Flying Octopus

 Forecast was for rain and overcast, so naturally, morning in Kona today was sunny and nice.  Calm seas and diving prospects were high.

A bit of current forced us to look around for a quiet spot, which Kona Honu Divers Capt Taka found, and we were in the water.  Very nice visibility, around 80-100 ft, and bright sun lit up the healthy reef colors.  Octopus love was the theme today, and we also found octopus just hanging out in their pukas, while one decided to fly up the ridge were swimming through.  I tried to get a shot off but he was so fast a bit of his head got cut off.  In the shot directly below can you spot the Octopus checking me out with eye stuck up above a rock?

 

 

Along the way a big Spotted Puffer turned a corner and almost ran into me, a Stout Moray, and Rob-Bob found a Reef Lizardfish.

 

Laura spent some time out on the wand flats searching for Rubber Duckies, but it's not the season yet.  Did find a couple of very common nudis, a Strawberry and a scrambled Egg.

Eels everywhere, plus a big Frogfish and a small Wirecoral Gobie

 Today dawned with dark overcast and multiple rain squalls across the horizon.  Looked north to Pawai Bay; big whitewater all over the moorings and crashing on Wash Rock. Guess I won't ride my bike; fuck it dude, let's go diving.  Fortunately I had a space on Kona Honu Divers Honu One, so off to the harbor we go.  Here's Skipper Connor launching divers at our first site; same as yesterday since that area was the only place to dive with the swell coming in from both south and west.  We headed down the wall with guide, Kevin Stewart, and I was delighted at the lack of surge.  That, however, would catch up to us on dive two.

This area has multiple moorings across a large cove, and we were at the second farthest north.  The reef here is super healthy and full of fish....and today: Eels, Yellow Margin, Undulated, and four White mouth Eels.  All these White mouth Eels are unique different individuals.  At the bottom the nose of a Yellow Margin Eel is poking out of his hole.

Now that we've covered the eels, lets talk about some usual reef nudis, fishes and shrimp.  First up: a Strawberry nudi, then, nearby a Peacock Grouper heading for a hole, an Oval Butterfly fish,  an Oraangeband Surgeonfish photobombing an Arceye Hawkfish, a Longnose Butterfly, a Linkia Starfish, and a couple of Banded Coral Shrimp with an upside-down Red Barred hawkfish.

 

 So I saved the best finds for last.  Three awesome creatures. A very large Pale Yellow Camo Frogfish, a very small and shy female Whitley's Boxfish, and a wirecoral Gobie, found at the very end of dive two.

 The frogfish was so big I had to back up tofit it into the frame of my 60 mm macro lens. I spent so much time with the frogfish that when I looked up across the boulder and pinnacle field: no bubbles.  Crap, Well, I thought, the must be headed for the mooring by now, which convenientyly is close to the large pinnacle which is a feature of this site.  I swam that way and through the gloom began to see bubbles.  yay! 

The Whitleys was very small.  I chased her all over the reef, but she kept diving into overhangs and holes.  Finally she emerged from the shadows and met me head on.  Hi, you little beauty.   

Under a ledge on the pinnacle where I found the other divers there was a strand of wire coral reaching out into the water column.  I always closely inspect these becvasuse they very oftten harbor a couple of teeny, very cool animals.  Today on the wirecoral was a nice little Wirecoral Gobie.

Deep Treasures

 Overcast and still this morning made me think the sea would be glass on the Kona coast.  Good day for diving.  I was hoping for dolphin bow riders as we exited Honokohau harbor, but the dolphins were sleeping elsewhere.  There's the green can that's moored at 90 feet, with an anchor chain pile on a concrete block that's home for some very exotic creatures.

For a bit of a geek-out, I was stoked to see Mark from Queensland, a wreck diver, show up with not only a DIN reg but a long hose rig.  Here we are as neighbors. Turned around and there was Laura.

 

Immediately in the water, Laura and Doug found some Indigo Dart fish.  Here they are, though one is lurking behind the other one..

We cruised around the drop-off west of Pine Trees and again Doug had the eagle eye, spotting a Curious Wormfish.  I chased it for a while and didn't think I'd got a shot of it, but here it is.  Around the same area I found a Rockmover Wrasse turning rocks over, an Orange Spine Unicorn fish, a Leaf Scorpion deep in a coral head, and a 4 spot Butterfly.

 

Kevin awesomely spotted some tiny beauties: A Hawaiian Lionfish and a Bicolor Nudibranch.

Back near shore we explored some overhangs with White Tip Reef Sharks.  My shots are out of focus so you'll have to go find Laura's pics for that.

