November 28, 2010: We explored in and around the caves of the waters at Holoholokai Beach Park, Kohala. This dive helped me narrowly avoid serious “bottom time” withdrawal; and a case of “DRY Gills”! 😉
Beautiful caves with “sky lights” allowing the sun’s rays to dance gracefully about the shadows of the depths, and giving us glimpses as well as photographic opportunities of several marine animals that make themselves scarce in the daylight hours. We found their “hiding” place 😉
We found a Whitetip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus) and some fish commonly referred to as Squirrel Fish. These caves, with Andy’s help, also presented me the opportunity to finally photograph a Nudibranch that I had not seen before. Nudibranchs and Flatworms are both very interesting life-forms indeed!
Just one of the messages and some of the fun, reinforcing incentives at the Fall 2008 Read Aloud Program (RAP) at Waikoloa.
The Read Aloud America Read Aloud Program (RAP) is once again seeking volunteers to be volunteer readers as well as volunteers who can substitute as readers on short notice. This news is from Hawaii247.org!
There will also probably be a need for volunteer escorts to assist in getting groups to the assigned reading rooms and back to the cafeteria. More information on the schools offering the RAP and the dates each will be presented may be found here –> Read Aloud America Read Aloud Program (RAP) as well as contacting the representative for Read Aloud America RAP at (808) 224-1727 for more information.
The Fall 2008 Read Aloud Program (RAP) at Waikoloa had an impressive turnout.
I first had the incredible Privilege to be a part of this GREAT Program in Fall 2008 at Waikoloa Elementary School as a Reader Escort! As you can see from the post that I made after the first night of the RAP sessions in August 2008, it was an awesome experience! It only got better from there right down to the very last night that was a mix of laughter and joy as presentations were made; and an undertone of melancholy for the end of this wonderful, semi-weekly event.
It was very similar and just as FUN at the Waimea RAP during the same time frame. They staggered alternate nights and dates to make both possible as well as making it possible for me to volunteer at both! I gained an immense amount of information and ideas in addition to an understanding for what keeps the attention of the children. If it is possible for you to go and sign up, please do! They can usually put any and all volunteers to helpful tasks; and the rewards are numerous.
Thursday, August 12, 2010: Work today from 7:35am to 2:05pm.
By 2:45pm: driving to Kona on a partially routine shopping trip and to pick up an item that had been back-ordered.
By 6:45pm: All items checked off the to-do list in quick order and I begin the drive back home…
Approaching the airport intersection, my car displays a well overheated status…I was glad airport was the next turn, and I dive into the first location that seemed to make sense – the Rental Return lots on approach to the airport.
I owe a great big Mahalo to the Alamo rental-return employees! Theirs was the first lot that looked inviting to an ailing vehicle not of their own fleet.
They let me allow my car to cool down sufficiently and then loaned me a water jug so that I could fill the radiator. It took a bit of time for it to cool sufficiently so that I could safely add the water.
Well, that would have been great if my radiator cap hadn’t have suffered a huge going-to-pieces 😐 When I took off the cap, part of it remained in the radiator fill spout and part of it bounced off in the dark not to be seen again. I managed to remove the piece that was blocking the spout and filled the radiator when it had cooled; but the cap would no longer make a seal.
Oh. Boy. Andy was doing an all-niter on Mauna Kea. Now what to do?
I called the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station and asked for him. He was in the middle of a “Star Tour” and would call back. Several minutes later when he did call back, I explained the situation. After I called the insurance, I determined that the best thing to do was to call a tow truck. Thankfully, there had been a tow company dropping off a vehicle earlier; and one of the Alamo guys suggested writing down the phone number.
I called T&T Towing 24 Hour Service, and they dispatched a truck right away. Alamo was forced by liability issues to request that I move my car off their lot and they were VERY polite about it as well as helpful. I limped my car off the lot (and watched as the temperature gauge quickly began to rise), and found an area by the curb that was not painted red to wait.
In about 15-25 minutes, the truck appeared down the street and I waived him down to show him that I had moved the car. He quickly, but carefully put my car on the wheel lift; and we were off. I was finally home by 10:00pm! Thank you T&T for being there and not breaking my pocketbook!!!!
Thus I walked to work and back home again on Friday; while allowing Andy to enjoy the whole night at 9200 feet observing the Perseid Meteor Shower and taking astrophotos.
I am sure he will soon post some of the results to his Blog “A Darkerview“! 🙂
It was in just the right position to be sheltered from the brunt of the wind, surf and surge. Although the water wasn’t as clear as we have seen it, it was better by far than I was expecting. Almost no noticeable surge either, unless you held still enough for a few minutes and made conscious note of it.
We decided to go South today, and it turned up a new specie or two of Marine life. Due to the lack of surge, I got to enjoy the dive more instead of fighting to keep my position while I was looking at one bit of coral or another.
Realizing that without a camera, the dive is much more relaxed for me; but oh, the pictures I do not get … Like the Garden eels at about 80′:
I guess I liked it so much last year that I actually suggested volunteering at the VIS again this year as our Valentine’s Day togetherness. As Andy says, “Once; a fluke. Twice; a coincidence. Three times is a problem.” But in this case, three times may just become a tradition?!… Have to wait for next year’s story for that determination… 😎
Andy ‘promised’ me “a nice, secluded Valentine’s Day lunch and dinner at the ‘exclusive’ Hale Pohaku Café on Mauna Kea” last year then again this year 😉 Well…actually, it was I who suggested repeating our volunteering at the VIS on Valentine’s Day this year like we did last year. :-O
Once we got to cleaning eye pieces after lunch, we were happy to find that many of the eye pieces were being cleaned more often since our last maintenance run. They were still showing signs of cold-finger drops; but not as apparent as our previous maintenance run nor as depressing.
