Scuba Diving Vacations

Not that it's really all that slow, but it is compared to summer and the holidays. My week's starting to fill in because of a couple of phone calls. Today I'm heading down to the boat to sand for a few hours. I'm going to try to repaint the interior of the boat on my off days this week, then when I hit an empty spell in the next month or two, see if I can get the exterior repainted. It's a work boat and will never make the cover of boat beautiful, but it definitely needs some cosmetic work while it's slow.

I've been getting occasional "last minute" calls lately... last night I got one at 8:35PM wanting to go on the night dive... which started at 4PM. As a head's up, I would suggest that people try to arrange to schedule at least their first dive of their trip in advance. If you know for sure that you want to dive, I'd recommend setting up at least the first dive before you get here, if you know you want to dive a lot then try to set it all up well in advance. Kona is not really a dedicated dive destination and there are not boats going out multiple times a day like some spots of the world. Most everyone has a morning boat, leaving between 7 and 9, and if they have a later trip it's an afternnoon/evening boat, leaving for the night dive at 4-6pm. We get a number of calls for people looking for dives for that very day at say 8-10am thinking they'll be able to catch a late morning or mid-day boat... they're basically out of luck finding that anywhere over here. Even the "next day or two" calls can be tough at times depending on schedules, but if I'm unable to make a go of it I can usually find an operator to refer people to.

Here's a photo of a sponge crab. We see them from time to time on the night dive. They carry a sponge on their back. I guess it's supposed to be camouflage, when you see them without a sponge, they'll likely have something else. We saw one carrying old shredded underwear several years back... whatever works I suppose.

Later,

Steve