Beating the swell

“If you can’t be batman, always be batman.”  No one said the quote of the day would make any sense.

Wayne was thrilled with his breakfast this morning - a Greek omelet.  I had a plain cheese omelet, sausage and hash browns.  Good, hearty fare to prepare us for freezing during our morning dive.

Our first dive of the morning took us to perhaps my new favorite dive site off the Kona Coast.  Hard to believe that any site would beat Honaunau, but this certainly did.  Discovered in June, Pele’s Playground has only been logged 25 times by the crew. On our first dive, we descended into the canyon to about 80 feet in search of a Tinker’s butterflyfish and a big hand lobster. While both are theoretically there, we saw neither. We did see a number of other good things, to include wire coral shrimp and a HUGE titan scorpionfish, you will see it below. Like I said, it was a beautiful reef. If I were a Hawaiian fish, I would live here.

We remained at Pele’s Playground for our second dive.  We decided to try to find the tinker’s butterflyfish at the start of our next dive. This time we went down to 100 feet and worked our way up. No dice, no tinker’s. We did see the big hand lobster, though. And I got a beautiful shot of a white mouth moray with Wayne in the background. It was as though we were having a private conversation We also saw a baby green sea turtle, so adorable. With all that awesomeness, it was hard to go wrong on the second dive either. Again, this was a vibrant reef that I would like to dive again.

Lunch was a welcome treat - cream of tomato soup, roast chicken legs, baked macaroni and cheese (no, not for Wayne!), bean salad (no, not for Stephanie!), and a Mediterranean salad.  We just eat so well on the Aggressor, it is unbelievable.  But divers do travel on their stomaches, so you’d better prep us some really good food!

And then we went to our southernmost point of the trip.  Manuka Bay.  I had fond memories of this site from our first trip.  First Officer, Captain Karl, pulled me to the side to tell me how to get to a patch of sand, and a lava rock, where there are garden eels and bicolor anthias. This site is at about 90 feet, and Karl was not positive all the divers could get there, see the anthias, and then make it back for an extended dive time. We went down, and the directions were spot on. There was a rock where at least 10 of the anthias could be seen at any time, right in the middle of the garden eels. We continued our dive circling around the bay, where we saw scrawled filefish, Potter’s angelfish, flame angelfish, and baby ta’ape. The landscape at the bay is wonderful - filled with lava fingers, arches, and little caves.

The fourth dive found us cold before we even entered.  The water delivered a cold shock when we first got in, and it got progressively colder through the dive. We began our hunt for the elusive dragon eel that we found last year. Alas, we did not see him, but I got plenty of quality time with my favorite creatures of the deep - eels of just about any kind. Fish life was abundant too, but I was captivated by free-swimming undulated morays of substantial size, as well as by huge yellow margin morays. The yellow margins looked to be bigger than six feet long, and their girth was impressive. As we were headed to our safety stop, a HUGE yellow margin popped out of the rocks to say hello. After my heart started to beat again, I took its picture.

Dinner was magnificent.  Matthew is truly an artist, and he takes such great joy in preparing meals.  We started with my favorite salad, the caprese.  Delightful, I could have eaten seconds or thirds.  The mozzarella was fresh and moist, the tomatoes meaty and flavorful.  Color me happy.  The main course was braised beef short rib in beef stock and red wine reduction, roast asparagus, and au gratin potatoes.  Dessert was chocolate nutella pie.  Wayne had thirds.  I wish I had ordered the small poriton of the short rib, as I could not finish it to save my life.  Too tasty to waste, but waste is what I wound up doing.

And finally it came for our night dive, still moored at Manuka Bay.  I set a time limit of 30 minutes given how cold we were at the end of dive four. Wayne heartily agreed. We stayed close to the boat, so we didn’t have quite the show we had at the night dive last year, but we saw two small stout morays, a flowery flounder, what appears to have been a Therese’s sole, a scrawled filefish, and a porcupine pufferfish. All interesting enough, but not as sexy as last year! We came up at 43 minutes, so we extended our bottom time a bit. As we approached the ship, there was a school of blue trevally under the boat, and a horde of crocodile needlefish at the surface. Wayne was pleased that we got out of the water before we froze to death. And we were wearing 7 mils.  Thank goodness for hot chocolate surface intervals.

Cruising the Kona Coastline

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!  

Kicking it off with a swell - and some mantas

Chef Matthew has instituted a small change with menu presentation, he now has a saying of the day.  Today’s was “Be a pretty cupcake in a world full of muffins - Author Unknown.”  I think it is going to be a fun week.

