• Tag Archives Underwater
  • A Night Dive at Catholic Church, Puako, HI

    We continue our Advanced Open Water (AOW) Certification with a Night Dive at Puako πŸ˜€

    Yellow Tang in their night resting place and plenty of plankton attracted to my Dive Light.
    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.
    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.
    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! πŸ˜‰


  • Diving as a Wedding Anniversary Celebration, Part 2…

    Whewww! Sorry this has taken so long for those of you that were left “hanging” on the next word πŸ™‚

    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:

    Hawaiian Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) at Puako, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper
    Hawaiian Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) at Puako, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper

    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 the 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 a 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…

    Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) at Puako, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper
    Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) at Puako, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper

    Continue reading  Post ID 323


  • Diving as a Wedding Anniversary Celebration, Part 1…

    May (2008) marked 16 Years for Andrew and I! πŸ™‚ It does not seem like it has been that long.

    To celebrate, we went diving!

    No, it was not a plot to finally be rid of me either πŸ˜› We are starting our certification for Advanced Open Water and went for our Night Dive on May 25, 2008.

    The Ocean is a whole new world at night! When we turned out our lights as part of the certification objectives, it was an eerie experience to only have the sense of feel and “taste”. If you got disoriented, it would even be possible to lose the sense of direction and which way was up.

    Most of the usual fish that are seen during our daylight snorkel and diving trips pretty much hide at night (or sleep), and a lot of other creatures come out in their place. I saw a lot of Regal Slipper Lobsters like the one in this picture:

    Regal Slipper Lobster (Arctides regalis) in Crystal Cove, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper
    Regal Slipper Lobster (Arctides regalis) in Crystal Cove, South Kohala by Andrew Cooper

    Continue reading  Post ID 323