Always a fun time when we get to dive the historic Corsair wreck.  This plane had to do an emergency ditch in 1948 and still sits on the sea floor today.  For being down there over 65 years it sure has held up well.  The water was clear and warm as we made our decent.  You could see the plane from almost the moment you jumped in the water.  Lots of reef fish around, and the beautiful scorpion leaf fish that have taken up residents there.  The wing in the sand and the body listing a bit to the side.  It’s always amazing to think of how many missions this plane may have flown before finding it’s final resting spot here in Maunalua Bay.  A perfect setting for many to check off bucket list dives and for Nick to do is PADI Enriched Air course dives, giving him extra time.

Corsair

In search of turtles for the next dive, Fantasy Reef was our choice.  The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles or Honu as we know them in Hawaii were everywhere!  There are so many beautiful reef fish here, you add in eels,sharks,  turtles, and the various odd fish we get to see makes this dive one of our favorites.  The Honu were out in force today and had lots of interest in the divers.  The current for our drift dive was pretty light which made exploring more of the reef super easy.  Everyone really had a great time. This was the perfect dive for Peter to finish his PADI Drift Diving Specialty on.  Kelsey had hot minty towels for everyone to freshen up with after the dive.  It was really a Super Saturday!!

smiling white tip reef shark

Green Sea Turtle

coral

green sea turtle

hiding yellow margin moray

Green Sea Turtle and Divers

Dive Sites:  Corsair, max depth 107 feet, viz 100+, Wreck dive

Fantasy Reef, max depth 55, viz 100 feet, Drift Dive

Awesome Divers:  Bob, Dave, Eric, Sara, Tom, Kevin, Matt, Nicholas, Brian, Peter, Steven and Tim!

Congratulations Peter on your Drift Diving Spec and Nicholas on your PADI Enriched Air Spec.

Amazing Staff:  Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Matt and Fabulous Kelsey was crew!

Basking in the sun as we made our way to the historic Corsair plane wreck, all the divers were ready to go.  Making the decent to the wreck at 107 feet was fairly quick, everyone was excited to see the wreck.  We had visitors from other countries and made a few bucket lists a bit shorter today.  The wreck is still in amazing conditions in over 60 years on the sea floor.  She went down in 1948 and sat there ever since, Corsair is the only natural wreck on our island.  Today, Kristen was doing her PADI Enriched air class and there was really no better place to try it out.  We also had Thomas working on his PADI AOW certification.  My favorite little purple leaf scorpion fish was there and posed a bit for pictures.

Prop on Corsair

Fantasy reef always delivers for us on dives.  It was an awesome turtle-fest down there today and our divers really got to see them up close and personal.  Drifting west, we moved up and down over the reef.  Went through the swim thru.  Got to see more turtles and eels than you could count.  This reef is always so great because we take super good care of it.  Our divers today were no exception to that rule.  The practiced great buoyancy and had fun doing it.  All in all today was a perfect start to the weekend!  Congratulations to Kristen on completing her Nitrox and Drift Specialties.

Been seeing this turtle with odd tail a lot. 

Curious turtle extending his neck

Lazy Hono just hanging at his rock. 

Dive Sites:  Corsair, 107 max depth, 100+ viz, Wreck

Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, 75 ft viz, drift.

Awesome Divers:  James, Nicole, Hope, Jessica, Kristen, Matt, Michael, Mike, Thomas, Vanessa and Shawn.

Amazing Dive Staff:  Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary and Fantastic Kelsey as boat crew!

We had just a small group of divers today but it was perfect!  Justin was doing his PADI Enriched Air class so we got to do an extra long dive on the LCU.  With a slight bit of surface current we got to the upside down LCU and it was perfect.  Schooling barracuda, octopus and such a huge array of reef fish.  We took our time looking around exploring out in the Z blocks and then back on the wreck.  The wreck was so peaceful, it was a dream dive.

Hiding Octopus….we see you!!

growth on the wreck

We made our next drop on Hawaii Loa.  This is a hidden little reef and when I say little I mean nice sized shallower reef!  Since our group was small we opted to go to a lesser visited site and take our time.  It was down right amazing.  We spotted three different baby turtles!!  They were the size of basketballs and if you know anything about our Hawaiian Green sea turtles you know how big they get.  These little guys were pretty interested in us and swam around the group quite a bit.  We also found another octopus that did some great free swimming right around us.  Also we got to see a pari of elusive Saddled Butterfly fish which was super exciting.  We got to do just a couple minutes short of an hour dive which made everyone very happy.  This was a super day for diving.

Baby turtle swimming with James

Baby Turtle

baby Hawaiian Green sea Turtle

Saddled Butterfly fish

free swimming octopus

Dive Sites:  LCU, max depth 95 feet, viz 80 feet, Wreck

Hawaii Loa, max depth 35 feet, viz 80 feet, reef dive.

Amazing Divers:  Tracy, James and New PADI Enriched Air Diver Justin!

Dive Crew:  Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary, Dive Dog Saffron!