in a hole being photobombed by a soldier.

 

 

Here's a longnose Butterfly above some antler coral, a very cool Magenta Leaf Scorpion, and a shy octopus.

We circled back in from the drop off to try and find a big Viper that is rumored to be just south of the mooring, but he wasn't there.  However, at home were the Arceye Hawkfish, a couple of Raccoon Butterflies and  White margin nudi under the arch on some sponges and cup coral.

 

Golden Arches and Air Station 3/20/21

 Celebrated the Vernal Equiniox today diving with Katrina P, one of the original Divas of the Deep (tm), and Big Island Divers.  Driving was also a friend I haven't seen a lot lately, Brian Whitlock. 

The day began warm and clear, with excellent visibility even from the boat, which enabled Brian to spot a Tiger Shark as we left the harbor.  Then, north to Golden Arches, where Kona Honu was already on the south mooring, Jacks was at Wackies, so we hooked onto the north mooring at GA and splashed.

Immediately I was under the arch looking for nudis.  There were a few, along with a Flea Cone and a Brilliant Drupe.

As we headed out toward the drop off Katrina hasd some fun being adorable and eventually found a jelly and did her best Green Sea Turtle impression. 

On our way back to the arch I almost ran into this Peacock Flounder, who eyed me suspiciously from her perch on a rock.  Also, another Fried Egg nudi -- there were a lot of them today.

We headed south on SI talking sbout Eel Cove.  That would be great since I missed seeing Gooseberry last time I was there.  But other boats were already on Eel Cove and Rose Garden so we headed for Pawai.  Air Station was available and we moored there, got in the water and headed out to cearch for lionfish.  Boy did we find one!

Other cool finds were a juvenile Yellow Tail Coris and a fish with white stripes I'd never seen before and can't ID.

Out on the very healthy reef we found a number of usual suspects, this Ornate Butterfly and Lei Trigger being a few.  Then Katrina found a kind of Mollusk with its filter feeder poking out of the sand.  Don't know what it was...I don't mess with snails I can't see. 

Here are a couple of Arceye Hawkfish, one a more normal color and the other black, which to me is more rare.

Shark Alley/Wacky's and Rose Garden, 3/16/21

 I think I finally worked out the bugs in my camera system and was eager to get it underwater.  My attempt over the weekend ended up in an aborted boat trip because of lightning, so it was great to see clear skies and a calm ocean this morning.

The biggest surprise of the day came when, on the boat, I turned around to see Corrine C, the dive pro who has shown me almost every south Kona dive spot I've seen over the past 5 years.  Because of the pandemic people have had to scatter and find new jobs, or jump industries, and Corrine is one of those.  So it was great to see her after at least 1 1/2 years.

One of the best things about diving with Corrine is that she swims slowly.  This is an awesome plus for photographers who are often left in the haze by DMs who want to show their divers a lot of territory.  With Corrine I always know that when I come up from a shot she'll be close by, and today she was.

We started the day at Shark Alley, or Wackies.  The shark was home at the end of the alley, but we first went deeper and circled around.  Here are the fish we found.

 A Gold Lace nudi, a nice Octopus out in the open, Rough Spine Urchin and a Strawberry nudi

We made it through the shallows and the White tip reef shard was hanging out under the ledge.  I got a video that includes him in a short clip,  https://youtu.be/2bl0bNCigrQ .

On to Rose Garden, which is unusual to dive during the winter because it's so exposed.  There was another boat on Eel Cove mooring, but i really like the shallow reef tops at Rose Garden.

Our plan was to go find Gooseberry, the Thornback Cowfish, then circle up to the boulders and see the battle between the Indo Pacific Sargents and the Butterflies. And finally to go find the big Viper near the Eel Cove mooring.

Alas, we didn't find Gooseberry because we didn't look below 60 feet.  Rob found him at 70 out in the rubble but closer to the Rose Garden mooring than we usually find him.  

The boulders are always so fishy, and today was no exception.  I was very stoked to find a Firedart that stayed still long enough for he to get a shot.  Then a very large Dragon Wrasse, in the same area where a very large adult Rock Mover was flipping rocks like popcorn.

Firedart

Dragon Wrasse

The butterflies are constantly trying to get at the Sergeant's eggs, a purple veneer on the rock faces.  They were at it as usual.  Here are a few butterflies and an Indo Pacific Sergeant.

Four Spot Butterfly

Indo Pacific Sergeant

Threadfin Butterfly

Out in the rock pukas we found a number of nice eels.  Here's an Undulated Eel and a Yellow margin.

Yellow margin Eel

We didn't find the big Viper in his usual pinnacle but were rewarded with the critters below.  Including a tiny Cushion Star shrimp that Corrine found, A kind of Hermit Crab that I couldn't ID, a Moorish Idol and an Ornate Butterfly.

Cushion star shrimp

Moorish Idol