Boat dives are always a treat. We generally shore dive, where the only costs are the tank fills and a little gas to drive to the site. Many sites along the Kohala Coast are easily reached from shore. There are a number of great sites that are more difficult to reach, sites for which a boat provides a nice alternative. When going with a dive boat you also have the crew to assist in rigging gear and getting in and out. They also provide drinks, snacks and friendly conversation while you wait through a surface interval between dives. A holiday treat? A mutual Christmas gift? Whatever you want to call it, we booked a dive with Denise and Dave from Blue Wilderness for a day of diving.
There were several divers beside Deb and myself. Ben, from London, had left his girlfriend back at the resort for a morning of diving. A family from Saskatchewan was escaping the winter with a couple weeks in Hawai’i and a morning of diving. The wife and daughter were simply snorkeling. The father, an ex-navy diver, was introducing his son Brett to the sport.
As I had hoped we dove north of Kawaihae. We headed up the coast to Ulua Caverns, a site we have explored a couple times. This is true of most of the sites north of Kawaihae, we have dove this area many times. I never tire of the dive sites here, plenty to discover, even in places we have been before.
The current was quite strong. As I finished gear checks in the water I had to fin strongly just to keep beside the boat. It was notably better along the bottom, but still we had to take the current into account. We explored up current and then simply allowed the current to sweep us back to the boat at the end of the dive.
A few nice caves and rich coral allowed for a typical Kohala dive. Visiblity was OK, but not great, about 50-60ft. The find of the first dive was a leaf scorpionfish. An odd fish indeed. Similar to the frogfish with front pectoral fins arranged more like feet, allowing the fish to sit on the coral in ambush. Sitting still it would have been difficult to spot, except that this fish had chosen coral of a somewhat lighter shade on this particular morning.
Surprisingly it was a windy day on the water. We expect the winds to be light in the morning, particularly when a normal tradewind pattern is present. Between dives we were surprised to see a strong gust coming across the water. See the gust? Yes. We could see it whipping spray from the surface, a white, swirling tempest. After the second dive it was more than the occasional gust, but a steady wind scouring the surface. When we returned to harbor the wind was relentless, whipping spray from the wake and soaking everyone in the stern.
There are indeed humpbacks off Kawaihae, we could hear the singing during both dives. Between dives we went whale watching, my first good looks of the season. Not many whales yet around Pelekane Bay, just a scattered few, a far cry from the hundred or more that are typical later in the winter. We did get a very nice look at one lone whale, coming past the drifting boat to dive less than 50 yards away. We had a wonderful view of the tail raised high as it slid under. Brett, the young boy, had never seen a whale before, a wonderful view for a first time.
The Horseshoe site is known for it’s caves. Here we moored for the second dive. There were a few of us wanting to get into the caves, and a few who did not. No need to ask about my choice here. Thus I left Deb with Denise to stay in the light, while Dave, Ben and I explored deep into the caves. Most of the caves we typically explore along this coast are quite short, small lava tubes and overhangs that are less than 30 or 50ft into the reef, most are merely small caverns that never get out of sight of the entrance. Here there were a couple caves that allowed much further exploration. There were some tight spots for a diver in full gear.
I was using the finder light on my camera strobe as my primary light. A bright LED light, it is good for exploring while photographing what appears in the beam. It has the disconcerting feature that it goes out while the strobe is recharging. When using the strobe at minimum power, this is no issue, the blackout is short. If I use the strobe at or near full power it goes out for several seconds while recharging, leaving me in the pitch black.
A whole new set of species is to be found in the dark. Small crabs, nudibranch, cowries, strange sponges, and plenty of lobster. There were enough slipper lobsters in these caves to feed a lua’u. We observed a few of the usual nudibranch, including a lot of fellowsii on the cave sponges. I found several nice shells in the caves, not smashed to shards as is usual out in the open. Unoccupied of course, I do not collect live shells. Two reticulated cowries, a species I have collected before, and a beautiful casmaria. I gave the cowries to our off island visitors.
I also found two scuba weights dropped by some other diver near the mooring, a pair of two pound soft weights. A nice find as these are somewhat expensive and we can use them.
Conditions above water may have been a bit harsh, with the wind creating quite a nuisance. Underwater however, conditions were just fine, two excellent dives. I have the usual clutch of decent photos, as usual they will grace the pages of Darker View over the next few weeks.
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