Archive for year: 2015

…When you see this view from the boat!

That’s the view from Palea Point, outside of Hanama Bay! Today’s weather was fantastic, as usual. The winds were negligible and the swell was nonexistent allowing for a trip to the Eastern side of Oahu. This morning we were joined by a mixed bag of certified divers and divemaster/instructor candidates from Hawaii Scuba University. Today’s diving agenda consisted of two drift dives at Skimmon’s Reef and Palea Point.

 

Skimmon’s Reef (drift)
70ft – 36min

On top of the fantastic weather the current was dead and the visibility was a stellar 100 feet. Skimmons, teeming with pristine coral and reef life, was a sight for sore eyes ( I hadn’t seen the site in a while). Some of the highlights: a giant green moray, a massive octopus, and a huge school of pennant butterflyfish.

Palea Point (drift)
56ft – 44min

Conditions continued to stay pristine with visibility increasing to over 100ft. The current picked up lightly, but everything continued to remain chill. An often missed dive site, Palea Point yielded bigger schools of fish than Skimmons. Large schools of hawaiian sergeant fish, teardrop butterfly fish, and bluefin trevally littered the dive site. Also spotted were numerous dragon nudibranchs and a massive crown of thorns starfish. You could also hear the song of nearby humpback whales.

A special SHOUT OUT goes to the crew! Many thanks to Capt. Joe and Imran for making today’s adventure easy.

Today was the day to learn how to dive! We had six students on the boat this afternoon all working towards their open water diver certification. There was also a pair of certified divers who came out. It was an amazing day out on the water, the sun was shinning and the water was flat. All of the students did amazing learning about open water scuba diving. The first site we went to today was called Koko Craters. We dropped down to 35 feet and went for a tour to find some fish! We found quite a few turtles hanging out around the dive site today. After a 31 minute dive our students completed all their skills and swam with some turtles so we headed back onto the boat.

We switched over to new tanks and headed over to Turtle Canyons for our second dive. Here we found some moray eels, lots of butterfly fish, trigger fish, and a blue dragon nudibranch! Our bottom time was 30 minutes and our maximum depth was 40 feet at turtle canyons. After two awesome dives we soaked up some rays and headed back to the shop. The students learned lots today and had fun doing it! Dive on!

Crew: Captain Neal, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Mary, Instructor Mark

Conditions: Water temp 73, visibility 50+ feet

Have you ever seen that YouTube video? It’s quite possibly the most hilarious 18 second video ever. At Island divers, we love turtles just as much as that zombie kid in the video and we saw plenty of them in the water today. This morning’s weather was a prelude for the rest of the day: Partly cloudy skies, moderate winds from the East Northeast, and a small southern swell. Another awesome day in paradise. The dive sites on today’s 3-tanker: Kahala Barge, The Sea Tiger, and Spitting Caves.

KAHALA BARGE
92ft – 30min

The visibility was an amazing 90 ft, but the current was absolutely ripping. Pulling themselves down the line, some divers penetrated the wreck while others enjoyed the company of a solo white tip reef shark. Along the top was a large school of moorish idols that hovered over the wreck and along with a whole bundle of different nudibranchs.

 

The Sea Tiger
102ft – 30min

Deep blue waters ushered in 100+ ft visibility and the current died down for the second deep dive of the day. The massive turtles showed up at the end of the dive, but that didn’t stop the former smuggling vessel from mystifying divers. A massive eel along with a lone puffer and a couple nudis littered the deck while a large school of snapper gathered off deck. I like turtles.

Spitting Caves (drift)
45ft – 43min

With a prevailing flood current and 80 ft visibility, spitting cave was everyone’s favorite dive because of, you guessed, the turtles! We were seeing turtles all over the place! They were taking naps in caves, posing on the ground, and soaring around the group. A crown of thorns starfish, cuddling lizard fish, and tons of reef life filled the gaps in between turtle sightings.

 

A special turtle ‘THANK YOU’ goes out to the crew of the Sea Fox. Much turtley love to Captain Joe, the lovely Lauren, and S’moores.

For the curious, here is the turtle video I speak of. You will not be disappointed.

at least according to Mick Jagger!  BUT, if you ever what to see GIANT Hawaii green sea turtles, you can always get what you want,  especially if you dive Fantasy Reef, one of our favorite dive sites, only 25 minutes from our dock behind the shop!  Fantasy reef has two main plateaus, covered with hard corals, riddled with small caves and underhangs, with a couple of swim throughs, all created by the hot lava meeting the cool Hawaiin waters.  it has spectacular topography, and is packed with marine life – tons of reef fish, big eels, barracuda, octopus, eagle rays, sharks, frog fish, rock scorpions, whew, it’s got it all.  we drifted it, using the mild current to zig-zag back and forth over this spectacular creation.  spectacular dive!  Our first dive was the world famous Corsair, with more pilots out diving with us today, that is where they wanted to go!  the current was strong, but the line setup on the Fox makes it easy to get to the wreck without wasting any air!  schools of reef fish surrounded the wreck, no moray in the engine today, but we did see the crocodile snake eel peeking out of the sand near the wing.  at 107 feet it has a short bottom time, but it is just a beautiful wreck to see. thanks to all for safe diving, larry and joe

corsair 107 ft    25 min

fantasy reef  52 ft    50 min