Dotties and Pyramid Pinnacle 4/20/21

 Another flat ocean day, another chance to explore the reefs up and down the Kona coast.  Rob steps down off the bow and asks, "where do you want to go?"  I thought I felt us heading north of the green can so I answered, "Dotties?"  Response was universal: "we haven't been there in a long time, let's go!"

Cool, I haven't seen the protopalythoa soft corals in a while, except for the surprise small patch at Pipe Dreams last week.  Dive plan developed by Kevin was to kick out toward the arch at Preacher's and then wander back in through the large mounds and pinnacles.

This dive has topography with lots of holes and pukas where critters take shelter. In ole of the overhangs I found a Barred Filefish, and a nice ornate Butterfly was out in the open. Approaching the arch we were scanning the pukas and walls for nudis, but I wasn't prepared at the arch to see two big Undulated eels in the same hole.

 And those weren't the only eels of the day.  Here's another, smaller White Mouth Eel.

The one thing I didn't see were the soft corals I love so much at Dotties.  I guess I didn't go far enough north from the mooring.  Oh, well; I found some at Pipe Dreams last week so no worries.

Back underway on Honu One the conversation about next dive site zeroed in On Pyramid Pinnacle after Rob told us about the multiple frogfish he'd seen there last week.  You never know what you'll get, but it was a good reason to stop there.  A second good reason was that the calm seas might make it possible to traverse the inshore lava tubes.

In the water was crystal clear at PP and no current.  Great!  Immediately we stumbled on a couple of common nudis, a scrambled egg and a strawberry.  

But as we continued out toward the dropoff I relearned the lesson of how you need to check your tank pressure on the boat before you get in.  I looked casually at my computer and saw 2400 PSI with only 3 minutes on the timer.  OK, I'll just sip gas and not go too deep.  But it was a distraction, and I wasn't inclined to chase fish or join the gaggle of divers out at 70 feet tripping off their strobes.  I'll see the pics at some point.

The supreme treat of the day unfolded to be the fact that it was so calm that we could wander through the lava tubes and caves that link together to make a dramatic swimthrough.  Mostly at the mouth of this structure I see big vortices of bubbles at the entrance, signalling lots of surge that makes it dangerous.  Not today.  I shot video mostly but did get these White Margin nudis creating their next generation.  

Couldn't resist the big Moorish Idol posing for me, and the Spiny Lobster hiding deep in a hole.

We got through the swimthroughs and headed back out.  By then I had about 1000 PSI left and it was 50 minutes into the dive.  I signalled to Kevin that I was going to cut it short and head for the boat.  He gave me directional pointer and I headed through the pinnacles to the mooring.