Starting the trip off with a bang (and loud tourists)

So we got in last night some time after nine and got settled.  The hotel seemed as Jodi said it to be - sparse, clean, quiet, good air conditioning, and quiet.  And it was.  Until 2:55 am.

We had dropped off to sleep, Wayne at about 10, me at about 10:30.  We were both hoping for good sleep.  Alas, it wasn’t in the cards.  At 2:55 (well, it seemed throughout the night), the front desk buzzer rang, and all calamity erupted.  Really loud voices, banging luggage, children running screaming in the hallway. After about 15 minutes I got up, opened the door and admonished with a shush.  Didn’t really help.  So, I was up at 3 am for pretty much the rest of today until now.

We decided at 6 am to go out and walk to the drug store to see when it opened.  Then from there we got air phone cards (which were the wrong kind, not wifi but cell card data), and came back with plans to check out at 10 am, go back to the drug store to get ibuprofen and benedryl, and then head to the Taj for lunch buffet.  I amended that with going to the sports store to get some new shorts and t-shirts.  My Patagonia dresses were not cutting it, just too hot for humid Palau.  We ran across Matt (on his way to get good coffee), exchanged plans for the day, and then Wayne and I went to the Rock Island Cafe for breakfast.  I wasn’t going to eat much, but suddenly, after 2 sleepless nights, I was HUNGRY.  Steak and eggs for me, veggie omelet for Wayne.  

We went back to the hotel and met up with Matt and Jodi, and laughed about the noise control issue of the morning.  We went back to our room, did a little wi-fi time, and then there was a little tapping  at the door.  We all proceeded to do our morning errands/interests, and then it was time to meet up.  And it was down pouring -the kind that doesn’t allow for a break in the humidity.  But it only lasted a short while, and we spent the majority of that time enjoying the lunch buffet at the Taj.  There were two boys and a dog playing in the rain, so cute to watch.

Then back to the DW to wait for our 12:30 pickup, which happened at about 12:38.  Not bad by Palauan time!

We went to Fish n Fins and signed in, getting our permits.  We met our companions on the trip, and got to see our room chart.  Then we visited with Lupin, the dive cat, and with Tova, who brought down her two dogs, Fin and Nemo.  Beautiful dogs, and a particular cat!

We headed to the boat, got our boat briefing, and started settling in.  Dive gear unpacked, nitrox analyzed, and clothing unpacked.  The boat staff provided a late lunch, in which Wayne and I participated minimally.  There was mushroom quiche and fried unicorn fish. I felt guilty having a little of the fish, and Wayne felt no guilt at eating some quiche.

Our first dive was a checkout dive at the Helmet Wreck at 4:30 pm.  We got there after a boat from Sam’s Tours did, and the divers had been down for at least 30 minutes.  That combined with the rain was going to make for a very silty dive.  And it did.  I was being very careful since this was not only my first since March, but I’m only two weeks into ankle recovery.  So, I took caution entering (I’m letting the divemasters do all the work for my gear), I didn’t use the camera, and I handed up my gear when getting on the surface.  We got to see Jodi’s favorite fish on this dive, the barramundi.  He was hiding just a wee bit.  There were also two pair of of beautiful longhead (?) slugs, and others of the typical sort you find on the wreck.   I saw a juvenile blue ring angelfish, something I’d never seen here before.  And a juvenile female Napoleon Wrasse.  Alas, no titan scorpionfish, no batfish, and no crocodile scorpionfish.  But it was just a checkout dive.

A small break ensued, and dive number two was at Hafa Adai wreck.  Only five of us went down for the night dive.  There was a small amount of surface current down to about 15 feet, so we kept the line as a reference for descending.  The water felt warmer than it had this afternoon, but that could be my imagination.  As we got down to the wreck, there was a star pufferfish, pretty large.  Most of what the guide pointed out was small stuff.  I found a huge bottle of wine encrusted over with a teeny tiny blue dragonfish nudibranch in front of it.  And, in the black wire coral, a banded tozeuma shrimp, which very closely resembles the long nose hawkfish, a species that has been disappearing here.  There was also a very interesting lamellarid, the chelyonotus semperi - about the size of small woman’s fist, black, lumpy, with green edging.  

I was better with my ankle protection, leading out of the water with my right foot, and getting off the back of the skiff onto a level platform when returning to Ocean Hunter III.

Dinner was served at 9 pm.  Only five of the nine of us made it.  We started with smoked fish soup, and followed up with a main course consisting of chicken and prunes, rice, salad, and wilted spinach.  Plus roasted red peppers surrounding cheese.  Dessert was fruit with vanilla ice cream.  I can hear dad sighing happily for that.  I’m not too sure that I like dinner this late, but we shall see.

