Scuba Diving Vacations

We saw this rather huge scorpion fish on a dive at Au-Au Canyon earlier in the year. We actually saw two of them, and both were huge, probably in the 18-20 inches or more range. These fish are one of the "stone" fishes, poisonous spines and all, and are easy to pass right by as they blend in with the surrounding scenery so very well.

I tried to get some decent photos and failed... they came out either blown out or too dull looking. Pat managed to get this cool angle on one of the ones we saw. I really like it.

Business has been really brisk up 'til the last couple of days. Managed to squeeze in a day off, hadn't had one since March ('cept for 2 days I was hit with food poisoning or some kind of bug back in April). Towards the end of last month it was looking like it was going to be quiet, then suddenly I had dives every day for about 12-13 days straight. Looks like it starts up again in a couple of days for us.

Done some very nice diving lately.... Bob led a group down off Naia and they had a trifecta of sorts the other day - a WHALE SHARK, a manta ray, and a pod of dolphins all on the same dive... can't say we have that happen too often.... very cool!

Later,

Steve

Today we dove the wreck of the Naked Lady. It's a 48ish foot long ferro-cement hull out in Kailua Bay sitting in 105-109 feet of water. Because of the depth and the fact that you're looking at a deep and short dive, we don't get there all that often. The sinking of the boat occurred long before I arrived here, but from what I understand, a fire occurred out on a sailboat in the bay and a naked woman turned up at Kailua pier screaming "the aliens are coming" or something along those lines. The story's probably morphed over the years to this... but it could've happened that way?

This wreck is a mixed bag, sometimes there's a fair amount of stuff hanging out, sometimes there's very little. Today they found a shrimp or two and a good sized yellow margin moray and not a lot more in the way of critters. During the dive they could hear the Atlantis submarine (yep, there's a tour sub in Kona that actually goes to 104') and then suddenly it came out of the blue and our divers and their passengers all got a good look at each other. The first diver up commented that she'd never had so many people taking pictures of her diving before. It'd be nice to be able to time that dive so the sub comes by, but it's kind of by luck, as it's a nice turn of events if there's not a lot of fish life hanging around at the time.

Cathy led the dive, this is a picture she took of the sub. You can see the tip of the Naked Lady laying on the sand to the left.

Later,

Steve

WHOOOOHOOOO!