Hawaii & Maui

Author: Bart

Just received gear- I shipped it home with log books. Been back a week and work waited for me and I'm still digging out. Dove both BI and Maui but I'll make 2 separate reports. We spent 6 days and dove 3 days with Jack's Diving Locker. GREAT EXPERIENCE. Very well organized. Dove the following. Lava Tubes, Eel Cove, Kaiwi Pt., Kona Surf Hotel(Manta Ray Night Dive), Kaloko Arches, Kaiwi Pt. Arches.

Water temp a little cool 72-76. Glad I had sweatshirt after the night dive.   Depths 50-70 ft. Times 40-58 minutes.  The surge was real strong therefore minimum swim throughs . We tried a couple but some got banged around NO FUN. Saw sharks on about 1/2 the dives but it was the little creatures they find that are exciting- Conget Eel, Dragon Eel, Tital Scorpionfish, Nudibranchs, MANTAS, Turtles and a pod of whales that swam along with the boat during the surface interval. We were cruising south real slow and a large humpback came up about 25' from the boat and scared the $#@% out of all.

The highlight was the Manta Ray dive. As we got to the bottom, noticed 2 morays apparently fighting or rough play or sadistic foreplay. Both they were snapping at each other pretty good. Well all of a sudden, a little Brown Tang comes along and a Moray has dinner and the fight is over. We formed a group and the lights attracted a couple of huge Mantas and the dance began. I dove Stingray City and the Manta dive is much better. They are attracted to the plankton which gather in the light beams. The Mantas are conditioned to the lights as a food source and they continue to barrel role right in front of you. I don't often go for videos but I bought this one. I highly recommend JDL.

Did the regular restaurant tour- Roy's, Cafe Pesto(thanks lydia), Donatoni's and found a real gem- La Bourgoyne. It's a small restaurant on route 11 above Kona. The best meal we had.

After 6 days on BI we packed up and moved to Maui. STayed at the Marriott on Kaanapali. We have stayed there 7 out of 8 trips to Maui. Marriott is planning to convert 70% of the hotel to Marriott Vacation Ownership(Timeshare with a different name). They will be dumping a lot of $ into it so if you get one of the remaining rooms it should be nice. The rooms were nice as usual but the public areas are a little tired. Did 4 days of dives - 3 with Extended Horizons and 1 with Mike Severns. Both operations were 1st class but I give a slight edge to Eric and Extended Horizons. Did 2 days at Lanai and 1 day at Molokai. The 1st day we got caught on the way back to Maui in 10-12 ft. seas and just about all were sick. It took 1.75 hours to cross back over to Maui. It's only 6 miles. Not a pleasant ride. Fortunatley I was not sick but I was glad to get back on terre firma. The EH dive master was Susie and she sure knew where all the neat critters hide out. We saw white tip sharks on every dive at Lanai. She would head into a cave and bring them out to meet the mainlanders. Also saw- Slipper Lobster, Ghost Shrimp, Hawaiian Lobster, at Lanai.

EH is one of the few operators that does go to Molokai when conditions permit(flat seas). They only do the trip about 10 days a year and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe it was a reward for the earlier trip home from Lanai.

There arn't any bouys at Molokai so the 1st dive was a drift at Fish Rain (there are so many fish it looks like its raining fish, at times they almost block out the sun.) The other site was an anchor dive at Fish Bowl. 4 Eagle Rays cruised by, found an old bombshell - probably practice and no warhead. Ssie found a cave and approached and a white tip came out real quick. She saw more sharks and tried to chase them out but they were not friendly and didn't want to meet the mainlanders. They started to get worked up so Susie backed out and then we noted the 1 that left early was swimming around behind us waiting to go home. It didn't approach us and we watched him return home as we swam off.

I wanted to do the back wall of Molokini and south Maui, so 1 day, I went out with Mike Severns (MS). Like EH , MS DMs go real slow and find the rare stuff. Saw Frogfish, huge Barracuda, Flame Angels, lots of nudibranchs, turtles, octopus and Harlequin Shrimp.

Both are 1st rate, it's just my preference for Lanai diving.

Roy's is as good as eve, a new place for us was the Plantation House at Kapalua, The Hailemaile General Store is the best on Maui IMHO. Sam Choy has 2 restaurants on Maui now and they are good. Had 1 bad meal- A Pacific Cafe.

SPECIAL THANKS TO Doc and lydia for your posts and personal responses. Aloha 

Aloha, Bart