Thursday, January 31, 2013

Whales & dolphins oh my!


Great private charter today with Alan's family in from North Carolina. We were greeted outside the harbor by a group of spinner dolphins that rode the bow as we headed offshore to look for whales. We barely made it a couple miles before we spotted a lone bull pilot whale cruising south. He was friendly and stayed on the surface near the boat. We knew there must be more nearby and they weren't hard to find. The nursery group was about 15 mothers and youngsters with a couple juvenile bulls. We were watching this group slowly moving south as I was noticing activity all around us. Within a half mile or so of us I was seeing fins and spouts all around us until everything seemed to converge in one spot. A group of spotted dolphins came in from the south as a couple more bull pilot whales escorted a young humpback whale into the fray until there was a pile of fins all swimming together! It was amazing to see three species of marine mammals all swimming together and in a very playful manner. Both the dolphins and pilot whales were wrapped around the humpback as the whale was spinning around and seemingly enjoying all the attention. The humpback was spinning and twisting around as the dolphins and pilot whales took turns riding the pressure wave in front of him! Sooooo cooool! The spotted dolphins bailed after about ten minutes and continued north but the pilot whales and humpback continued to swim together for around an hour. It was an epic show and something I've only witnessed a few times in my 15 years in kona. It seemed unlikely to find a better show so we took our group into the marine preserve for some snorkeling and chillaxing where we found a small reef shark sleeping in a lava tube.

Another great day in kona!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Scout likes playing with balls at the beach

Fun in the sun.... Got to hang out at a friends vacation rental on the beach

It's one scouts favorite places

Mine too



Rebreather

We had six rebreathers on the boat today... New prism2 . The new units look great and performed well. Everyone had fun and there were no bailouts.

Lots of whales and dolphins around

Shark attack up at kiholo bay yesterday. Hopefully the surfers arm will get successfully reattached. An eye witness claims the shark was a great white. It launched itself out of the water during the attack and the witness was sure of what he saw. Great whites are known to visit Hawaiian waters during the winter months. The big swell that's in made the water at kiholo really murky so the shark probably thought it was attacking a turtle or seal.





Great Humpback Whale day!


Private charter had a great day! The first whales we saw wouldn't leave us alone. We shut down the boat and they hung out with us for about thirty minutes. They would cruise around and chill out upside down directly under the boat. The water was flat and clear and nearly water skiable !

One whale was vertical in the water with its nose about five feet underwater right next to our bow for around ten minutes. Im not spiritual but everyone felt blessed by the whale gods.

On the way home we saw several more whales( at least 20) including a mother with a calf that must have jumped out of the water fifty times. No exaggeration! The little guy seemed happy to be alive but apparently didn't want to be in the water.

Got a call from a friend who was with a 25 foot whale shark and they were only a mile away. We got there as fast as we could but it wasn't interested in hanging out with people and disappeared before we got there. We kept looking for it for about 15 minutes with no luck but we did find a scalloped hammerhead cruising on the surface. It also was uninterested in people and dove before we could get in the water with it.

We were so distracted by the Whale activity that we never made it inshore to swim with the spinner dolphins....oh well

Lots a fun on a beautiful kona day!

Best fishes!



Saturday, January 19, 2013

Champions tour @ hualalai

Watching Tom Watson golfing at hualalai

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Whales!


They have been slow to arrive this year but there was plenty of humpback whale activity today!

As soon as we descended on our first dive we could here whales singing nearby. The singing continued throughout the dive and everyone enjoyed that! Nothing big on the dives but lots of cool little stuff including a lion fish, juvenile razor wrasse, devil scorpion, thorny cowfish and many other delightful critters. Water temp was 75 and visibility was exceptional at around 120 or better!

We saw a large scalloped hammerhead shark cruising on the surface with its large dorsal fin well out of the water( a fishing buddy saw around 2 dozen yesterday off red hill)

Later in the day we were approached by a mother and calf humpback that swam right up to the boat while we were shut down. The mother seemed to go out of her way to bring the baby over to see the boat. They stayed on the surface near the boat for around 20 minutes. They had an escort with them that hung back and stayed down most of the time.

After the charter we had lunch at the beach looking across Kailua bay and saw several whales jumping and frolicking.

Best fishes

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Fun charter with a fun family

Went diving down south to avoid a north swell and had a group of spinner dolphins come hang out near the divers during their safety stop. Everyone took advantage of a fun opportunity and followed Scout out to swim with some very receptive and friendly dolphins. The dolphins circled around and hung out with the snorkelers for over 30 min.!!

We were surprised not to see any whales...there should be lots of humpbacks here soon!

Great water great people!

Pic with snorkelers and dolphins is shot into the glare of the sun.... I had to include the opposite angle (scout swimming) to show how nice the water was

Aloha!