Gorgeous Friday morning in Kona. I was happy to be headed to the harbor to get on Kona Honu Divers' _Honu One_ for a relaxing day of diving with a friend, Laura. I remember so many Fridays heading out to the green can, watching the dolphins move slowly over the channel and sometimes catch a bow wave. For years the Aggressor would always be moored at Turtle Heaven, and that's how i would know it was Friday.
Today I was futzing with my camera on the way out so didn't notice if there were dolphins. Have had good luck lately with camera and housing functioning reliably.
We turned north toward Pine Trees where there are half a dozen mooring balls at interesting sites. On tap today was a very nice, large arch where we hoped to find nudibranchs on the walls that are covered with sponges and cup coral. Super colorful.
On the north side of the arch Kevin found a very tiny Dot Dash Nudibranch. It's not even half an inch long. Little bugger was on the move and I followed him along the wall until I got a good shot of him. Next up was the Gold Lace nudibranch. He was happy to just stay in one place so I had an easier time framing up a shot of him.
The roof of the arfch is covered with sponges and cup coral. Here's a Longnose Butterfly and a Bluestrie Squirrelfish upside down looking for snacks on the roof.
There were lots of other fish under the arch and in the reef to the north. Just outside I found a Leaf Scorpion just lying out on top of a coral head. Usually they are deep in the antler coral and hard to shoot. This guy was right out in the sunlight. Before I left the arch I found a nice Moorish Idol and a Raccoon Butterfly cruising along the wall of the arch.
I got separated from the group after spending time with the Leaf Scorpion, and as i kicked to catch up I looked under a ledge and deep within the crack was a very large Undulated Eel getting himself detailed by a cleaner. So I got further behind getting this shot.
AS we prepared for a secod dive my buddy Laura said her video light wasn't working, so I lent her my seconday torch so she could at least get some light on her subjects; we were going in at a spot that has lots of overhangs and pukas with cool critters. I figured I'd compensate for the loss in ballast by adding another pound to my belt...But I put it on the wrong side, so in the water I was lopsided and listing heavily to the right. Stupid. Tried to swap weights from one side of my belt to the other but couldn't manage it with the camera. Got lost again and Kevin even had to ditcfh the group and come back to get me twice. Second time I just decided to thumb the dive 20 minutes in. Better to just go up so that's what I did.
However, that wasn't before I was able to get a couple of good shots. Stout Moray and a Wirecoral Gobie.
These shots are really something. That arch is spectacularly colorful. The light looks like it was great, too. Sorry about your lopsidedness. That must have been frustrating. Thanks for the post!!
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