Torpedo Tours

May 18, 2011

2011-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray Madness once again! We went out for the night dive and had a fantastic show. A couple dozen Manta Rays, Jeweled Anemone crab, Undulated moray Eels out hunting and we found a Big Eye Squid! Awesome dive!!

May 17, 2011

2011-06-06T22:39:00.001-07:00

I saw my first Kona Crab today! We dropped in at the Green Can in 130ft. Descended into thousands of Garden Eel at the bottom, where I was focused on a sizable something on the sand, scurrying about. At first I thought it was a large Jewelled Anemone Crab, but upon further inspection, I realized it was not. I hovered above it, watch it move along at a pretty good pace... finally I focused on it close enough to identify it as a Kona Crab. They're big! Like the size of a 7-11 crab... maybe even bigger. They have super long eye stalks, so as they bury themselves in the sand, which this one eventually did. They can still poke their beady little eyes out at the end of their long stalks and look around... you would never notice them. We also saw Spotted Eagle Rays and lots of fish and moray eels.

May 15, 2011

2011-06-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today was fabulous. We celebrated Nikki's birthday and took some close friends to a secluded beach, where we anchored just offshore. The ocean was flat, calm. We BBQ'd on the back of the boat.. oysters, dogs and ono, steak, chicken and veggie skewers. We swam into the beach for games and swimming. We also did some underwater foot races and ballet, in the shallow sand, with no fins. It was so much fun! Thanks to all who came out and to those who didn't... you should not miss the next boat day!!

Happy Birthday Nikki

May 12, 2011

2011-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

We went up to see the Manta Rays tonight. It was AMAZING! We had record numbers of Manta Rays at the night dive tonight! There were too many to count, but the official count came in at 36! That's unbelievable! Everyone was super stoked! Thank you Mantas for blessing us tonight. We love you!!

May 12, 2011

2011-06-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

Thunder Reef was gorgeous as usual this morning. So CLEAR! It's so fishy... just like being in an aquarium! We found a Tiger Flat Worm, a Devil Scorpion Fish, Psychedelic Wrasses, a Gold Lace Nudibranchs, a HUGE male Green Sea Turtle that cruised along with us for a bit. Also in the shallows next to the boat we've been seeing a couple different pairs of sizable Tear Drop Butterfly fish,we saw both of the pairs today. They seem to be hanging around. Beautiful Kona!

May 11, 2011

2011-06-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

We caught an Ono!! Yum... everyone got to take some home to enjoy! Thanks for reeling it in Scott, and thanks for cutting it up Danny! The highlights for today's dives were: We had a hunting party consisting of a dozen or so blue goatfish, blue fin travelle, a white mouth moray eel and a trumpet fish! They were zooming around, side by side, the eel would dive into a coral head and all the fish would cluster around waiting for a tasty snack to pop out. They'd go from coral head to coral head like a gang of outlaws! After following them for a while, we found a pair of black and white striped coris together! This is a rare fish which is usually seen solo. We also saw leaf scorpion fish, a huge 7-11 crab and another huge moray eel out swimming. And it was a beautiful, sunny, calm day in Kona, Hawaii!

May 10, 2011

2011-05-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

First we dove Kaiwi Point where my group saw a little baby Spotted Eagle Ray and Mike's group saw a large adult Spotted Eagle Ray! We also saw a White Tip Reef Shark, A variety of Moray Eels and an Octopus. The highlights of the day actually happened on the next dive at Kaloko Canyons.

We not only saw a male Whitley's Box Fish in 35 FEET OF WATER!! (they are usually much deeper) We got to see (for my first time EVER!) A SPINY COWFISH!!!! An extremely rare fish that I wasn't sure I would ever see in Hawaii. It's also known as the "big" cowfish because it gets up to 10 inches when fully grown. This one was fully grown and blended in very well with the rocky substrate. When Mike first pointed it out to me I thought it was a Striped Belly Puffer Fish, because it was about the same size. However as my eyes focused on it I could clearly see its boxy shape and the thorns protruding from its eyebrow area, mid-back and also below its tail. So AMAZING!

May 8, 2011

2011-05-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

At Nai'a Bay this morning we had friendly Spinner Dolphins! We got to hang out with them for 10 minutes or so. Yorin got really CLOSE to one. I wish I had a camera so I could've taken his picture! Something caught my eye as I was playing in mid-water with the dolphins, so I descended to the bottom at about 75 feet to inspect the critter in the rubble. It turned out to be a male Two Spot Wrasse. It gets its name for the two black spots on it's body, but this one was especially colorful. Once back on the boat I looked it up in the book, turns out the one I saw was in full courtship display! It had delicately colored spots and lines in pink, purple, green, yellow and blue! It was also fully grown according to Hoover's fish identification book. It was 6 inches.

