May 5, 2007

Hi everyone....

I wanted to let everyone know about my recent experiences in Kona.

When I visited Kona for the first time in '99 I did my very first
introductory dive with Nicki from Torpedo Tours. At the time, Nicki and
her husband Mike's business was a relatively young company... I had a
great time on my intro -- I now hold NIcki personally responsible for
my scuba addiction. I returned 6 months later and Nicki certified.

Well... I was sliding down the slippery slope and picking up speed!
Six and a half years later, with almost 600 warm water dives I'm now an
open water scuba instructor. I've dived, Hawaii, Fiji, Belize and
Mexico.

Over the years, on the occasions that I would get to Kona, I had
drifted away from Torpedo Tours... trying out other companies... taking
recommendations from friends... and in general, shopping around. Well,
today, I had the opportunity to have a reunion with Torpedo Tours.

Mike and Nicki have bought another boat! They still have their
previous boat, the Dive Bomber. Both boats are painted their signature
yellow... makes them easy to pick out of a crowd

Dive Log, April 16th, 2005

Another Dive and fishing combination trip today, heck, why not? The
fishing has been great lately.

We started with a dive at Turtle Haven where we saw turtles, tiger
cowreys and a rare eel that we couldn't identify. Karenza spotted it.
It wasn't pictured in the book, but I have seen it once before years
ago when I was snorkeling.
I must get another book to find out its name.

The fishing was fun, we caught an Ono. Idaho Dave was celebrating his
birthday and reeled it in. Tomorrow he and Karenza go back to Idaho.
We're so happy that he had such a successful trip and got to reel in
three different kinds of fish during this visit. But that's not the end
of this day.

On our way back we found a frisky pod of dolphins. We decided to go for
a swim around where they were hanging out and they swam around us and
got really close to a few of us. For the guys on the boat from Oahu, it
was their first time to see dolphins and they were stoked. We were all
stoked. It was another great day filled with many great gifts. Mahalo.

Dive Log, April 13th, 2005

We packed it all in today, and only got back one hour late! We started
with a dive at "Pipe Dream", the most western point on the island and a
great spot for the chance of a Big Animal encounter. Today the biggest
thing we saw here was a turtle. We also had the pleasure of spotting an
octopus and watched as it changed colors while trying to hide from us.
We headed offshore for the surface interval and found a big group of
pilot whales spread out over a mile. Of course, we couldn't resist
jumping in the water to swim with them. All were amazed by their
beauty, and all were thankful for the chance to see them up close and
personal.

On the way back in to our next dive spot we spotted a small pod of what
we thought were pygme killer whales. We came in closer for a better
look and confirmed our guess. As we approached they started spy
hopping, a behavior I have never seen that particular species engaging
in before. It was so cute to see their little faces peering out with
their big white lips... it looked like they were smiling at us. We
hopped in to get a look and they swam away. It turned out that we out
numbered them. They were only 4 and we were 6 in our group. Anyway, it
was time to go diving again.

We decided to head to Turtle Pinnacle and check out the cleaning
station, where the turtles lay around in their version of a bath house
as the tangs eat the algae off their shells. The dive site was still a
good 10 minutes down the coast, so we dragged lines along the way. As
luck would have it, we hooked up with a Mahi Mahi! So, we had to catch
a fish too before we could dive!

What a day!

Photo from April 10th, 2005

P1010186.JPG

Here's Idaho Dave, Kona Dave and Tara with their catches of the day.

Dive Log, April 10th, 2005

Today, we did a trip for charity. We auctioned off a gift certificate
which was redeemed for a day of diving and fishing. We had a great
group on board made up of a few locals and a couple of their friends
from Idaho. The goal of the day was to have fun. No expectations, just
whatever happens, happens. It's so nice to be amongst people who
understand the meaning of "WILD life" and that everything you encounter
is a gift.

Give a gift, receive a gift. Today, we received MANY wonderful gifts!