And now it is time for bed, tomorrow starts the five dive per day schedule.  I have taken my ibuprofen, and am proppoing up my foot in order to go to sleep.  Wayne was gone about 20 minutes ago!

Leaving on the newly minted 777 jet plane

Today we start on our newest Palauan adventure - we are finally doing a live aboard.  Of course, I’m a little anxious as I badly sprained my left ankle (left!) exactly two weeks before.  It’s down in size, but still a little sore, so I will not be diving all willy-nilly crazy like.  So I think.  But there is over a week here, so who knows what will happen.

Last summer, pretty much right after 1L year ended, we came to Palau and dove with Fish ’n’ Fins.  We fell in love with their day skiffs, and with the professional service - so much better than our trip here over Christmas 2013.  Right now I cannot seem to find any of the blog pages, and I’m relatively positive that I did blog - I had a lot to say (bad) about our two nights at the Carolines Resort, a lot to say (good) about Tova and her dive operation, and just a relative feeling of contentment at being finished with my first year of law school. I hope I didn’t lose the pages, but when I tanked the MacBook, I may have lost more than a bit.  I will have to see if I have a clone of the Air anywhere that I can use to restore the missing pages.

We arrived at HNL sufficiently early to be able to have a leisurely lunch.  Kona Brewing Company is no longer operating a pub in the airport (insert sad face), but its replacement eatery was just fine.  I got great news while we were there - I am now officially on the Board of Directors of Family Programs Hawaii.  They are a wonderful group that helps out our keiki who are in the foster care system.  It seems like it was a unanimous vote, but a lot of the influence comes from one of my mentors, Mei Nakamoto, a family lawyer who has been on the Board for several years.  Our first board meeting is in July, I can’t wait to jump in and get my feet wet.  We got to the club and updated our iDevices (excluding the new Apple watches, they are pretty much up to date and utterly AMAZING).  While we were waiting, I got some messages from Jodi (we are diving with them again this summer, yeah!).  It turns out that Matt’s bag was the victim of a gate delay (so we thought), and so I checked to see whether it was on the plane with us.  It turns out that it hadn’t made the original flight from Houston to Honolulu, The cultprit probably being TSA.

Anyway, the flights over were unremarkable - standard jumbo jet kind of stuff.  A longish layover in Guam was nice, there was time to charge up devices, download some stuff, and maintain some communications.  

Finally, after a longish day, we made it to Palau and were greeted at the airport.  Our driver was waiting with a sign, ready to whisk us away to the DW Motel.  This is our first time staying here, it is a little stark, but clean, comfortable beds, a decent shower, and the air conditioning works.  And they had the cutest little towel animals on the bed when we got here.  :) We wlll be spending the next week sleeping on the ocean, though, and we are very looking forward to that.

I’m still moderately obsessing over the last trip to Palau and the non existent blog.  Maybe I just didn’t do one?  I’ll have to find out for certain.

Anyway, alii Palau, we can’t wait to kick off our trip here tomorrow morning!

If it's Friday, it means school starts in three days

Alas, I neglected to write down today’s quote, but they may not have been one anyway.  Matthew is off the boat shopping for next week’s supplies.  I will miss his wonderful meals.  Breakfast today was a buffet style meal, his presence is already missed!

Today marks our last two dives of the trip - no!  We did both at Kalokos Arches.  On the first dive, we kind of followed Karl, kind of didn't. We tooled around the reef, saw a flame wrasse, two peacock razor fish, and a female Whitley’s boxfish. We were headed to safety stop when Karl came up and motioned us to follow. He wanted to show us the male Whitley's, but another group of divers entered and probably frightened him off. That was ok, we had at least one more opportunity.

It was really a super sunny, hazy day, which we noticed as we went on our last dive.  We followed Mindy most of the way so we could get on the ship’s video. She was looking for a horned helmet, which we did not find. We did see a male Whitley's box fish, too quick to photograph. I found a triton's trumpet eating breakfast. Mindy found an octopus under an antler coral head. The landscape was beautiful, even if it was cold.

Lunch was a barbecue preapred by the crew.  Hot dogs, hamburgers and chips were served, and we washed the meal down with a cold beer.  Very pleasant.  And I brought out my grey poupon mustard packets to use with the burgers, much to the amusement of the crew.  Yes, I travel with mustard.  :)  Apple doesn’t fall too far from the spicy mustard tree.

The large group left the ship today in mid afternoon, never to return.  We had our reception party with only three participants.  I feel sorry for the crew, they went to all that work, and all that food went to waste.  But Wayne and I had our Iron Diver awards again, although at the price of my ear.  I have to remember to use the drops in my ears on the live aboard in Palau, as we have had outer ear issues on our last two live aboards.  We are also planning on returning to the Kona Aggressor on the week of Wayne’s birthday, right after summer school lets out.  