April 7, 2011

2011-05-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Thunder Reef was gorgeous this morning! Beautiful visibility! As we descended over the ledge a large Manta Ray swam slowly past us. That was a great way to start the dive! We dropped down to 130 feet to check out the forest of Wire Coral. The individual, green corals were standing straight up out of the bottom, shaped like long wires. Most of them were 3 to 4 feet high but some were taller than me! As we cruised up the slope we saw a Zebra Moray and a couple of harems of Flame Wrasses, with the males in their mating phase with their colorful fins out in full display. Up on top of the slope we found a large, gorgeous Leaf Scorpion fish that looked like white lace. Later we found octopus, more eels, and a Tiger Cowrey. As we ascended back to the boat a school of about 200 Raccoon Butterfly fish came swarming all around us. We all just grinned at each other.... NICE dive!

May 2, 2011

2011-05-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

Drift Dive around Kaiwi Point. It was a perfect day for it. The current was gentle but constant. It pushed us along for nearly 40 minutes. (usually it dies out after 15-20) It was gorgeous. Lots of fish and beautiful visibility. We didn't see any big animals today but we all agreed that it was a relaxing, beautiful dive. Dee found an extremely rare fish. And even more rare, she got a picture of the rare fish!! Well done, Dee! Here it is pictured below. We had to look it up in the book... a nearly SUPER Male Sunset Wrasse. ( "super" here not meaning, "really great" but, alpha, alpha male! )

April 28, 2011

2011-05-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

We dropped in on the "Green Can" this morning. That is the channel marker in front of Honokohau Harbor. I hadn't been down there in a while. At the bottom of the chain there is a big cement block at about 130 ft. As we were descending we saw a couple Sand Bar Sharks cruising out in the blue. They made a couple of passes to get a better look and then they were gone. As we settled in on the sand at the bottom, we took a few moments to pan the horizon and take in the vast stretch of white sand with thousands of Garden Eels. They look like tall grass coming out of the sea floor, but they are actually long skinny eels. As we started to make our way across the expanse of sand towards the reef we noticed little patched of sand were moving. As our focus shifted we realized the moving sand was actually juvenile Peacock Flounders that perfectly blended in with the sand. Some of them were the size of a quarter, the biggest ones were the size of a dollar bill. (They reach the size of a dinner plate!) Then we realized they were everywhere. We probably saw a couple dozen! I have never seen that many together! It was cool. As we got closer to the reef we found a Jeweled Anemone Crab scurrying away to try and find a coral head to hide under. Up on the reef there was plenty to see. We found a Great Barracuda, two Hawaiian Octopus, and a teeny, tiny baby Frog Fish the size of the nail on my pinky finger! Too cute! Another great dive right in front of the harbor. We are so spoiled!

April 24, 2011

2011-04-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

4-24-11

Went fishing yesterday with Rich Bauer. We passed by VV buoy around 6:am and hooked a spunky striped marlin that put on a great jumping display. Rich brought the fish up to the boat in about 15 minutes and we let it swim free. About an hour later we made it to C buoy passing spotted dolphins, beaked and pilot whales along the way. At C buoy we started catching 4-8# skip jack and yellowfin tunas for live baits. The first bait attracted a large bronze whaler shark that gave Rich something to tug on for awhile. Once the shark was free we resumed live baiting but started getting harrassed by a group of rough toothed dolphins. The pesky critters wouldnt leave us alone so we eventually gave up and started trolling plastics. Near VV we had a hook up that came off right away but we circled back and found a hungry spearfish that even made a few jumps. Rich had the spearfish to the back of the boat in five minutes and the fish unhooked itself.

3 days ago we had a similar trip and Rich caught a Blue marlin under 100#'s

April 23, 2011

2011-04-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

Suck 'Em Up and Kaiwi Point. The South swell has been big enough to keep us out of these sites for the last couple weeks. It was nice to visit them again. Visibility was phenomenal! As good as it gets! There was a huge antler coral demolished right by the Suck 'Em Up mooring... couldn't tell if it was from the recent swell or an anchor drop.

Exploring the lava tubes was fun. We saw a White Tip Reef Shark, a variety of Moray Eels, Hawaiian Octopus and loads of fish at Kaiwi Point. Fun day!

April 22, 2011

2011-04-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

Fishing trip today... So fun! We hooked a Pacific Blue Marlin almost right off the bat, and released him. He probably weighed in at around 100 lbs. We headed Southward and found a huge pod of Spotted Dolphins where we caught a few small Yellow Fin Tuna. (they were delicious, we later had them as sashimi) We then found a pod of Short Finned Pilot Whales. We also got one more special treat... a pod of Melon Head Whales come all around the boat.... CLOSE. It was amazing!!!

