Gadget Gypsy

Whewww! Sorry this has taken so long for those of you that were left “hanging” on the next word   I didn’t expect a ‘little’ root canal to leave me so wiped out nor did I expect that I would be doing it again in a Part 2 on teeth either

Well on to more adventures from May 26, 2008, Memorial Day Diving: 

The first dive was at a site called Catholic Church, Puako.  We went deep to 94 feet to see the Garden Eels mentioned in Part One and to give us an opportunity to determine how well we would conserve our tank of air at depth. The water remained a nice temperature of about 75 degrees for the entire dive and visibility was better than 100 feet. There are a few fish to see at the deeper areas of the reef; although at that site, the Garden Eels were about it at that depth. When we came back up to shallower water, we saw Many, Many tropical fish and water inhabitants.

Like this photo of a Hawaiian Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) that Andy took as it rested in a crevice on the reef wall near the boat anchor buoy…

And this Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas), also taken by Andy, that just meandered across our path on his/her way to the next foraging spot or a favorite beach to rest upon…

The Coral, WOW, the Coral! The Coral in just that one dive site looked like we traveled miles away in the difference between the deep Coral and the shallower Coral.  Once you get past 40 or 50 feet, the colors are fairly well ‘a wash’ due to the lack of light and they get paler and paler the deeper you go. But the Coral was still beautiful in its shapes and textures that the shadows of the depth highlighted! When I got back to the shallower waters, I looked more closely at the Coral and noticed that the same textures are there, too; but I just didn’t notice them as much because of the more vibrant coloring and more intense shadows from brighter light. The shapes are still very different in the shallows versus the deep, though; and that makes sense because colonies (Coral ‘villages’) will each be individual in nature. Even the 3+ minute safety stop at 15 feet was far from boring!

The second dive was at a site called Haunted Cavern right off the coast out from the Mauna Lani Resort (Franko’s Dive Map of Hawai’i, The Big Island shows its location off the Kohala Coast). There are numerous Coral Arches here and several are swim through; but take care not to damage the Coral Arches or the long colonies of Wire Coral stretching off of the Arches that reside here, please   In and around and through we went, spotting fish under the arches that prefer to come out closer to the twilight hours and the remains of crustaceans that had been somebody’s meal…I felt like a dolphin at play…

There were A LOT of the Black Triggerfish (Melichthys niger), aka Black Durgeon, and Hawaiian name is  Humuhumu ‘ele’ele! There were too many for me to count so I merely marveled at the shear numbers. On the exit of one of the Arches, there was a very long Wire Coral that I was careful to swim wide around to avoid causing any damage. It is an interesting entity and it looks so fragile. At the shallower depths (only 50 feet at its deepest), I went through my air a lot more slowly so I was able to get a 53 minute dive in and it was spectacular!

This Greenhead Moray (Gymnothorax undulatus) by Andy was actually seen on our night dive on Sunday, May 25, 2008:

For another perspective on the subject diving and these same dives, check out A Darkerview – Diving, a Weblog by Andy

May your journey be pleasant and the road smooth and unfettered!
— GG