Underwater Photography and Fish Identification (AWARE) Dives: our last two dives for our Advanced Open Water (AOW) Certifications are complete through Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures at the Waikoloa Queens’ Market Place on Hawaii! We will get our new cards within 90 days 😀
View at Cave exit at Kei Kei Caverns (Horseshoe), Kawaihae Coast, Hawaii.
Yikes…we are now AOW Certified! Maybe the next step, after a while, is the “Search and Recovery Diver” dive to see if we can recover the weight pouch that dropped out of my BCD on our Fish I.D. Dive, the second dive; although, I did better on my air supply on both dives! All-in-all, the whole day was great!
The first dive was our Underwater Photography Dive at Kei Kei Caverns (Horseshoe), Kawaihae Coast, Hawaii. The initial entry was brisk, as it always is this time of year; but once in, it was very nice! I FINALLY heard whale song and it was very melodic and lulling, not to mention Fantastic!
However, I was not going to be distracted from the purpose of this dive so I took many photos and a few video clips. Several of my photos are quite decent regardless of my inexperience due to Andy having used the camera on previous dives before the second camera was acquired.
Andy examining the reef & fish during our 1st dive.
I have been adding pictures and links to this posting; but I got it posted while it was still Christmas AND 2008! 😉 Who knows?…I may add more!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Aloha Dear Family, Friends, and any Envious Unknowns 😉
Well, we have come to another year’s end and are readying to ring in another new year! … gulp … ALREADY!?! This year our Holiday Letter is here on my Blog!
One of the great floats in the Waimea Christmas Twilight Parade on December 6, 2008.
May you have a safe and fun-filled Holiday 2008-2009 Season filled with pleasant new memories for your journals, photo albums, and scrapbooks! I don’t believe that I have ever attended this many pot lucks, parties, and get-togethers in this short of time before in my life! The sense of ‘community’ is GREAT! I rarely encounter a “Mr. (or Ms.) Grinch” 😀
As many of you know by now, Andy applied for a job at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii on the Big Island in early 2006 and major excitement ensued. After several telephone interviews were conducted with Andy, WE (not just He) were invited to the Big Island in October 2006 for face-to-face interviews (and a day on the summit of Mauna Kea to assess Andy’s ability to hold up and function at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet).
While Andy was interviewing, I checked out as much of Waimea (Kamuela per the US Post Office) and Waikoloa as I could in four days. It was great! When we got back home, we anticipated the call because we felt that everything went so well and the possibilities were VERY attractive. He has been regularly posting his activities on his Blog at http://www.darkerview.com/darkview/ since. Continue reading → Post ID 518
We continue our Advanced Open Water (AOW) Certification with a Night Dive at Puako 😀
Yellow Tang in their night resting place and plenty of plankton attracted to my Dive Light.
We descended to about 65 feet to see if the Garden eels were out. They were not, but we saw plenty of other ocean night life while our air held out. Regal Slipper Lobster. A Regal slipper lobster, an Eel about 6 six feet long swam around us while we were in a cave and gave us quite a show! As you can see by my picture of the Yellow Tang, there was A LOT of plankton and little worms.
Andy taking another night dive photo with his Canon G9.
Two more dives to complete (Underwater Photography and Fish ID) and we have our AOW Certifications! Now, if the ‘colds’ would just quit catching up with me! 😐
My Photography and Fish ID dives should have plenty of photos to share when I ever get to complete them! 😉
An AWESOME way to give back to the community and it was FUN!!!! Not to mention that it was cooler!
Cattle, Fog and a Pu’u as the last of the large animal life seen on our Thanksgiving Drive to the VIS.
Following our event filled drive up the mountain, we ate the Thanksgiving dinner of Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Jelly, and more that was waiting for us at Hale Pohaku (HP) and then went to the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) to assist with the public star gazing program until 10pm.
Andrew setting up a telescope at sunset in preparation for the public program on at the VIS on Mauna Kea.
Just as we finished our dinner and Andy was eating his dessert, he got a call to help troubleshoot an issue at Keck on the Summit. He helped them get it fixed quickly so we weren’t delayed in getting to the VIS by too much; and he made them happy.
Due to the number of clouds, we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to see the stars and planets tonight anyway. When we got to the VIS, the ‘scopes were just getting set up; and the sky began to show promise.
I took several photos of the spectacular sunset and the process of setting up which included the volunteers, and the staff; and all the while, I was seeing small improvements in the condition of the sky where the clouds slowly began to disappear and more of the Milky Way and stars could be seen.
Treated to a spectacular Sunset on Thanksgiving at the VIS!
