Scuba Diving Vacations

OK, I'm not a big baseball fan these days, but being a former OSU student this is even bigger than my "whoohoo" I gave them last year... Only three teams have repeated since the 60's. Congrats. I do feel sorry for UNC though, they lost the series twice in a row now, it's an accomplishment just getting there, not to mention twice.

So I gotta admit, I knew the Beavs were to at least the quarterfinals and didn't realize they'd made it to the finals, but yesterday Pat and I ran errands, heard a radio commercial for Don the Beachcombers restaurant and Mai Tai Tiki Bar... and being the Tiki fans that we are we had to go check it out. Anyway, the first game of the series was on at the time so we got to watch it and had to watch the last innings of tonight's game. BTW... Beachcombers... big thumbs up for the visual improvements in the bar and diner. We'll have to do dinner there (I've heard lots of positive on the forums at Konaweb) but the bar was opened up, it used to be sort of screened off. This bar and restaurant probably has the best overall view in Kona of any bar/restaurant I can think of off hand. Happy hour - Don's original mai tias (not watered down) at half price - $21 got us 4 mai tais and the bartender a decent tip, not bad for Hawaii.


Here's a video from some time ago I may have already put up, but not using youtube, so it may not be accessible in the earlier post. The manta dive is a hoot.

Aloha,

Steve

If you've been following me, you know I've had the boat in for some major work. People who've dove with me lately know I've been wanting something different....so we've been rebuilding the boat essentially from the ground up.

Well, the old inboard engine's out, and the 30 inch hull extension is essentially done. It looks as though I will end up with two swim platforms with two ladders towards the outside with the outboards off the center of the transom. They've started working on the inside today.. new bench seating with both dry and open storage, additional tank storage below floor in the existing fish hold, the engine box will be a thing of the past with additional light weight gear storage below floor level where the old engine was, we're looking at additional shelving in the cabin (leaving room for the dreaded porta potti - few small operators have one, nobody wants one - the goal is to never have it used). The goal is to up our storage as much as possible (but please, please don't bring extra stuff just because we have extra storage) we're trying to trick the boat out for diving and make it very comfortable for everyone. The engines supposedly were at the dock today, the stereo has arrived (hey, if you are renting the whole boat, bring your ipod and plug it in), the interior lighting should be showing up soon, the new breaker box and power inverter are in, the new vinyl lettering has come in... and after it's all done a new paint job... It's essentially going to be a very nice new boat.

Here's the latest info on Kileuea Volcano closures. The local news said geologists (like the french gal on the last post) say this the the most dramatic activity at the volcano in over a decade. There is apparently no actual flow, but the floor in the Pu'u O'o vent has dropped 40-50 meters (may have been ffet but I think they said meters) in the last few days. They said it may be weeks or months before the roads re-open.

Here's a whitetip reef shark from the other week.

Aloha,

Steve

Over the weekend there were roughly 200 small earthquakes down at the volcano park and they closed Chain of Craters road and other roads around the park. The lava flow has been real active the last couple of months and they suspect magma is migrating beneath the volcano.... however they could be incorrect according to this video published by Dr. Tiki.... (warning - may contain alcohol, off color language and immature subject matter)...



I stumbled on Tikibartv.com a couple weeks back and it's sort of a kick. It's a story of a group of thirty-somethings who hang out at a tiki bar and solve their troubles through alcoholic tiki beverages. It apparently started as a single episode joke by a scriptwriter who was poking fun at the fact he had a tiki bar in the corner of his living room. I saw an article yesterday which said it's become one of the most popular podcasts out there and it's now almost a full time job and has created interest in his other works he previously couldn't sell, along with other project offers.

By the way... diving's been excellent. We had two mantas at the manta dive last night.

Aloha,

Steve

PS: One other thing, just in case someone is taking the video or my post title serously.... Sorry, no otters here in Hawaii.