20 Jan 2024
Good morning from the Kohala coast!
Conditions still aren’t great along the coast, but some of the deeper sites aren’t as affected by the surge, and while I prefer shallow dives (warmer, brighter, typically more fish), deep dives are better than no dives, so here we go!
Dive #5 – Black Point
So the downside to deep sites is, obviously, they’re a lot darker than shallow reefs, and my strobes really just aren’t that powerful so I don’t have a lot of great pictures from today.
We dropped basically right in the middle of a giant school of Pyramid butterflyfish:
Butterflyfish at a cleaning station:
Ewa fang blend:
I like the way this guy wiggles!
Pipefish!!!
He was tucked up in the back of a cave, so I’m surprised these pictures turned out at all:
Longnose hawkfish in a black coral:
Hawaiian lionfish:
These tiny guys are endemic to Hawaii (so no hunting them)
Blue dragon nudibranch/Pteraeolidia semperi:
Strawberry nudibranch/Phyllidiella pustulosa:
Tiny moray:
Hermit crab:
Dive #6 – Pinnacle Peak Drift
Unfortunately, because we’re doing back to back deep dives, and my first dive was quite long (a little over an hour), I don’t get as much bottom time on the second dive, so even if I try to stay shallow and only dip down to see a cool critter, this’ll be a much shorter dive.
I spotted this little Leaf scorpionfish all by myself!
Wire coral goby:
Hawaiian hogfish:
Coral tree in the coral tree forest. There were several solitary clumps in this area, all housing a variety of fishes:
like this Hawaiian lionfish:
Even this deep (~75′), the water is still pretty churned up and visibility isn’t great, but my Kohala coast dives were so fishy! Even if my pictures didn’t turn out the greatest, there was so much life here on the reef!
Unfortunately, conditions are continuing to deteriorate, so afternoon dives are off. Fortunately, that means I can make a trip down to Kona to pick up some delicious Indian food! I discovered Kamana Kitchen on a previous trip to Hawai’i and absolutely love their chicken tikka masala, but the timing of my scheduled dives on this trip has made it hard to pick up food in Kona. A free afternoon means I get to find some tasty food, including this affogato (espresso over Kona coffee ice cream):
Waves here seem less than up in Kohala, so if tomorrow gets cancelled, hopefully I’ll be able to jump on a Kona boat again and still go out. But today, I’m going to enjoy my afternoon off and eat some delicious tikka masala:
out on my lanai with this tiny lizard friend:
and this larger guy watching me from the tree.
Then get a jump on editing pictures and call it an early night 🙂