16 Feb 2022
A west wind was still blowing strong so we headed south to try to find a protected cove to dive in. If the wind shifted slightly north or slightly south, we’d have more options for protected sites, but a direct west wind is harder to hide from. I was a split second too early on this shot, but some of those waves were reaching higher than the palm trees!
Dive #15 – Point of Refuge
Unfortunately, the surge kicked up a lot of debris so this is a terrible picture of the black morph of a Longnose butterflyfish:
Fun fact: if you catch him and take him away from Kona, he’ll turn back to the regular yellow version!
I love the chunky lips on these Lei triggerfish:
A school of Bluestripe snappers (with a whole lot of backscatter!):
Little Bluestripe snappers, facing into the current:
Hawaiian cleaner wrasse! cleaning a trumpetfish:
Goldring surgeonfish:
and another!
Agile chromis:
Potter’s angelfish:
Fried egg nudibranch / Phyllidia varicosa:
I don’t know who this guy is 🙁
Ugh, he was too far a way to get a nice picture, but this is Goldrim tang!
I hadn’t seen this guy before- my guide today, Kendall, is a self-described fish nerd, so I knew if I described it to him, he could name it for me 🙂
Another black morph of the Longnose butterflyfish!
Bird wrasse:
Farewell, surge-y dive site
Dive #16 – K-Point Drift
For our second dive, we drifted around Kealakekua Bay:
It’s a popular snorkeling spot, but most of the boats left before we dropped for our dive. Because it’s popular with snorkelers, you can sometimes find fun things like sunglasses, snorkels and, if you’re lucky, GoPros at the bottom 🙂
A shrine to things lost:
There’s a creepy doll face that I did not take a picture of:
You’re welcome!
Peacock grouper at the cleaning station:
He just looks so derpy!
Flame angelfish!
Bird wrasse:
Thompson’s surgeonfish?
Trumpetfish:
The “hat” on this urchin amused me 🙂
Orangespine unicornfish:
Well-hidden octopus:
Juvenile Chevron tang!!!
A pair of Twospot lizardfish:
Ornate butterflyfish:
Pearly soldierfish:
A hidden Spotfin squirrelfish:
A split second before I snapped this picture, this Pinktail triggerfish was rubbing himself on the coral:
Hawaiian sergeant:
Indo-Pacific sergeant:
These two will sometime interbreed and create a hybrid! Not sure if the offspring are fertile, but for now anyway, you can still find both species separately.
Saddle wrasse:
Goldring tang:
Yellow trumpetfish:
Parrotfish:
Moorish idol:
Black surgeonfish:
This is what that beautiful Chevron tang will grow up to look like!
Goatfish:
Ewa fang blenny:
Coral-crunching parrotfish:
For my last free afternoon, I picked up some fish tacos from Ohana Q, which were tasty even if they were way spicier than the mild I had ordered, though that little Kona Coffee cheesecake bite cooled my mouth nicely 🙂
Under that pile of BBQ brisket is mac and cheese, which I figured would reheat nicely tomorrow- I’m always super-hungry after a full day of diving!