June 2014 - Page 5 of 5 - Island Divers Hawaii

Going with the Flow 6/7

June 7, 2014/in Uncategorized/by Mark Savel

It was another great morning to be out on the water on the southeast side of Oahu today even with some stronger trade winds. It was a bit choppy as we headed for the LCU for the first dive of the day. As we dropped in the currents were really strong so we decided to try and drift the barges. We stayed for a little bit on the LCU but didn’t see any larger animals about so we drifted off the wreck. With the angle of the current we were taken off course a bit and missed the other wrecks. We did cruise over a few of the cement block piles out in the bay with damselfish and butterfly fish all round them. Eventually it was time to surface and head for the next dive.

With the wind and the chop this morning we decided to do a shallow, relaxing second dive in at Turtle Canyons. There were turtles everywhere today on the reef. A few were out swimming about or swam off as we dove around but most just stayed relaxing on the bottom. There were also reef fish everywhere and a lot of eels hiding in the reef. Just another wonderful day diving on Oahu.

Easy Rider

June 6, 2014/in Uncategorized/by Mark Savel

We had a real mellow day today with David and Nori on the boat. There was a bit of wind and surface chop but nice conditions underwater. We headed off for the Corsair and had little current as we got down the line. There were fish all around the plane with butterfly fish and wrasses all about. There were also all the garden eels all about the wreck and under the engine was a large yellow margin morey. We soon had to head up and motor to the next dive.

For the second dive we decided on Keanu Reef and had great viz with a mild current on the bottom. Swimming around the reef we found a lot of eels hiding out under the rocks and ledges including a few yellow margin and undulated moreys. There were reef fish everywhere with soldierfish and damselfish hiding in the large antler coral heads and butterfly fish swimming about. All in all it was a nice morning.

Sunny Days

June 5, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Davy Eleen Vercoe

Summer is gearing up and I love it. Warm days out scuba diving on Oahu feel good. Plus, finding baby frog fish, and ever hunting for The Elusive Pipefish was a treat today. Even “stomping grapes” or what divers like to call grape suits for post dive clean up wasn’t so bad. I had Miss Marnie kindly helping out today which was an added bonus. Thanks for the photo inspiration Katrina, Mike, David, and Anne on my last photo session with my current camera housing as it started a slow painful leak today. Hello new Housing.

Congrats to Katrina for completing her Advanced Open Water Course!

Weather Conditions: Sunny, and breezy with a slight chance of showers
Dive Sites: Baby Barge & Fantasy
Dive Conditions: Little bumping on the surface, South current, Viz. dropping, temp 81F
Dive Apparel: Hooded Lava Core Vest, LS Rashy, Thermo shorts by Fourth Element, Aqua Purge boots
Marine Life Observed: Baby Frog fish, Nudibranchs, BIG turtles too

Safe Diving,

Davy

Katrina

Mike

June 5 Group Shot

DON’T FORGET YOUR HAT ! 3 June

June 3, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

what a great day today!! bright and sunny, with great viz in the big blue. Lord Admiral Kendal sailed us out to Koko’s, home of the giant turtles and fat statues. twin brothers ben and noah were joined by older brother ward for dives 1 and 2 of the Open Water course. great buoyancy and skills, congrats guys! also out working on her Advanced was Bostonian Kristina, who was also an ocean first-timer, having been certified in a cold Ohio quarry! super job by her and the boys, as we cruised the silent world spotting turtles, reef fish, an octopus, and a variety of large eels! good job all, thanks, larry.

KOKO Craters 38 feet 40 minutes

TURTLE Canyons 35 feet 44 minutes

6/3 Driftin, Driftin, Driftin

June 3, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Tuesday – The Fox went out and by request we did spitting caves. The tide was high and the water was moving easterly so we drifted toward sea cave, seeing a huge eagle ray and the biggest scorpion fish I’ve ever laid eyes on. From there we just jumped back in and continued what we started, into Sea Cave and on towards Baboon nose. We almost made it from Port Locke to Hanauma Bay. That’s a lot of swimming. Nice work guys.

Mike Hovering a Turtle

Exit to Sea Cave

FIsher’s Star

Crew: Instructor Kellan, Captain Kendall, Crew Parker

Conditions: 76*F water temp; 82*F air temp; slight surge; slight current

Dive Profile: Spitting caves max depth 50, 50 minutes; Sea Cave max 70ft, 50 minutes

Spotted: Monk Seal at Spitting Caves

June 2, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

We had a great group of certified divers for our afternoon dives. All 8 of the divers were excited to get into the water and see what the afternoon sunshine would bring us under the waves.

Gearing Up

At our first dive site, Angler’s Reef, divers got to brush up on their skills, since some of them had been out of the water for a while. We got to explore some really cool reef that was full of eels and urchins.

White mouthed eel

Throughout the dive, each one of the divers got to see some cool marine life and explore one of the shallower reefs in the Maunalua Bay area.

Tune up on diving

Just before we surfaced, we spotted a huge moray eel which was a great way to end our first dive!

A huge moray

During our surface interval, we enjoying some of the warm afternoon sun in the bay and decided that our next dive would be a drift along spitting caves. This was the first time for many of our divers to this particular site.

Surface interval

At Spitting Caves, we experienced a bit of surge on the surface, but it wasn’t anything that our divers couldn’t handle. After our negative buoyancy entry, divers got to see some awesome marine life along the wall.