We began the day with a dive at Manta Ray Bay. We showed our local
friends where to find the Green Hawaiian Lionfish and the Scarlet Lady
Cleaner Shrimp. The shrimp were really into it today and gave many of
us a thorough and much needed teeth cleaning. An eagle ray was parked
on the sand getting his grooming done by a couple of cleaner wrasses.
He was super mellow and so were we. We were able to hang out right next
to it for a long time. Tara and I noticed that it was wiggling its
snout around. Our masks flooded as we giggled underwater.

After this satisfying dive we headed off shore to see what would happen
next. We cranked up the tunes, cracked open the beers, put out a spread
of food for ourselves and toasted to the beautiful day. It was a love
fest. We trolled around for probably 2 hours and then hooked up our
first fish. It was a beauty of a Mahi Mahi. It jumped and shook and
wriggled and fought. It was the angler, Idaho Dave's fifth try at
fishing in Kona... and his lucky day. He expertly reeled it in with
Chad coaching, Mike on the gaff, Jeff taking care of the other lines
and Nikki on the helm. Everyone cheered in appreciation as the group
effort paid off we bagged our latest gift from the sea.

We decided that if we were lucky enough to hook up again, Kona Dave
would be our next angler, as it was his first fishing trip ever. As
fate would have it, he would get his try at reeling in a big one. The
fish came up, hit one lure, swam to the other side hit another lure and
was hooked. The line screamed as it took off. Then, another line went
off at the same time. We had ourselves a double hookup! Tara jumped on
the second one and started to fight it from the rod holder. Chad was
coaching the virgin, Dave in the chair, Nikki headed for the helm and
Mike got on the other lines so we wouldn't get tangled. Jeff jumped on
gaffing duty and Karenza put herself in charge of the camera. This
fight was long and hard. We weren't sure what we had, but they were
fighting like either marlin or big tuna. After about half an hour we
got to see the first fish, a beautiful, fat yellowfin tuna. Jeff gaffed
it on the first try and hoisted it into the boat. We estimated it to
weigh around 60 lbs. Tara then moved to the chair and settled into her
fight. Her's would turn out to be the biggest fish of the day. She hung
in there for the fight and it paid off as another beauty of an Ahi
(yellowfin tuna) joined us on the boat.

Upon weighing the fish at the end of the day, the Ahi were 80 lbs and
85 lbs respectively. The Mahi Mahi weighed in at 25 lbs. We all pitched
in cleaning the boat and then went out to continue reveling in our
amazing luck with more celebratory beers.

Mahalo Kanaloa, god of the ocean and all the creatures in it, for all
of our wonderful gifts.

Dive Log, April 7, 2005

Today's private whale watching charter was all about seeing if we could
find any Humpbacks left in Kona. Most have already headed back to
Alaskan Waters and we have not had a siting in over a week.

We decide to head south to Kealakekua Bay... the famous spot where
Captain Cook first landed in Hawaii. There is a monument erected there
in his honor and the bay is usually quite crowded with snorkel boats
full of tourists, so we rarely go there. However, today we were hoping
to find the pilot whales again that we saw yesterday and they tend to
hang out down south. We were also hoping to catch a fish so we thought
we'd swing by "VV" buoy on the way.

It turned out to be a great plan. We did not find the pilot whales but
we did find Humpbacks! Quite possibly we found the very last mom and
calf of the season. Right outside of Kealakekua Bay, they were just
hanging out with a couple of bottlenose dolphins. So, we just shut down
the boat and hung out with them. The calf was surfacing quite often and
mom was not, so we speculated that she was resting on the bottom while
jr. was going up and down. The water there was about 100 feet deep. At
one point after about a 5 minute wait, while we were wondering where
they would pop up next, we saw the baby right off our bow, slowly
coming up. It came over to check us out. It was amazing!!!! The water
was so clear that we had a great view of it from the boat. Then
suddenly Mom surfaced right under the baby pushing it off to the side
and away from us, as if to say, "C'mon jr, there will be no playing
with the boats!" She was huge. It was impressive. We were all squealing
with delight.

On the way home we caught 4 nice, small yellowfin tuna at "VV" buoy,
and later had a nice dinner.