It cleared off so well that Andy was able to get some very good shots of the conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter after he mentioned it several times leading up to the big day in his blog’s ‘Astronomy: Events‘ category. Just in case you are wondering, like I was at first introduction, “what is a Conjunction?” – check out this Conjunction entry at Wikipedia.
Then I noted that the telescope’s corrector plate cover that Andy was setting up also had a ‘Smiley Face’ on it 🙂 I am confident that the clouds parted just for us this night!
We had a large number of people drop in and the telescopes as well as the gift shop and theater were quite busy until closing.
It may be a while ’til I see a true Green Flash so I create my own kind 🙂
The night may have gotten off to a slow start; but it flew by without my even noticing the time until it was time to put up the telescopes, the gear; and go home. We LIKE to volunteer there for many reasons; but I think the biggest reason for me is to hear people exclaim, “WOW! I didn’t know there was soooo much up there to see!” or that first comment or question of the evening and usually from a child, “Where do you put the picture of that in the telescope?”
We then set about explaining that they are looking at the real thing in the sky, and we point it out with a green laser pointer right where the telescope is focused. The Green Laser Pointer sets off a whole new question set and we explain that it is a professional tool not a toy; but that they could become a professional in a science degree then they could get a green laser pointing ‘tool’, too 😉
While I was waiting for dark and the big scopes were being set up, I helped set up the Dobsonian telescopes then I took some flash photos behind the VIS that I think look kind of neat!
The sunset itself seemed to change as fast as I could blink. Some were saying that the color was due in large part to the amount of Vog in the air and the lack of trade winds at the time. As much fun as I was having with my eyes and sinuses, I was in agreement with them.
They may have been clouds that Astronomers don’t like; but what a Spectacular Sunset!
How does one escape cooking and doing dishes on a holiday like Thanksgiving?
Seen on Saddle Road on Thanksgiving Day in the late afternoon.
Well, one way is to volunteer to support the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) on Mauna Kea public star gazing program. We were treated to Thanksgiving dinner of Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes and Cranberry Jelly as well as other side treats. Then we helped out at the VIS for the rest of the evening until 10pm.
We started the day by spending a relaxed morning through to early afternoon at home. We got projects done around the house and organized our Christmas lists. Then about 3:30pm, we headed out toward the mountain.
Female Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) skimming through the dark under brush on Saddle Road.
The drive up was quite entertaining along our route up Waikoloa Access Road and across Saddle Road! There were several small flocks of Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) along the way that appeared completely unaware of how lucky they were on this particular day. 😉 The preferred flavor for much of this island seems to be pit roasted Wild Pig.
Come to think of it, we didn’t even see any wild pigs today. Not even the ones that clash with motor vehicles and lose. We even saw several of the requisite Erckel’s Frankolin (Francolinus erckelli) and flocks of smaller, skittish birds that were too distant and too fast to ID accurately; although, they looked like house sparrows and saffron finches.
We completed our Bookwork review and quizzing a couple of weekends earlier so Saturday, November 22, 2008, was a day for getting in over our heads and putting two dives for our Advanced Open Water Scuba Certification under our belts 😀
Yes, we completed our Deep Water and Underwater Navigation Dives with Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures Corp. in the Waikoloa Queen’s Market Place on the Big Island.
Andy as I usually see him…behind his camera.
Note that Blue Wilderness has recently moved from Kamuela to Waikoloa Queen’s Market Place and will be updating their website. Until then, you can call them at their new number: 808-886-0980 to arrange a fun-filled day or night out on the waters of the Kohala coast!
We are taught in our initial Open Water certification to do our deepest dive first so we didn’t have to ask which dive we would do first today. Knowing it would be the Deep Dive first, we went to Ulua Caverns. A beautiful coral, sand and rock terrain!
My max depth indicated that I got as deep as 116 feet as I kept an eye on my gauges. Although this dive is to test how my body will deal with the greater depth, I didn’t feel any issues of Nitrogen Narcosis; but my breathing was less than ideal and I dipped my tank away too quickly – well, at least I didn’t hold my breath. 😀
Butterfly Fish and Coral somewhere between 60 and 100 foot depth at Ulua Caverns, Kohala Coast, Hawaii.
Guess I need to work on the other often heavily encouraged piece of Scuba diving and get myself back in good physical condition. Aerobics here I come! Plus, I need to keep my mind on my conservative breathing while, not instead of, gazing at all the underwater visions! 😉
And even at 100 plus feet deep, there were a lot of things to see! I was pleasantly surprised; although, the colors were severely lacking in reds and pictures are hard to “salvage” to make them decent if you can not get close enough for the flash to do its job. This being the main reason, I prefer the depths above 60 feet. Continue reading → Post ID 518