Breakfast started us out in wonderful form - blueberry pancakes, Portugese sausage, and eggs to order.  Nom nom time.  We were well set for the morning’s dive.

Our checkout dive was at Aquarium.  Check out dive with Mindy, Wayne was having some difficulty with the $99 replacement housing for the Canon G12, and he didn’t seem thrilled.  I reminded him that it took me several dives, and then working with the housing top side for me to be comfortable with it. It probably got worked up when he put the camera in the housing, it did that to me as well. The dive was nice, we were set free even before we headed down.  Saw two octopus, a pair of devil scorpionfish sititing side by side.

Dive two was also at Aquarium.  Saw a fairly large porcupine puffer, a large undulated moray, and a huge school of pennant butterflyfish. Chilly on deck between dives! Definitely overweighted for the 7 mil.  Alas and alack, no harlequin shrimp like last year, the pair seem to have gone away.  It would have been good to see them.

Lunch was warm and very welcome!  Matthew prepared an Asian fusion salad, miso soup with chicken won tons, tofu with orange sauce, fried lumpier, Fijian curry with shrimp, and blended grilled cheese sandwiches on sour dough bread.  We have a good number of vegetarians on this trip (read as more than one), as well as a gluten free passenger, so Matthew has his work cut out for him trying to be innovative for all kinds of eaters.

The rest of the dives today were at Garden Eel Cove.  Much like last year, a manta showed up at the tail end of the first dive.  It was very surgey on the surface this afternoon, made reentry onto the boat very difficult. Nothing like being battered about. Karl saw a manta ray below the ship on this dive, we were sorry to have missed it. Will look for it at 4 pm. No garden eels, but we did see Heller’s barracuda, and several long nose butterflyfish in the dark form. As I mentioned, very bumpy exit.

Second dive was as difficult as the first.  In a word, ouch. We dropped down, and took off. Several people skipped this dive. Whale song throughout the dive, just kept looking into the blue to see if a whale was evident. Alas, no luck, but we did see a stumpy tailed manta flew by us, spectacular. Also saw a reticulated butterflyfish, and a fairly large white mouth moray.

We were very, very cold at the end of the second Garden Eel cove dive.  I even changed bathing suits, which I try not to do too frequently.  I huddled up trying to suck the warmth out of my spouse while wearing my warm Aggressor pullover.  I love that fuzzy thing.  Wayne tried it on himself, and we let Captain Karl know we were going to buy another one on this trip.  A warm dinner was more than welcome.  Tonight was a hydroponic greens salad, sliced red potatoes with French onion and asiago cheese, sauteed garlic green beans, roasted chicken thigh and a peach and raspberry crisp.  One thing I am noticing with Matthew is that he prepares more food than his predecessor, who I feel prepared exquisite food, but only enough to keep me from starving to death.  I had better be on all the dives in order to make sure that I don’t gain weight this vacation!

The third dive at the Cove had to be the worst manta ray night dive I have ever been on.  I loaded up with three extra pounds to help with the surge.. No such luck. Bounced around like a basketball for the entire time of the dive. We did see two manta rays, one was HUGE, the other smaller. 5 blue trevally were with us along the way, probably looking to feed on the krill as well. Also saw a really large moray - yellow margin maybe? - swimming along the floor on the way back. We wound up heading back in after 25 minutes. 

I am sooo sticking to the if it’s no fun, get out of the water after you can legally call it a dive.  I think this was probably the most uncomfortable dive I have ever had at night for mantas.  I stopped taking pictures after the first few, bungeed my camera to my BCD, and held on to a large boulder for dear life.  Really truly for dear life.  This boulder and I were picked up and relocated several times during the course of the manta show, so I’m certain I missed quite a lot.

On board the ship, warm water shower, and bed.  I’ll admit it, I’m a tired puppy.  I could barely log my minimalist dives before wanting to crash into neverland.  It’s been a while since we did five a day, I guess I should be tired.

Welcome (back) on board - Travel on the Kona Aggressor II

We were up early this morning, knowing that the crew would be in  at the dock to let the chef go pick up the week’s supplies.  We wandered over to see who was still on the crew with whom we were familiar. Sous chef Matthew was there, greeting us from the kitchen porthole.  He has taken over primary chef responsibilities, but I know that we are in good hands.  We spent a good amount of time talking with him last summer, and we know he is intending to head to culinary school and become a yacht chef.  Nice ambition!  He had also recently spent a good amount of time muck diving in Indonesia.  He loves his little critters.