Green Sea Turtle

Spitting Caves

We were even lucky enough to spot a monk seal! Its the beginning of the monk seal season here in Oahu and we were lucky enough to see one towards the end of our dive.

Loving the vis!

Exploring

After about 40 minutes, we surfaced and made our way back to the boat. All of the divers were pumped up about the great diving and were glad that they chose to come out on the Sea Fox for a great afternoon of Hawaii diving!

Boarding the Sea Fox

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Crew: Marnie (Instructor), Max (Crew), Joe (Captain)

Conditions: Slight surge

Dive Profile: Angler’s Reef max depth 43ft, 76*F water temp, 36 minutes; Spitting Caves max depth 55ft, 76*F water temp, 40 minutes

A Gnarly Night Dive

June 2, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

We couldn’t have asked for better conditions for our night dive! With such a small group, we had the ability to dive any site that we wanted. After discussing our options, we had decided that our twilight dive would begin with a deep dive to check out the Corsair.

Ready to jump in!

After we figured out our dive plan, we began to gear up and prepare to hop in the water just before the sun set. The conditions at the Corsair were fantastic and there was barely any current. It allowed us all to enjoy what ended up being a 17 minute dive at 103ft.

Corsair teeming with marine life.

The sun was setting just as we surfaced and we got to enjoy the last bits of sunlight during our surface interval.

Enjoying the sunset.

After the sun finally went down, we had finally decided that our night dive would be a shallower dive to Angler’s Reef. This site is known to be fantastic at night and crawling with all different kinds of marine life. It was a great place for us to enjoy some of the creatures that come out after the sun goes down.

The reef was covered in urchins!

Some of the more common sea creatures were out, like this urchin, but the reef was covered in them! We had to make sure that we had great buoyancy to avoid some of the more dangerous nightlife.

Brittle stars come out at night!

Some of the more elusive sea creatures were covering the reef as well, like this brittle sea star, but were shy when we put our torches in their direction.

Spanish Dancers

My favorite, the Spanish dancer nudibranch, was even spotted! This is the world’s largest nudibranch and is spotted in the evenings. they can grow to up to a foot long! As we surfaced, we were able to turn off our torches and experience some of the bioluminescence in the water. It was a really great way to end a fantastic night dive.

A great group of night divers!

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Crew: Instructor Marnie, Captain Joe, Crew Max

Conditions: 76*F water temp; 82*F air temp; slight surge

Dive Profile: Corsair max depth 103ft, 17 minutes; Angler’s Reef max 43ft, 40 minutes

June 2nd Morning dive!

June 2, 2014/in Dive Reports/by David Pinilla

Awesome day,weather and dive!!! We went out to LCU for our first dive of the morning, having beautiful clear skies, flat seas and sunshine we venture west to the wreck dive. Once at LCU we descended into 85ft to find the LCU laying on its deck, swimming around we found the amazing frog fish, two spotted moray ells, a couple of purple dragon nudibranchs and a beautiful juvenile Dragon Wrasse; Around the cement blocks a big school of yellow tail snappers and lots of surgeon fish!

After a nice and relax surface interval we cruise to the Fantasy reef for our drift dive, we plunge into it and right there two male turtles surprise us by swimming right underneath us, Awesome! At fantasy we drift East with the current to find five more turtles, a big Puffer fish a nice little Blenny and the big school ,of Sargent mayors and Damsel fish.

Good Water conditions, moderate current, clear skies, 5 Knot wind.

Thank you Captain Joe, crew Maxine and leader David

http://youtu.be/eaE1I_dIsXA

Current State of the Currents 6/1

June 1, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

It was a wonderful Sunday for the three tanker today. We had great weather and and awesome group of people as we headed out to the LCU for the first dive. There was some current as we got down the line but viz was wonderful. We had a frogfish right away on the bottom under the mooring and a large school of goatfish swimming about. Cruising around the wreck we found butterfly fish and moorish idols but sadly no white tip reef sharks today.

For the second dive we motored around Diamond Head and dove the YO-257. It was spectacular down there with over 100 ft visibility but there was again some moderate current. The fish were everywhere with pennant butterflyfish and blue stripped snapper swimming about as well as a spotted eagle ray just off the wreck in to blue water. We also found a couple turtles resting on the bottom near the bow of the wreck. It was a fun dive with the Atlantis sub cruising around and great marine life.

For the final dive we decided on a shallow reef dive as the winds had picked up and bit and the surface was getting a little choppier. We tied up at Turtle Canyons for the last dive and had a nice relaxing final dive. We found a lot of eels about the area as well as a couple more turtles. It was a nice mellow way to end the dive day.

SPITTING CAVE IN THE AFTERNOON? 31 May

June 1, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

A beautiful day, with blue skies and blue waters surrounding us as we motored out to Pa’ava with 4 students and 5 certified divers. Pete K was doing Navigation and Buoyancy dives with al, brian, and paul, as well as OW 1/2 with constance. i had some experienced certs today, unusual for the afternoon charter! Johannes and Lisa from Austria and Australia, plus matt and dad mike, who dive in the St Lawerence River! cold !! plus local big wave surfer Carrie, who likes to get under the ocean surface once in a while. all the students were excellent, so we were able to get over to the wall to drift Spitting caves, and it was just perfect. blue, blue water, mild current, plus turtles, eels, sharks, and octopus visited us along the wall. thanks to all for great diving, Larry, Flora, cap’n Joe, and Kelsea the Great.

Pa’ava 35 feet for 44 minutes

Spitting Cave – 50 feet for 54 minutes