It was a cloudless morning in Kona today. The east side of the island had been getting a good amount of rainfall, but we've got a couple of nearly 14,000 foot tall behemoths in the way (Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea - tonight's news said both received snow today) that absorb all the rain before reaching Kona on the west side of the island.
We did the first dive at turtle heaven, lots of turtles and other fish. A male phychedelic wrasse, awa awa, helmet snail (looks like a foot long Qonquistador hat), papillo/ulua/blue trevally and other goodies were sighted. The second dive was a one way dive from Kamanu/Carousel to out and around Kaiwi point. This is an outstanding dive... Flame angels, a bandit angel, nudibranchs, tons of pyramid butterflys and such were all sighted. My wife was able to join us today. I'm not sure if she'd done either site before, she was real happy with the second dive... it's a great dive.
Unfortunately for me... played Captain on both dives. It was still a great day on the water. Apparently wth viz was very, very good today. I think my DM was talking 150' at our first dive, which is incredible for that dive site. I talked with another DM/Instructor/Captain friend who estimated 200' or more at the dive site they did on their first dive.
79 degree water, 100+ foot viz.... not too bad compared to what I dove in off the Pacific Northwest.
Here's a juvenile Chevron tang. they lose the red/orange s they mature and turn into a black (actually black striated with white) tang as they mature.
Take care,
Steve
