Blue Sunday

First good night of sleep since spraining the ankle a little over two weeks ago— no pain!  I cannot tell how much good the diving has been on my ankle.  It almost looks like a real ankle!  We were up at 4:30, and went on deck topside at about 5, where we ran into Jodi.  The sunrise was spectacular, so had to take a couple of pictures.  Then we did the typical dive logging and photo loading, and I finished the blog outline for yesterday.  I’ll fill it in today, since I have all the pertinent data.

First dive today was at Blue Corner.  The water was like glass going out, so we anticipated great things.  We got to the mooring by 7:30 after a return to the boat to retrieve Valerie’s computer.  We did a deep water live entry, and descended, swimming towards the reef.  Unfortunately, the current had shifted, and we were swimming into it.  We cut across the corner into some significant current.  The fish life was magnificent, but we needed to keep moving to get to the hook in site.  :(  Sharks and jacks and wrasses passed in front of us and over us.  We also saw a pair of turtles - both fairly decent size - but no time for photos.

When we got to the hook in site 25 minutes later, the fish life was not quite as predator filled as we expected. Still, there was a lot going on in the current, and it was enjoyable.  I tested out yet another mask, and this one worked better than the others (Wayne is making up a check list so that we remember to travel with four masks rather than just one).  The drift back to the boat went far too quickly for my liking.  We had a Napoleon wrasse approaching us from above, grey reef sharks swimming right across our path, a baby hawksbill turtle, two eels, hordes of yellowfin barracuda and silver jacks, and anemone fish.  We did our safety stop at the top of the reef, and the Poseidon (skiff to the Ocean Hunter III) was right above us.  Magnificent morning dive, and tons of calories burned!

Breakfast was the typical buffet, but I think many of us spent more time talking about the first dive rather than focusing on breakfast.  We all ate well, though!

Dive two was one of my least favorite spots in Palau - Virgin Blue Hole.  It’s called that because unlike the other diving holes in Palau, there is only one way in and one way out.  The other holes have multiple entry/exit areas, and are more filled with light.  I descended slowly to 100 feet, and started to prepare for exiting, but our dive guide kept us in the hole for at least 10 minutes, if not more, focusing on lines coming down from the ceiling.  I didn’t have a light, the cave was dark, and the lines reminded me of something macabre.  For the first few minutes I thought “Wayne’s next to me.  I’m ok.”  After five minutes, I wasn’t, and I knew I was narced. 

I hate nitrogen narcosis, especially the panic type.  I signalled Wayne that I was narced, and I headed to the exit.  It was silly to narc, because I knew how to get out, but it still happened.  I got out into the sunlight and started to ascend slowly.  Wayne followed.  When we made it to 60 feet, I was ok.  During the rest of the dive, we saw a porcupine pufferfish, fire dartfish, wire coral gobies, a turtle with three legs, another with all four, and a crocodile scorpionfish.  The boat came to get us after ascent, and we got on.  During the ride home, we passed by a school of batfish.  It’s apparently spawning season.  ;)

Today is American theme for our meals.  I went out on the deck to hang up my wet swimsuit and smelled hamburgers.  I came down and asked our chef, Arlee, if it was American day, and he said it was.  We had burgers, chicken wings, a carrot/cabbage cole slaw, potato salad, corn on the cob, and chips.  Plus fruit!  Arlee spoiled the surprise - tonight is pork ribs.  Poor Wayne.

Dive three was Blue Holes.  I was correct in my assessment that my narcing is brought on by darkness and depth.  It was a great dive, going in from one of the top holes, descending to the bottom, checking around the cave, and then back up and out the window, hooking left toward Blue Corner.  Inside the cavern, we saw robust ghost pipefish, a clown triggerfish with a baby, and the ubiquitous disco clams (cue the Bee Gees, please).  Headed out of the window to the left, we saw a shark whose right pectoral fin was gone.  Poor baby was swimming lopsided.  The current shifted on us, so we turned away from the corner.  There was a baby baramundi, a huge carpet anemone, and the two-toned dartfish.  And as we were on our safety stop, I became a human cleaning station.  I was tickled by cleaner wrasse.

Then back to the ship, where we were greated with cocoa and brownies, and a one hour break before starting our next diving adventure.

Our fourth dive had only five takers, and we went to Ngemelis Coral Gardens.

It was a lovely, slow drift dive, although I was really getting cold.  We saw several dogface pufferfish, star pufferfish getting cleaned, along with a stripebelly pufferfish.  We saw several healthy hawksbill turtles, a Napoleon wrasse upon descent, and a HUGE bumphead parrotfish.  Down almost an hour, I was freezing, begged for a safety stop. Ogie looked at me, “Like, really? Now?”  And I nodded vigorously.  We exited at the hour mark. During the safety stop we saw a trio of titan triggerfish, causing me to duck behind Wayne.  I just don’t have a good history with titans… And then it was off to the Ocean Hunter III.