Dive Log, April 6th, 2005

Once again today, it was all about the surface interval. We got a tip
that there were pilot whales off shore so we went to check them out.
When we got there, they were spy hopping checking out the two other
dive boats that were already there. I slipped into the water quickly
because I've only witnessed this behavior in the past from the boat. It
was an awesome sight to see through my mask. They were vertical,
bobbing up and down peeking out of the water.

We spotted another group 100 yards away so we decided to check them out
too. All of us slipped quietly into the water and just floated next to
the boat because they were coming right at us. They dove slightly and
passed just under us turning their bodies slightly to get a better look
at us. There were maybe 8 or 9 in all, including a big cow and her big
calf. My guess is that the juvenile was maybe a year or two old, but
still hanging with mom. Or was it an aunt? Because suddenly I looked
over just in time to see it briefly stick its penile unit in the cow!
What? I couldn't believe my eyes! However, that is definitely what I
saw. Could it have been sex education, pilot whale style?

Dive Log, March 18th, 2005

WE SWAM WITH A WHALE SHARK TODAY!

It was a short swim only lasting a few minutes but it was beautiful.
After all of the rain we've had lately, it was nice to get this rare
treat on a sunny day. The light rays were dancing on it's spots and
stripes and the crystal blue water was an excellent backdrop. It was
about 20-25 feet long with bright markings.

Thank you to the whale shark gods!!!!!!!!!!!

Dive Log, March 5th, 2005

We went up north for a three tank day. I'm super excited because it's
seems like forever since I've been up to these great spots. We
frequently see grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks up at Shark
Ledge and Kua Bay has produced sharks, turtles and dolphins in the
past.

Today, we didn't see any sharks... but we had some great Manta Ray
action. Twice on our first dive at Shark Ledge we had a Manta cruise
by. As I followed the ledge along at about 70 feet I found several eels
and nice big schools of fish. Unicorn fish, Trigger fish, Snapper and
many varieties of Surgeon fish were in abundance. I also spotted a rare
pair of Reticulated Butterfly Fish. The second half of the dive was
spent at 40 feet up on top of the ledge. It's a big flat shelf that is
loaded with big, beautiful antler corals. I like to call it
"Antlerville". I'm always inspecting the antler coral for cowreys,
octopus, shrimp, crabs and fish. Today, I spotted a fish I have never
seen before. It was a Two Spot Hawkfish. A nice specimen.

On our first surface interval we had a spectacular Humpback Whale show.
There were several groups in the area but one group in particular was
breaching, splashing around and putting on quite a show. It was
awesome!

The dive at Kua Bay was lovely. The sprawling expanse of finger coral
is absolutely pristine and the interspersed white sand patches are so
fun to explore. The highlight for me was actually a macro critter and
something I've only seen out and about previously at night. So to see
it in the middle of the day was a real treat. It's called a Pimpled
Basket. This interesting little slug is speckled black and white with a
bright red spot. It is usually burrowed down in the sand but when it's
out and about, it carries its pimpled shell on top of itself as it
cruises along on the sand. It's about two inches in length.

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!

Dive Log, March 1st

Well, this month started out with a bang.

We spotted a whale shark today on the surface... we circled back
around, but it was shy and dove before we could get our snorkel gear
on.

The dive at Golden Arches was awesome! The water was crystal clear with
viz well over 100 feet. A river about 200 Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins
streamed right over the top of us. Later, we found a Tritons Trumpet
Conch and placed it next to a Crown Of Thorns Sea Star. This prickly,
green star with 13 legs started to run away, with the Tritons Trumpet
in hot pursuit. The Slug was almost completely out of it's shell with
its eyes on the prize as it scurried after the sea star. I put my dive
light in the path of the sea star to slow it down and watched as the
conch pounced on it and probed it with its proboscis for the perfect
spot to inject it with its powerful toxin. I was running low on air and
it was time to go, but I bet the Tritons Trumpet spent the better part
of the day devouring the Crown of Thorns.

