Chelsea McLaughlin

Mother’s Day Three Tanker!

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We had a great group on divers this Sunday as we headed out to Maunalua Bay for some great dives. Cassandra was starting her Wreck specialty and Cole was completing his Nitrox course. There was a south swell rolling in, making for some choppy seas. Stop number one was the LCU (max depth 91ft). Underwater, there was a moderate current, but the visibility was quite nice. We circled the wreck and saw some eagle rays and an eel curled up on the top of the wreck. Larry even found a few amazing nudibranchs!

For dive number two we headed over to the YO-257 (my favorite wreck!) and the San Pedro (max depth 95ft). There was still a moderate current and the visibility was around eighty feet. We saw an eagle ray facing into the current hanging out and a few turtles cruised by. There were schools of butterfly fish and damselfish roaming the wreck as well.

Our final dive was a drift at Fantasy Reef(max depth 50ft). The surge took us all around the reef. We saw more turtles than we could count, a few small eels and Larry found an octopus! The turtles were acting like they were part of our group as we cruised the reef. We even found a few white-tip reef sharks hiding in a cave! It was a fantastic day!

Awesome divers: Cassandra, Thea, Cole, Anthony, Brian, Kraig, Camille, Darrell, James, Renee and Bruce!

Amazing staff: Capt. Joe, Instructors Chelsea, Larry, and Matt! 🙂

Mary Christensen

Double Drift with Sharks and Turtles! 5/7 AM

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It was a little rainy and grey out this morning but those always make for some of the best dive days! There was a mildly strong current this morning so our group of experienced divers opted for the double drift dive.  The shark cave is were we started our dive.  Greeted by turtles right at the decent was a great experience for all. I heard the squeals of delight as our graceful Honu glided our way.  They seemed to be very interested in the divers today which always makes for a nice interaction.  Slowly drifting along we made our way to the baby barge, where we were greeted by even more turtles.  The barge had loads of reef fish out and the eels were tucking in and around the reef.  After exploring the reef a bit we went on and exploration dive.  Gliding down the reef, inspecting all the nooks and crannies was fun.  We even found a very pregnant white tip reef shark.  Equally excited sounds and looks from our divers.  We drifted on with the current and made our way to the “tire reef”.  This isn’t somewhere we go often so it’s pretty interesting to see.

One of our favorite drifts is Fantasy reef.  Pretty sure we call it that because of all the amazing things you see there.  There must have been more than 20 turtles on this dive much to the delight of everyone.  We also got to see the baby reef sharks.  They are only about 2 feet long and hide in a couple of spots.  This dive instructor is pretty happy she knows those spots to share the beauty of our little guys with everyone.  Couple of eels did a quick swim by us and we also got to see one of the biggest dang Morays I have seen around under one of the ledges.  Dylan and Conrad dove Nitrox today extending there bottom time of the dives.  Congratulations to Dylan, who completed his PADI Enriched Air Specialty today.  He did a great job and was and excellent student.  Yumiko loved getting back into diving so much she signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water class and can’t wait to start!!  We had hot towels after the dive to freshen up with made by Kelsey.  What a great day at Sea and Under.

What a beautiful relaxing day we had with the slight drizzle of a grey day.  Hawaii even makes the rainy days amazing.

Amazing divers:  Juliet, John, Dylan, Conrad, Chad, Catherine, Renee, Bruce, Yumiko, Tom, Mike and James.

Dive Sites:  Baby Barge Drift 85 ft max depth, drift.  Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, drift.

Fantastic Crew:  Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Kevin, Boat Crew Kelsey!

Larry Hogan

HAWAIIAN MONK SEALS LOVE SPITTING CAVE !!

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well, as you can probably guess, we also love the dive site we call Spitting Cave!  there is a cave at sea level, and when the waves are hitting it hard, it spits that wave right back out!  and why do we love it?  because the is so much marine life there, as well as splendid visuals of walls and caves and canyons.  within all these caves, we often find sharks, turtles, and sometimes, monk seals.  all  wonderful to see, but there is certainly something special about an underwater meeting with these rare mammals, the hawaiian monk seal.  they have a level of awareness that is striking, as they will move closer, cock their necks, and calmly gaze into your eyes.  quite a fascinating experience!  perfect current for a drift, with nice viz, and tons of other marine life!  first dive was LCU, where we saw an eagle ray, turtles, octopus, as well as a cool wreck!  thanks to all for safe diving!  larry, joe

LCU  92 ft.   40 min   120 viz

Spitting Cave  50 ft.   50 min  150 viz

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