After that was Java on the Rocks for some coffee, and a trip to Jack’s Diving Locker just to check out what’s new.  To be honest, I was also looking at their necklaces.  Ever since I got that first dolphin, I’ve been hooked.  I keep hoping for a humpback whale, but no luck.

Captain James and Assistant Captain Andy greeted us, and we were informed that Mindy was also with the crew still, but there were some new folks, too.  We dropped off our bags, and wandered around town for the day, with a return boarding time of 5 pm.  There’s always a lot to do and see in Kona, and we had lunch at a pub that was new to us.  Very pleasant, and we had a good view of the Aggressor.  And bless our happy hearts, the nitrox was pumping freely!

Saturday evening was the meet and greet, and the review of the rules of diving after our spectacular dinner.

You have to understand that diving off of the Kona Aggressor is as much a culinary experience as it is a diving experience.  And Matthew has developed a wonderful repertoire.  Tonight was no exception to the rule.  We had a lomi lomi salmon salad presented on fresh, organic lettuce, black and while ahi sashimi with a wasabi cream sauce and baby bok choy, and our crowning dessert was pineapple upside down cake with a creme fraiche.  It is so worth the kama’aina rate just to come on this boat and eat and sleep for a week, much less dive.  But we are thrilled to be doing all three.

We did make one adjustment, knowing our cabin.  We brought a sleeping pad for me to put under the sheets, as the mattress was rather thin and trying for my back.  We also brought our own steel 100 cylinders along with us so that we could dive with our normal weight systems.  I’m looking forward to a fantastic week!

To Bird, Or Not to Bird

I woke up a little stiff this morning, but not too bad.  I woke up once during the night and looked outside the window- lots and lots of stars.  But, alas, by morning the cloud cover rolled back in by sunrise, and we were greeted with a light, misting rain. Of course, no rain, no rainbow, which showed up at about 7:30 am.  Yay, rainbow!

Last nightʻs sleep was a little restless for me - I had dreams of being pushed multiple times throughout the night.  Breakfast was a treat, pumpkin pancakes with chocolate chips!  Along with our usual eggs, fruit and other goodies.  We got off to a bit of a late start, but all was still well in the world.  It gave me the opportunity to have a little quiet time to write about yesterday, and our time with Baron.  What a wonderful man.  I hope he stays for a while longer!!!  After 13 years, Iʻd imagine that the solitude gets to be a little bit too much.

The rain started back up again in earnest after breakfast, so went over to the garage to get boots and rain jackets.  It took a while to find a pair of boots large enough, but at last I found the right size!

We then headed off to find Steve, our birding guide, back at Pua ʻAkala.  We were hoping to see some of the endangered birds of the forest.  Hakalau is home to four of six endangered Hawaiian forest birds - the ʻAkiapolaʻau, Hawaiian ʻAkepa, Hawaiian Creeper, and the ʻIo.                                                       

Alas, luck was not overwhelmingly with us today.  We heard the ʻAkepa, but did not see.  We did see one ʻIo, though, but it was too quick for me to photograph.  That's ok, though, the lush canopy of trees and the sounds of the birds overhead were enchanting.  We saw lots of Iʻiwi, their flamboyant red plumage highly visible in the trees.  We did get to see the earlier Hakalau plantings.  It is amazing how quickly the koa grows, and how large the ferns get.  

After about 12:30, it was time to head back to the cabin to eat lunch, pack out, clean up, and he’d home.  Naturally, Iʻm a bit anal retentive when it comes to meeting SP time, so I allowed for no lolly-gagging around the lunch table!  :)  We did make short order of things, and after divvying up what would remain with Baron, and what would go to Rhiannon’s mom, we commenced out of the park towards Big Island Candy.  We did a pass-off of Rhiannon to her family once we were out of the park, and headed off into the rain.

As we were driving down Saddle Road, we saw the most beautiful rainbow that almost drizzled like melting ice cream.  Oh, to not be driving the truck!  When we got out of the truck at Big Island Candy, we were overwhelmed with heat and humidity.  Huge change after the last two day, we had even been running the heater in the truck on the way down the mountain!  We are back to reality.  

As we entered into the airport, we saw yet another magnificent rainbow (we are, after all, on the Rainbow Isle) that spanned the area.  Picture 1/3 rainbow to the left, blue sky in the middle 1/3, and 1/3 rainbow to the right.  Nature is enough to give you chicken skin.  

Following a beer and a miso soup, it was time to begin boarding the plane.  A quiet flight back, it gave me time to think and to write.  I was sad to have spent this wonderful time away from Wayne, but I wouldn’t trade it at all.  It was lovely.