Dive Log, February 2005

Forgive me blogger, for I have sinned. It's been ONE MONTH since my
last blog! I guess time flies when you dive everyday! So, let's get
caught up.

February was characterized by the usual north west swells although not
as big as previous years. Still, with 2 to 5 foot swells, we spent a
lot of time going south to find the best conditions. The Humpback
whales were singing their mating song and the calves were practicing
their breaching. The weather wasn't as nice as usual mostly due to the
cloud/ vog mixture. Underwater the visibility averaged in the usual 100
ft + range. The Mantas weren't showing up at night, but the daytime
trips were exciting. There were weekly sightings of hammerhead sharks
and whale sharks by numerous boats on the Kona Coast.

Personally, we visited Pawai Bay Marine Sanctuary quite often. There
were often white tip reef sharks, mantas and eagle rays cruising by.
Along with the usual loads of colorful reef fish we also regularly
watched an unusually large pack of young Giant Travelly working the
reef. At two feet in length, with their iridescent blue fins, they are
impressive. We would watch as they darted around the reef working
together for a tasty snack. You knew when they were nearby because
suddenly the fish around you would dive down into the coral by the
dozens.

Lone Tree arch also became a favorite of the month. Because of its
south facing shore line, it was protected from the northwesterly
swells. There was a Giant Barracuda trying to blend in with the shadow
of the large archway. It hung out there for a few visits and would
check us out as much as we checked it out. The other nearby lava tubes
were also accessible and we had lots of fun exploring and cruising
through them on our Torpedoes. Other highlights were the Dragon
Wrasses, which seemed to be everywhere and the striking yellow and
black Flatworms which also seemed to be more prolific lately.

We had a couple great days (between swells) at Manta Ray Bay and Turtle
Pinnacle in which we were blessed with Dolphins, Eagle Rays and Green
and Hawksbill turtles.

Congratulations to all of the new divers who finished their
certifications with us in February, and to all of the Introductory
divers who experienced blowing bubbles with us for the first time. May
you all have many more special days on the water in your future.

Aloha!

Dive Log, January 31, 2005

Actually, I'm combining 3 days here. We ended up going to Manta Ray
Bay three days in a row! It's just been so great lately! We saw Spotted
Eagle Rays on every visit. Day one we saw three eagle rays, one of them
was just a baby. The second day we saw one hanging out getting cleaned
by the cleaner wrasses. We were able to hang out with it for 10
minutes. The the third day we saw 5, a threesome, followed later by a
twosome. We may have to rename the site "Eagle Ray Bay"!

Another great highlight was the Flying Gurnard spotted by Mike Ho. It's
a very difficult fish to see unless it's moving. When it spreads out
it's pectoral fins it resembles a giant moth. But, when not moving, you
don't see it because it blends in perfectly with the sandy bottom.

We've been seeing Humpback Whales and Dolphins between dives. On the
29th, a pair came within 200 feet of the diver's bubbles. Just a bit
too far out of the diver's visibility. Then today there was an
unusually large pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins hanging around Turtle
Pinnacles. (my guess is 100 to 150 dolphins) We spent the entire
surface interval watching them frolic and spin.

We did our second dive in the Turtle Pinnacle area in hopes of catching
a glimpse of them... but they did not come close enough to see. So, we
just listened to them while we watched the turtles.

Mother Nature had been very nice to us lately.

Dive Log, January 27, 2005

Jan 27, 2005

Ever seen a beaked whale breach? How about a Couvier's Beaked Whale?
This kind of event makes even the most seasoned veteran say, WOW!
Imagine a 25 foot long mammal leaping 30 feet into the air like a
dolphin which, is less than half its size. Incredible! Fishing trips
can be very exciting.

Again today, no diving, but an epic day, nonetheless.

We headed out early, 6:30 am. The sky was like milk as the sun rose
above Hualalai's peak. The vog was so thick, you could barely see the
island just a few miles out. ("vog" is volcano fog, a phenomena that
happens when the volcano is active and the wind blows in a certain
direction.) We felt like 'Old Man And The Sea', because of the vog and
the fact that you couldn't see land, but also, there was a pretty good
rolling swell out of the Northwest. We were off on an adventure to see
what lurks in watery depths. Arrrye.

