Monk Seal Monday! 5/23 AM

We had a light day on the Sea Fox this morning but it was perfect.  Sun was shining, tradewinds were light and we had divers that were ready to dive.  Everyone was eager to go diving today and all arrived early.  We got off the dock early and headed to LCU.  LCU is a landing craft utility vehicle that was sunk as an artificial reef.  When they sunk it, it got flipped over and that is where it lays in the water today.  We were met there by a pretty strong current but all the divers were experienced and up for the dive.  It was beautiful there, lots of fish on the wreck today and everyone was especially happy with the schooling eagle rays that were on the wreck.  We got to spend lots of time with us there and that is the one bonus of a close to full moon current.  When we returned to the boat we all had some hot tea and recounted our sightings at the wreck.  We had some good music on the boat and everyones mood was excited for our next dive.

Our next dive was on the wall.  We started our dive at Fish Garden area because the current was still pretty strong.  This was a very good choice today.  We floated along enjoying all the interesting topography and sea life.  As we drifted along we took our time poking our heads into all the caves along the way…drifting right into the spitting caves dive sight.  At one point we looked up and there was a Hawaiian Monk Seal watching us from above.  He was rather interested in our dive group and come down to check us out.  Swimming in and around us, really giving us quite a thrill.  We watched the seal for a time then continued on our dive.  Turning around to do a head count and air check, which we do quite often I was surprised to see we had a new member in our group.  The Monk Seal had joined our dive!!!  He stayed with us to everyones delight for a bit then went on his way.  Also making an appearance on the dive was a huge scorpian devil fish and our favorite big yellow frog fish.  We had such an excellent dive today and everyone was so happy.

Dive sites:  LCU, max depth 90 feet, viz 100 feet, wreck.  Fish Garden/Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, viz 80 feet, drift

Awesome Divers:  William, Lesley, Tim, Tatsuya, Justin and DMC Ben! (Ben gets the photo credit for monk seal shots)

Amazing Crew:  Captain Kendal, Dive Instructor Mary, Crew Marisa

Thank you everyone for an Amazing day!!