Hawaii
Author: Deborah Bass

We just returned from a glorious 10-day vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii! Some friends met us in Hawaii, and we were a group of 5 divers and one snorkeler. We are relatively new divers and wanted a dive master to show us the cool stuff, plus to rent some of the gear from as well. We had the most AWSOME time with Aloha Dive Company (diveadc@kona.net http://www.alohadive.com)!!! This operation was exactly what we were looking for! Mike and Earl went out on the boat with us, while Mike's wife, Buffy, makes deeelicious cookies for the in-between-dive times!

Aloha Divers takes up to 6 divers at a time, in a spankin' clean and efficient boat. There is a spot to safely stow the wetsuits, the tanks and the other gear all out of sight during "transport". They will take care of putting your gear together (if you want) before the dive and will even "sink the stink" your stuff at the end of the day! An easy and relaxed couple of guys are Mike and Earl. We enjoyed talking and joking with them enormously--very personable and friendly. But the thing we went back for were Buffy's cookies!! Oh wow. Peanut butter, chocolate chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin to die for. Forget the dive, bring on Buffy's cookies!!

Aloha Divers was intent on making sure we were all comfortable with the equipment we rented from them (some O'Neill wetsuits, ScubaPro BCs, and Aladdin Pro computers). Further, they took us to different types of dive sites every day to get a different set of underwater flora and fauna, and Mike made sure to let us know what we should be looking for at each site, showing pictures from books as needed.

Admittedly, we were a group that needed a fair amount of "hand holding", and that's what we got. However, from stories Mike told, he is flexible enough to accommodate even the most technical divers with ease. I can't say enough good things about this operation. Going with them really made our trip.

We did a total of 5 dives, one at night. The visability the whole time was terrific--40-50 feet or more. We met down by the small boat pier (can't recall the name) and were assaulted by the wonderful odor of fish guts from the fisherman who'd hauled their catches in the previous night... but it was all part of the experience. That morning, we went to Turtle Pinnacle and saw, yup 4 turtles... Two were just hanging out on the bottom , while 2 cruised by. Mike located 3 octopi for us, and we kind of played w/ 'em for a bit. One latched on to my mask, and I was a bit nervous that I'd hurt the little guy detaching him from my face, but some slow but steady yanking dislodged him. I passed him off shortly thereafter. Other cool sightings included a zebra eel and a lizard fish.

The second dive of the day was at location right off the harbor, but I didn't get the name of the site. I thought this was going to be a "typical" Hawaiian dive w/ lots of moorish idol and butterfly fish. But this dive we saw a jellyfish and I saw my first nudibranchs!! I was thrilled, since I'd read about these guys but hadn't spotted any yet. One was a divided nudibranch—white and black with yellow/orange knobs. The other wasn't actually a nudibranch but rather a spanish dancer egg casing. The sighting of this gorgeous nudibranch would come later. My buddy starts pointing and then scoops up something tiny in his hand. He pushed towards me the most beautiful flatworm. Don't know the name, but it was yellow and fluorescent purple with black spots. How lovely! We watched it swim around for a bit, keeping it "airborne", and then put it down. Then along cruises a peacock flounder! It just kept getting better!! I was so excited to have seen so many neat things, I figured I ought to quit while I was ahead. At which point I decided to surface and get, you guessed it, one of those cookies! :)

The next day, we'd opted for a single night dive. We were hoping for manta rays, but Mike told us that the usual spots for mantas are overwhelmed by divers these days, and if we were to go there, all we'd find was a bunch of other divers, waiting around for the mantas. So we opted for a different location--where we prob. wouldn't see mantas, but other cool stuff. This dive turned out to be the highlight (no pun intended) of our diving adventures! We're down there for a bit, kind of getting used to things and moving around, when I see Mike take his light and smack the top of some poor fish's head a couple times. Turns out it is a porcupine fish, which puffs up with spines out accordingly! We are all kind of gathered around the porky for a bit, but it starts darting towards some of us, and we decide that it is time to sound a retreat. So we cruise along for awhile. Lots of soldier fish, parrot fish and squirrel fish... and then there, moving slowly along a reef edge, is a spanish dancer nudibranch!!! I reached down and picked it up carefully, and then released it to watch it move its "skirt" in that in and out movement that made its name. Beautiful red and white edges... I pushed a current of water towards it to keep it aloft a bit longer. My buddy and I had a great time watching this nudi. We also saw a lobster with this big horseshoe like covering... I don't recall the name and its not in my books. Lobster were easy to spot at night, actually, because of their reflective eyes. I was surprised at how many I was able to locate.

A few days later, we went on a dive at a totally different locale. Much deeper (100 ft) and a sandbar off the Kona Airport. The visibility was excellent, and Mike was hoping that we'd see a ray or perhaps some dolphins, as both frequent the area. We saw evidence for the rays--apparently they make these depressions in the sand and eat a bunch of sea cucumbers and other softbodied creatures, leaving what shells and so forth behind in the depression. No rays, nor dophins, however. Two gigantic 5 ft tuna cruised by though. Amazing! With such great visibility, it was possible to see this looong expanse of sand, with these canes sticking out of the sand! Those were the garden eels, and indeed, they

really did look like someone had planted them! Very cool. We also saw some bicolor anthias and some long antennaed shrimp.

Our last dive involved going through some caverns--nothing a light was needed for, but great for the neophytes! They were skull cave and funnel cave although I don't know what the site was named exactly. This was a pretty ho-hum dive in terms of "wildlife"...we were enjoying a change of scenery. One problem is that hurricane iiki (sp??) did a number on the area, so the coral was mostly rubble. Of course we saw the usual morays there as a result... One octopus... But the caves were great fun.

Last edited on June 29, 2002