About 5 minutes later, we hooked up with a fish. Not much of a fighter
so we suspected that it was an Ono (aka; Wahoo). It wasn't, turned out
to be a small Mahi Mahi. The perfect eating size. It bit on the pale
yellow hootchie, attached to a bird. ( the hootchie looks like a big,
juicy, plastic squid. The bird, made of wood, skips on the surface and
serves as an attention getting device.) So remember that, all you
fisherman out there: Pale yellow on voggy days. hee. hee.

As we headed out further offshore we found what we initially thought
were a couple of young Humpback Whales. As it turned out, they were
Sperm Whales... and there were over a dozen! It was my first time to
see Sperm Whales but we really never got a good close look at them.
They were pretty shy. However we got to see some interesting behavior.
A couple times we witnessed tail slapping, where they wave their tails
back and forth, slapping it against the surface of the water each time.
Also at one point we saw a whale come completely out of the water like
it was thrashing. In it's wake it left something in the water. Was it
blood, was it poop? Nope, it was ink. It had been wrestling a squid. We
pondered how deep they were diving between breaths and how big the
squid may have been. The depth of the water there was about 6,000 feet.

Later we looked it up online and here's what we learned:
Sperm Whales dive to depths of 5 to 6 thousand feet and can stay under
for up to 90 minutes. Also, of interest, they will spend about 20
minutes going down and spend 20 minutes on the bottom, squid
collecting. Then they spend almost an hour coming up. Does this mean
our squid eater had that squid stuck to him for an hour and he still
had ink left after his long journey to the surface? Amazing.

As we headed back towards where we remembered land being, that's when
we saw the Beaked Whale breaching, It was just awesome. Once we got up
to the whale, he appeared to be alone. A full grown male and just an
amazing specimen. He poked his head out of the water to get a look at
us and then turned and dove.

The day ended with a Spotted Dolphin encounter. There were at least
200, all spread out over a half a mile or so. They were playing,
jumping and riding our bow and stern wakes. One particular dolphin
decided to come and leap about 15 feet into the air just ten feet away
from the boat. We were standing on the fly bridge and he was looking us
right in the eye. Then he did it three more times. What a character!

And what a day!























we had an early departure for a morning fishing charter.
We caught a mahi mahi on the bottom corner of 'the grounds' and
continued out to OT buoy. as we neared the buoy we began seeing whales
tail slapping and playing on the surface. we expected to see humpback
whales but were surprised to find ourselves surrounded by sperm whales.
we witnessed spy hopping, breaching, tail slapping, logging and
feeding. the feeding(we think) was when a whale thrashed on the
surface for only a moment leaving a large cloud that initially appeared
red like blood but may have been ink from a large squid brought up from
the deep. this feeding probably takes place near the bottom....over
4,000 feet down! on our way back to the marina we saw what looked like
a huge dolphin jumping out of the water. what we found was a rare
blainesville beaked whale.

by the end of the charter we had dolphins jumping next to our
outriggers and humpback whales cruising the coast but no screaming
reels to let us know we had hooked another fish. maybe we'll have
better luck tomorrow.

Dive Log, January 24, 2005

Today we had a whale watch / fishing trip. So today's entry is actually
a "topside" log, but all you divers out there will absolutely drool
over the day we had!

Before we could get more than a quarter of a mile out from the
harbor... we saw a humpback whale... and then another... and then
another. So we headed in their direction to get a better look. Then
they went under, so we sat and waited. About 5 minutes later, they
started breaching. If you have never seen a 80,000 pound creature hoist
itself completely out of the water right in front of your eyes, it's
hard to imagine the power and the beauty.

After a half a dozen half breaches following the first full breach, the
whales dove once again. So, we waited and waited and waited... about
fifteen minutes went by with no sign of them so Nikki guessed that they
went under to sing, because it takes them a while to finish their song.
A guest on board expressed interest in hearing the song so, Nikki
lowered the ladder and slipped into the water to have a listen.