We had an hour and a quarter for turnaround before the night dive, and I asked Eddie if there were something dry I could wear to keep me from freezing.  Blessedly, they had a shortie that fit me.  So at 7:15, another five were off to Ngemelis Wall.

If you feel the urge to submerge, contact Captain Ken

A much, much better night of sleep.  There’s something about sleeping on the water.  Mind you, my ankle ached sharply through the night, but it was still so much better sleep than previously.  Something about being on a boat just soothes.  And my leg and ankle reduced significantly in swelling overnight.  I guess it was like having a two hour epsom salt soak.

The boat left Malakal for Ngemelis this morning at 4:30.  I felt us start and move, and woke up briefly, but the rocking of the boat, and Wayne’s deep breathing, were calming enough for me to return to slumber until 6 am.  Nice rest.  We went downstairs with the items I needed downstairs for the day in a backpack to save me unnecessary trips up and down the stairs.  There were some rolls, fresh espresso, water, and Matt was down here logging information from the day prior.  While we were snacking a little, I replaced the battery on my backup dive computer.  Successful surgery, BUD is as good as new.

Half an hour later, Eddie made the good morning divers announcement, so I wrapped up finishing yesterday’s blog before starting this one.  I was hoping to finish up reconstructing the Kona Aggressor blog from January this morning, but that is not to be.  It’s like there’s never enough time on this trip unless you skip a dive, and we’ve only just started.  Jodi came in and joined us before it was time to head to German Channel.  The question was whether or not we would maintain our streak that started the last time we came here with Matt and Jodi?

The answer is yes!  Manta ray!!!  It was magnificent- gliding around us twice before disappearing in search of the bait ball.  Of course, there were grey reef sharks getting cleaned, lots of jacks, dogtooth snapper, goby shrimp, and a short fin spadefish.  Unfortunately, our friend the beaten up Napoleon wrasse was nowhere to be found.  I think he had seen better days.

Our breakfast (which is probably what will be all days) was a buffet filled with cheeses, eggs, toast and bagels, salami, a ton of fresh fruit, and BACON!  I was a happy girl!

Dive two was Big Drop Off.  We had a really moderate current, so it was pretty easy.  We saw two reef sharks, anemone fish, both many spotted and banded sweetlips, square spot anthia, and magnificent fan coral.  There was a school of purple anthia, with a few Randall’s anthias (I think).  We saw a hawksbill turtle with an extraordinarily clean shell, a TON of pyramid butterflyfish, and a notodoris minor with it’s egg sac.

After breakfast, it was off to New Drop Off.  The last 4 or 5 times we did this dive there was no current.  But we are close to the new moon, so the tides are starting to pick up the pace.  There was way, way more current than the last several times, it was akin to Mr. Toad’s wild ride.  There were schools of dogtooth snappers, lots of grey reef sharks swimming around and through us as we were hooked in, a green sea turtle, a group of 3 male Napoleon Wrasse with 1 female, bumphead parrotfish, chevron and yellowfin barracuda, fire dartfish, and a flounder that Jodi found.

Today’s meal theme is Japanese!  We had tempura shrimp, pumpkin & onion, sushi rolls, a vinegar/seaweed/cucumber salad, gyoza, shumai, and fruit.  I ate only half my plate and gave the rest to Wayne.  Very tasty lunch, but a short break between dives.  This is a heck of a schedule.

Dive four was at Turtle Wall.  There were only two green sea turtles there, and three of our cohorts were in way too close taking flash photos in the one poor baby’s face.  :(  We had a wonderful swimby from an eagle ray, saw a pair of batfish, several bumphead parrotfish, and my first two eels of the trip.  Last but not least, there was an anemone feeding with its anemone fish swimming fiercely above.

Our final dive, and my first night dive outside the lagoon, was at German Wall.  On a scale of one to five, I had to give it a zero.  We saw a sea cucumber hunting for dinner, star pufferfish, dogface pufferfish, plenty of sleeping parrotfish (which appear to sleep without a sac), a lone eel, tons of tiny lion fish, and several nudibranches.  My problem with dive was not what we saw, but with the loaner mask we got.  It was too small for my face and kept flooding.  As I cleared the mask, the air went into my hood, which was not venting properly.  That made me significantly more buoyant.  And without my camera to serve as an additional weight, it meant I kept floating upwards.  I finally pulled down the hood for the remainder of the dive, and started shivering about 3 minutes after doing so.  I will have to poke a hot nail through that hood several times so that it vents.  :(

Dinner was largely oriental fare.  We started with miso soup - yum!  Then we had udon noodles, snapper with a really spicy peanut demi sauce, Palauan style, bean sprout salad, a cabbage/carrot/cucumber salad, and edamame.  Wayne had dessert - bananas and vanilla ice cream with a caramel sauce.  It looked good, but the belly was full after half a plate.  Wayne had a plate and a half of food - the half was half of mine.  

It’s time to put a recharged battery into my flashlight.  And then to recharge me!

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!