Surprisingly, some of the crew has been getting up consistently earlier than we have. And not taking post lunch naps! Hmm. We were presented with bananas foster french toast, ham steak and eggs to order for breakfast - along with the typical continental style early morning buffet. I was drinking as much warm beverage as I possible could this morning, but just not coffee. I think I am getting less and less tolerant of it as I get older.
Playing beat the weather today, and heading south down the Kona Coast.
First dive of the day was Ampitheater. Super large yellow tang under a ledge. We went into the amphitheater area, swam around a while. Karl came back to us later in the dive and took us through the L-shaped lava tube, a little enclosed for my liking, but I made it through. You would think after 20 years I would have this one down. Still feeling a little overweighted with 6 pounds, maybe the 7 mil is compressing somewhat.
Dive 2 was also at Amphitheater. Went to the other lava tube, much larger. Karl was trying to convince Wayne to do a crawl through space, which I vetoed. We saw a hawksbill turtle - juvenile - at the end of the dive, a camera hog. Whale song and dolphin chatter throughout the dive. Then we started heading down the coastline. As we were approaching Kealakekua Bay and headed towards Honaunau, we were treated to a little bit of tail action - humpback whales! I absolutely adore those critters. It took a significant amount of convincing to get me off the upper deck and into the salon to eat my lunch. Once again, a feast fit for a king and queen. Mexican fusion salad, chicken tortilla soup, beef and bean tortillas, Mexican rice, refried beans, jalapeno poppers, and nachos. And water. Lots of lots of water. I can’t emphasize how important it is to remain hydrated while on one of these trips.
Today’s saying was by another unknown author - Laugh as much as you breathe and love as much as you live. I think it applies! Especially when you consider that today I did my 100th dive off the Kona coast. Finally! But I’ll still never catch up to Wayne.
One small problem with our menu today - Chef Matthew forgot to include what the meat would be for our dinner. Literally, we were only having salad, burssel sports, rice, and chocolate cake. Where’s my meat? Augh!!! Luckily he hand wrote in the main course.
Dive 3 was at Lion’s Den, famous for lionfish. Cold dive exploring with Mindy. Saw a devil scorpionfish, 3 leaf scorpionfish, and 2 tiger cowry. Still whale song. No lion fish here, though. :/ Maybe some other time.
I haven’t been logging our snacks, and I probably should. The order of the day is breakfast, dive, snack, dive, lunch, nap, dive, snack, dive, dinner, dive, and then wine. But there’s just too much to process in a day - between a blog and the dive log, it gets a little crazy. Maybe next time we dive off of the Aggressor I will log the snacks too. Or maybe not.
Dive 4 was somewhere new - The Hive. First time ever on this site,the boat is triple moored, making it very stable as a dive platform. Lots of bommies. My hooded vest is farting quite a bit on this trip. Saw a long nose dark form, Hawaiian lion fish, and a green sea turtle who also loved the camera. This dive marked my 100th on the big island.
Once I knew what the main course was, I was much more excited by dinner. We started with a greens salad, strawberries on top, with a champagne vinaigrette. There were sauteed brussel sprouts (kept true to my promise to my husband and ate one), seasoned wild rice, and honey dijon garlic herb and butter panko encrusted lamb chop! SCORE!!!! Matthew won big points with me for his dinner efforts tonight. He finished up with his decadent chocolate cake. He literally called it decadent chocolate cake. And Wayne had more than one piece. :)
Our night dive kept us at the Hive. Found the red hawaiian lion fish again, this time more active; also a decoy scorpionfish, a white mouth moray, and saw a conger eel eating a soldierfish. Cold, went up at 45 minutes. I am supporting my decision that on this trip that if I’m too cold and not having any fun, I am done!