"I put my head in the water and my heart almost jumped out of my chest!
I couldn't hear them singing... but there before my eyes was a whale,
the size of a Mack truck coming right at me. Instantly and
instinctively I reached out for the ladder and tried to seek shelter by
clutching on to the boat. I was mesmerized. It came all the way up and
then surfaced right next to me. I was shaking with adrenaline and it
took me the better part of an hour to calm down from the encounter." -
Nikki Milligan

Thinking that this would be the highlight... having humpbacks surface
closer to the boat than ever before... we decided to get the fishing
lines out and ready for some fishing. However, before we could drive
another quarter mile, we spotted a mother and calf Humpback. They were
easy to see... the baby was practicing its breaching... it was so
incredibly cute. We all agreed it was the smallest whale we had ever
seen, it couldn't have been more that a week old. It breached at least
6 times and on one of those, mom breached right along side. A
simultaneous breach, what luck! It really put into perspective how huge
a full grown whale is and how young that calf was. WOW!

Finally we set out to do some fishing, enjoying the calm, lake-like
water of the day and the comfortable weather due to a cloud cover that
was keeping away the hot afternoon sun. As we were just hanging out
enjoying, without a care in the world... we hooked up. The fish was a
pretty good fighter and tugged and shook, reluctant to come close to
the boat. It was a good sized fish. As Jennifer, the angler,
persistently reeled on, the fish eventually came into view. Through the
crystal blue water, you could easily see its bright stripes. We had
ourselves a Striped Marlin, probably weighing around 100 pounds. As
Mike got the fish up to the boat we had to decide whether to keep it or
to let it go. Striped Marlin are very delicious, flavorful fish, but
upon close inspection, Mike realized that it was barely hooked and not
at all injured. It was a healthy, gorgeous fish. We took a photo and
let it go. A strange thing happened next.

Normally a fished just released would swim quickly away and out of
sight. This fish, paused behind the boat as if to say goodbye before it
slowly swam away. Or maybe is was taking a moment to reflect and learn
from the experience. Who knows? All of us on board for this trip will
not be forgetting any of it any time soon. It was one of those 'once in
a lifetime' days... the kind that makes you appreciate life just a bit
more.

Dive Log, January 22, 2005

The divers wanted to go a little deeper this morning, so we decided to
dive one of the points. We decided on Pine Trees point, just a couple
miles north of the marina. Viz was outstanding! We dropped down to
about 120 feet and checked out a several hundred schooling fish of a
dozen different varieties. We like to dive out at the points because
they tend to be very fishy due to the mixing of the current lines that
naturally occur in that environment.

Later, in the shallows of the dive site we encountered two leaf
scorpion fish. We've been seeing this particular pair there now for a
few weeks. One is a creamy white and the other a bright magenta. Leaf
scorpions like others in their family sit in one spot on the reef using
their pectoral fins like hands to hang on. They try to blend in and go
unnoticed which makes them hard to spot. Also, because they sit in one
spot all the time they tend to grow algae on their bodies. They get all
fuzzy and cruddy looking and then they molt revealing their bright,
new, shiny self. The magenta one has molted recently. Be-yew-tee-ful!

For the second dive...

The dolphins were hanging around Manta Ray Bay, so we decided to do it
again today in hopes of catching a glimpse of them underwater. Although
we could hear them throughout the dive, they eluded us. However, we
were blessed with a fabulous Eagle Ray encounter. This one was moving
so slowly, it seemed as if it was just hanging there in mid water. We
were able to get REALLY close. The divers got great photos and video.
Later we were fortunate enough to see two more! Other noteworthy
critters were; two Green Hawaiian Lionfish, (endemic!) and a baby
razorfish which dove into the sand to hide... but Mike scooped up the
sand and as it ran through his fingers, the tiny fish was left propped
up in the crook of Mike's fingers. Too cute!

It was another great day of Kona diving!