There was a lot of surge inshore, and that made Nudi shots a drive-by affair.  Still managed to get a few good shots, Including a Gold lace Nudi and a yellow Baby Frogfish.  So cute!

 After a surface interval we headed for deeper water, looking for rare creatures and hoping for some big pelagics.  The biggest I saw was a whole school of big Ulua; but no Tiger sharks. What we did find was a rare Green Lionfish.  My best shot of it was sadly a bit out of focus, so again look for Laura's pics for a better one.

 

While we were still in deep water we found some other great critters: A Whitestripe Cleaner Shrimp at the mouth of a hole, waiting for a fish to show up to detail.  A few feet up the reef I found an Undulated Eel with a couple of Orange Band Cleaner shrimp getting the job done.

 

On the way back up the reef toward the mooring Doug and Laura were gathered around a small outcropping of rock and coral.  I got there in time to see the small Stout Moray before it retreated into its puka.

Additionally,  a few of the usual creatures: Raccoon Buttefly front view, Moorish Idol, and a Black Longnose Butterfly, endemic to Hawaii, being photobombed by a normal Longnose.

Winter morning at 2 Step with Brent M

 Hard to fast forward seven months in which so much shit happened, most of it unexpected and not all of it good.  But what's definitely good is that I made it back here to one of my absolute favorite, no-stress, coral-garden expanses with walls and sharks: 2 Step or Honaunau Bay. Especially on a day like today with no wind, no swell, and very few people. (It was 7 am).   

Teamed up with my long-time underwater partner, Brent M, and we navigated the way-more-sketch parking options, gear-up checklist, lava walk to the entry point and low-tide entry with little pilikia. Here we are with the low sun on our faces, then Brent took one of me.

Jumping in at low tide requires a bit of planning and caution:  there's a rock ledge that sticks out about 2 feet below the surface and if you drop in backwards you can catch your tailbone on it. If you giant stride, which is what I did today, you just have to aim a bit to the left and clear it into deeper water.  High tide entries are easier, but then getting out is harder, so I'll take low to mid tide at 2-step any day. Slotted into my happy-place and the world was right.  Water temp was 77, and I wondered if I dmade a mistake not bringing the hooded vest.  As it turned out I was comfortable in my old Pinnacle 5 mil, leaky seams and all.

 

 We dropped the float at the sand patch and headed over the wall, planning to follow the wall past the overhang that I call Godzilla Head, and then range back up the slope with a south heading and wander around the canyons and pinnacles near the point until time to head back across the coral gardens to retrieve the float. 

Immediately over the wall and down the cascading plate coral cliff.  It looked super healthy.  These shots are all with the GoPro, which I purposely took as my camera device because it requires no attention when clipped off.  There's no strobe but also no task loading which I didn't care to have on my first dive back.

 We angled down pretty far below the overhang to hang out with a bunch of Yellowfin Goatfish, and were also on the lookout for the big White Tip Reef shark that likes to rest on the bottom by the deep Aloha. Visibility was excellent at around 100 ft.

You can't see the shark through the goatfish curtain,, but it's there, bigger than I remember.  Later Brent said he's seen two of them at that spot so maybe this is the one I hadn't seen.  Anyway, he was too far away, as close as we were, for me to get a good shot of him with the wide angle setting.

We hung around at that depth for a few minutes, slowly moving west along the wall.  So many fish, and a few big eels. We'd gotten a bit farther west than I'd thought we'd go, but as we headed back up the wall I dialed in 180 to hopefully get us to the shark cave, but no, we ended up at the three pinnacles just off the point.  And low tide so we elected not to thread our way into the shallows but just head back on 60 degrees across the beautiful coral garden.  Here's Brent skimming over a nice coral head.

We wandered back toward where I thought the float was and eventually found the ancient thin car tire that told me we were about 20 meters away from our target.  Retrieved the float and made our exit.  

BAck at the staging area under the big tree we chatted with lots of people, including some Canadians who laughed at us when we tried to mimic a canadian accent.  They later joined others pushing Brent's car out of the puka that used to be a good parking spot until it got so dug out that you're basically driving into a hole.  Since parking spots at 2 step has gotten way more restricted you sometimes have to take a chance.  Fortunately, he was able to climb back out onto the pavement and all good.  

A good reason to do a safe, comfortable dive as your first dive back is to check out your gear.  Turns out my wireless fas pressure transmitter battery was dying, so replacing that before getting back in the water became my new project for the day.

On the way home I had to stop at Super J's for a few laulaus because of course I did.