We did the manta dive tonight after doing the morning trip also. I'm making this post quick, gotta hit the hay for a few hours and get up for tomorrow's charter - we've been staying quite busy despite being the slow time of year.... How slow is it you may ask... this last Saturday the only other dive charters I saw on the water were the two companies that service primarily Japanese clientele and two companies that have been here for over 25 years. Saturdays seem to be generally a slower dive day because it's a travel day or "the last full day in Kona so I'll do something other than dive" day for a lot of people. We've been going out consistantly, be we are running a bit light (as far as number of divers on the boat) often, going out with a light load beats not going out at all though.Here's a scorpion fish I took a picture of on a night dive a couple weeks back. With the night time coloration it's tough for me to tell if it's a Decoy Scorpionfish or a Speckled Scorpionfish right off hand without scrutinizing the books.
Quick update on the weather.... Vog is down - Yahoo. It's nice seeing the horizon again after not seeing it for a while, and we were able to see Maui from the water yesterday. We've had nicer skies the last few days, although we are seeing late afternoon winds and rains.
Later,
Steve