Captain James entertained us with the story of how the Iron Diver award was created.  One passenger, several years ago, came on board the KA II after having finished the Kona Ironman race.  He then proceeded to do each of the dives on board the Aggressor that week, and the crew decided that they should have an award that mirrored the medal given at the successful completion of the Ironman.  And so the Iron Diver award was born.  It is now given across the Aggressor and Dancer fleets to all divers completing each dive on the live aboard trip.

We left the ship to have dinner at Phuket Monkey, a Thai restaurant up near Hilo Hattie’s.  We placed our order, but I am glad that they missed part of it because we were full from the cocktail party on board ship.  If you are ever there, you should try the Phuket Monkey.  And when you ask for Thai spicy, they really bring on the heat.

As for the rest of the weekend, tomorrow we will disembark and return to the Marriott.  Our plan is brunch at the Holuakoa Cafe (you MUST go here if you come to Kona) and the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden.  The garden is an extension of the Bishop Museum, focusing on Hawaiian ethnobotany.  The exhibits provide a study of the Hawaiian people and their plants.  There are over 200 species of plants that grew in the traditional farms and native forests of Kona before Captain Cook’s arrival.  The plants are endemic, indigenous, and Polynesian introduced, and include the most important and endangered plants in Hawaiian culture.  It’s a nice way to round out my environmental law education.  

We will then dine with the D’Avella’s for dinner, and catch up on how things have been going for them over my past semester.  This will have been a great way to refresh before starting the spring semester.  

A hui ho!

I found the frogfish!

Never say good bye because saying good bye means going away, and going away means forgetting.  — Peter Pan

Matthew made a great morning breakfast for us, served with the usual panache.  We had toad i a hole, bacon, has browns, and eggs to order.  He made my toad in a hole scrambled for me!  Customer service at its finest.  A lot of operations could learn a thing or two from our Aggressor staff.

Our first dive of the day was at Paradise Pinnacle.  I didn't remember this dive from Jack's Diving Locker in 2006, and I still don't! Despite the dive log entry.  At least that log mirrored what we expected to see down here today.  We went down to the larger pinnacle, immediately past it and mini-me to another pinnacle, where we saw another Tinker's and I saw the long nose hawkish in the black coral. I seriously think I narced down there, I lost sight of Wayne, and completely spazzed out.  I don’t enjoy an unhappy narc, let me tell you.  We also saw several eels and the carapace of a sponge crab. There was a little hammerhead shark on the surface that some of the boys chased, but never caught.  Good for the hammerhead!

We stayed at the Pinnacle for our second dive.  We went back to the black coral, and I used my flashlight to light up the long nose hawkfish - twice. He lost it both times as it chose to flit away as he was focusing. I hope my pictures come out. Then we went into the canyon areas, saw a honu. The surge was pretty powerful. We ran into Karl and the divers. Karl asked if we had seen the anthias. Wayne said yes, I said no. Karl brought us to a conger eel (I thought it was dead, but apparently it had been interacting with Karl and the other divers just a short time before), a Hawaiian lion fish, and then to the anthias. Beautiful. Also present was a juvenile rockmover wrasse.

Nice dive.  Really nice dive.

We enjoyed a hearty lunch en route to our third dive site.  We started with New England clam chowder, which was very warm and flavorful.  We did do a little bit of a hot sauce treatment, but only to add a little more spice rather than flavor.  Matthew also prepared a cobb salad, corned beef and cabbage, a roast vegetable wrap, and a cous cous salad.  Wayne was in veggie wrap heaven, and I snuck some more clam chowder.  

Dive three was at the Dome, the site where we found the itty bitty frogfish last summer.  Descended several minutes behind all others and then totally proceeded to ignore the Dome. Found a very large yellow margin. Wayne took us into a cave, did a sharp u-turn into me and I hit the ceiling. Give the man a turn signal. Headed back near the boat with Wayne combing the sand. I went to the adjacent rubble patch and found the peacock razor fish. I signaled Wayne I wanted to go look for the frogfish, he signaled ok. I took off, headed for the same coral head where we found one last year. Lo and behold, there was a HUGE frogfish. I got James' attention and directed him. Most divers followed. Found two stragglers and pointed them in the same direction. Then we circled, did our safety stop and exited.

We were initially excited about the fourth dive at the former Sheraton Keauhou, as there were mantas swimming on the surface.  I spent the entire dive waiting to see mantas that never arrived. Wayne had a good time taking face pictures of collector urchins. He has quite the collection of faces going - I can see Grover in them.  For me, this dive was meh.  I was hoping that we would not be doing a manta dive again tonight, as the surge was still unpleasant, and the number of spiny urchins at this dive site is more than moderately intimidating.