Last year on Valentine’s Day was our first year volunteering at the VIS to do telescope maintenance for our Valentine’s Day togetherness. You can follow my link to Valentine’s Day 2009 to read about our fun during that first adventure. This year the cleanings went much faster, and there were fewer that had to be retired due to excessive wear. We also did the maintenance and cleaning in the Bookstore building this time. It was warmer and more fun because visitors were curious and asking great questions.
We only had time to clean the eyepieces and repair a couple of the wiring cables to telescope ‘go-to’ control paddles before it was time to close up for the night. I guess we will need to schedule another maintenance run to work on the many Dobsonian telescopes, and other astronomy equipment – before the end of 2010!?!?! 😛
What an awesome way to go whale watching!!!! Okay. So…it was quite early to get up on a Saturday; but it was sooooo worth it! Just after New Year’s, Andy registered us to participate in the 2010 Santuary Ocean Count on January 30, coordinated by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Check out the many links and bushel loads of information that they provide on their site.
An optimal view for counting Humpback Whale and observing their behavior on January 30, 2010.
“Bright” and EARLY on Saturday morning, January 30, we met the group at Kawaihae harbor (about 7:00am) and consolidated some vehicles then proceeded to the site that we signed up on for the Ocean Count. The site had a GREAT 180 degree view from north to south of the Kohala coastline near Kawaihae on the Big Island of Hawai`i!
We all signed in and gathered the papers that we would need for recording the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) data. This was to include a tally for the # of adults and the # of calves in each pod, and a tally for each time one of several behaviors were exhibited during each half-hour increment from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Followed by one final count-only period from 12:00pm to 12:15pm.
Our group looking every-which-way while counting and observing Humpback Whale along the Kohala Coast of the Island of Hawai`i.
We all got settled in our chairs. We got our paperwork with writing implements, and our binoculars close at hand…and…at 8:00am began the count. Working in pairs, one would call out location, how many in the pod, and behavior observed; and the other would rapidly mark the tallies in the correct box on the paper. There was a lot of activity during the full four hours, and the time flew by! The Humpback were numerous and active on our west coast shoreline!
We seldom had opportunity to just sit back and talk story; but we did get some casual conversation inserted into the very occasional lull. Captivating conversation at that! This made the time pass by even faster. The lowest number of whale spotted from our site in any half-hour block during the count was about 11 adults. The calves were rare early in the count and then reached a count of four in two or three of the mid-count time slots.
A pod of five (5) adult Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) traveling north along the Kohala coast.
Near the end of our count (about 11:00 or 11:30), we all became a bit unsettled to observe two vessels that appeared to be commercial operations, display actions as though they were pursuing a pod of five Humpback Whale that were moving toward the north point of the Island (it looked like they were traveling in the direction of Maui). They presented as though they were pursuing the pod of five thus making the Whales increase their speed to stay out of range of the boats.
The vessels operators could have moored their boats anywhere along the coastline in the general area and seen a much more rewarding show as well as not having made the impression of stressing the large pod as it appeared that they did, and possibly causing any calves to get dangerously left behind!
We also watched as a small speed boat that was too near the shore tear over a lone Humpback that unexpectedly surfaced in its path. The boatman made little effort to observe to see if the whale was injured by the encounter, and we watched it tentatively while we finished our day’s count to observe if it was badly injured or just jostled and disoriented. It appeared to recover and begin to play in the water again. This left us with a feeling of relief as we gathered up our belongings, and cleared the site.
Two kayaking fishermen got an up-close view of a full breach display from a large adult Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
Setting aside the irksome few vessels traversing the Kohala coastline after helping to make a few notes of the boats’ actions, I focused my attentions back on the whale count.
Over all, the Ocean Count was a fantastic experience! There were several conscientious boats in the water as well. Like the kayaking fishermen who got a surprisingly good show! The numerous animals exhibiting an impressive show of behaviors were awesome! Behavior we observed included breaching, diving, fin slapping, spy hopping, numerous blows, and more… (<–this link is to a picture PDF).
It was particularly attention grabbing when a mother was teaching her calf how to do some of these behaviors! The calves appeared to try very hard and would sometimes repeat a behavior several times before changing to another. We even observed a pod of approximately 20 spinner dolphins skimming through our observation area heading in a northerly direction! They looked to be having a great time, completely undaunted by the number of Humpback in the area! 🙂
Even in Alaska, while I did see a larger number of whale once or twice, I do not believe I observed so many behavior patterns in so little time. The process of watching for specific behaviors and counting each occurrence of each behavior made me ‘see’ more of the whales and what they were doing than I had observed while simply watching the whale and madly firing my camera shutter for the pictures.
I WILL make an effort to participate in this event again! And NEXT time, I WILL remember the sun block since I seem to wear my dive skin and/or wet suit so often that I forgot to protect my sun deprived legs when I wore my shorts for the Whale count event :-O Eeeee Youch!!!!! Nope. No pictures of that part of my day. Too embarrassing to feel that much like a tourist again… 😉
Darkerview.com also posted on this volunteer opportunity! — search “Whale Count”>