Tonight was a seafood dinner night, and quite delicious.  We started with a warm spinach salad with mushrooms, onions and balsamic glaze.  That was followed by thin spaghetti with a garlic white wine cream sauce infused with saffron (are you drooling yet?), and garlic and pepper seasoned jumbo shrimp.  Four thumbs up!  Wayne benefitted with extra broccoli on his plate.  :)  And dessert was fried ice cream with corn flakes and coconut, hot fudge and caramel. Thank goodness we are doing five dives a day in very cold water.  Otherwise, my waistline would be expanding exponentially.

For the final dive there was the option of a manta dive, a reef dive, or the pelagic magic dive.  We had absolutely perfect condtions for the pelagic magic dive, so I’m glad it was decided thusly.  A pod of dolphins came through early on, pretty magical.  It is the only reason that I regretted leaving my camera on board.  Hopefully James got them on video, but we shall see.  I didn't see a lot of the longer critters, but seeing the dolphins made it enough.  Wayne saw a lot of the small stuff and the long critters, guess I needed to be lower.  We broke free at 30 minutes to go back on board.  Yay hot chocolate!

How to know when you need a new wetsuit

January 7, 2015

Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy - Thelonius Monk

Actually, I don’t think we are crazy, but I do think a change in wetsuits is necessary.  We’ve had ours for over 10 years now (the 7 mils, that is), and Wayne had to repair a split in the crotch of his last March after our prior Aggressor trip.  I can tell that he is getting colder and colder as the days go forward and the number of dives tick upwards.  We had a serious discussion about new wetsuits this morning at breakfast (a breakfast sandwich on a croissant, and hash browns), and I set forward ordering our new wetsuits.  We will be leaving the old 7 mils here when we get off the ship; hopefully there will be a use for them.

After a morning dive at Manuka, we were going to head north again today.  We swam back to the bicolor anthias and garden eels, setting up a final photo opportunity.  Wayne was not comfortable with navigating to the site, so I was in charge.  No worries, we got there without a problem, and Wayne got to see the anthias.   We also saw 3 great pacific barracuda, lizard fish and eels galore, and explored a part of the bay we hadn't seen yet.  There we found a nice window pair in the walls, great for a photo opportunity. Alas, we never found the dragon eel.

The next dive was at Oz.  It has this name thanks to its “yellow brick road.”  Oz is a lava ridge wall from shore to 20 feet, with sand patches and reef giving way to a ridge that extends straight out off shore 200 feet.  The top of the wall starts at 40 feet, sloping to 80, and it is covered with yellow lobe coral.  There is a lot of finger coral. Ten years ago I would never have floated gracefully above it, I would hover terrified. It’s amazing that diving is a sport that definitely shows improvement thanks to repeition.  We didn’t find the elusive frogfish here, but a lot of cornet fish.

Lunch was absolutely delightful, assorted pizzas, Caesar salad, pasta with creamy pesto sauce, and sausage and peppers.  And Wayne was very happy with his broccoli cheddar souop and leftover chocolate nutella pie.  We were forced into a short food coma following the repast.

Our third dive was at Au Au Crater.  We searched for and found the bandit angelfish (too deep to photograph) and the tinker's butterflyfish. I went to take a photo of the tinker, but my battery had died!  I spent several minutes signalling Wayne about the tinker, but he was entranced by a wire coral goby.  Finally, I got his attentinon, and Wayne took the shots. We returned to the boat at 45 minutes, as the tear in Wayne’s wetsuit was worsening, making him very cold much faster than usual.  I am glad we ordered new wetsuits this morning.

Dive four was Robb’s Reef.  No camera for me, as my backup battery was dead too.  I wound up fully charging both over the next several hours.  It was a nice dive.  We saw Heller's barracuda, a gold ring surgeonfish with a chunk missing from his head, and lots of long nose butterflyfish dark form everywhere!  I did sort of feel naked without my camera, it’s like an extension of my being.  Oh well, teaches me, doesn’t it?

Supper was another grand affair - today was a Hawaiian theme!  We started with a Hawaiian greens salad, and then the main course came out.  We had rice, kalua pulled pork, purple sweet potatoes, and luau leaf.  That’s probably the only cooked green that I will eat voluntarily.  Too bad there was no poi, I’m pretty sure Wayne missed his poi.  Dessert was something that I might consider sacreligious - a bacon brownie fudge sundae.  That is not something that I would normally consider eating, but it was tasty!  Even Wayne wolfed his down.  I think we set records on these live aboards regarding Wayne’s consumption of sweets.  Who’da thunk it?

During our night dive at Robb’s Reef, my spidey senses were active!  No camera again, but I was ok about it.  We saw a slipper lobster, pair of decoy scorpionfish, a parrotfish sleeping in its sack, a Henshaw’s snake eel (my find!), and, the pièce de resistance, a baby manta that followed us back to the boat and did loops underneath for hours.  Lovely end to the day.