April 21, 2011

2011-04-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Kaloko Canyons and Turtle Haven. Today's dive highlights: Mating Hawaiian Octopus that couldn't care less about us. We hung out with them watching them change color and texture again and again. Too cool. We had a close encounter with a large Manta Ray. We saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, a couple Green Sea Turtles, more Hawaiian Octopus and a variety of moray eels

April 19, 2011

2011-04-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Pyramid Pinnacle and Nai'a Bay. Great vis today! Today's dive highlights: Spotted Eagle Rays, Great Barracuda, Green Sea Turtle, Leaf Scorpion Fish, Hawaiian Octopus, Snowflake Moray Eel.

April 15, 2011

2011-04-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Aloha All! Check out our new Facebook page! Been diving with us in the past? Please share photos, video or stories on our new page. ENJOY!

March 15, 2011

2011-04-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Whale Shark!!

What a great moment for all of our open water students. We were conducting Open Water Dive 1, for the PADI program. We were all just off the boat and headed up to the mooring line to begin our descent when we look over and see a Whale Shark! It was a young male, only about 15 feet long. He was so beautiful. He hung our with us for about 5 minutes and was scratching his back and belly against the mooring line. Then he slowly swam off into the blue. We all took a moment to compose ourselves and the continued on with these lucky individual's FIRST DIVE EVER!

I can't remember what we saw on that dive!

August 14th, 2009

2009-08-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Got to Torpedo Dive with Marcie today. We went to Kaloko Canyon and dove for 78 minutes. We saw a Viper Moray, two different groups of Psychedelic Wrasses, each with 1 male and about 7 or 8 females. After we dropped off the heavier breathers, Marcie and I went cruising out over the sand flats and saw about 8 different octopus, 2 large Indigo Dart Fish, Flagtail File Fish, Dragon Wrasses and a huge, terminal male Yellowstripe Coris. Awesome. Mike did dive #1 today at Nai'a Bay. It was the usual crowd pleaser with the typical after dive remarks, like "that was the best dive I've ever done." So all the usual critters were there. Maybe Marcie will list them for us. Marcie? You out there?? (Actually, a new client today, Doug, whose been out diving with our competitors this week said, "This was the best day of diving I've ever had!" Thanks Doug, for giving us the opportunity to show you around... hope to see you again!

August 13th, 2009

2009-08-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Fishing trip today. Went out to OTEC Buoy. (12 miles offshore, over 10,000 feet deep) Loaded up with small Big Eye Tuna. YUMMY!! My favorite dinner, and the folks from Texas got to learn why!!! Also saw a lot of Mahi Mahi's but couldn't raise them. We also saw Short Finned Pilot Whales and Beaked Whales. Beautiful day with flat, calm water. Kona has returned to normal following Tropical Depression Felicia.

August 12, 2009

2009-08-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tropical Depression Felecia brought us rain all night. We awoke to a soggy boat. A beautiful sunny day and strong winds out of the South today. Tomorrow, things should return to normal.

Three tanks planned today with the first stop being the Naked Lady. Crazy with critters... Didn't find the frog fish or the shark today, but lots of other fun stuff to keep us busy. 3 Leaf Scorpion Fish, Long Nose Hawkfish, 8 Green Hawaiian Lionfish, Bicolor Anthius, Helmet Conch, Lantern Tobies, gobies, nudibranchs, shrimp, and much more.

Dive two and three we hid from the South wind at Nai'a Bay and Turtle Pinnacle. The snorkelers hung out with that big, male Green Sea Turtle for quite a while at Nai'a Bay and then swam with Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins at Turtle Pinnacle! The divers got to enjoy a Spotted Eagle Ray, about 50 Cornet fish, puffer fish, a couple big Yellow Margin Moray Eels, turtles, octopus and more!

Underwater, visibility was well over 100 feet. I wonder if they can say that in Florida and the Caribbean when a Hurricane, turned Tropical Depression, rolls on through. I doubt it. Kona is so awesome!

August 11th, 2009

2009-08-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Tropical Depression Felecia has finally arrived. A beautiful sunny day in Kona with gusty winds coming out of the North. We hid from the wind along the south facing shores of Pine Trees. No fishing offshore today! Skull Cave and Freeze Face were both really nice underwater. We saw octopus, a nice variety of eels, including a Tiger Moray and Garden Eels, nudibranchs in Suck-em-up lava tube, a Seven Eleven Crab, Reticulated Cowreys in Skull Cave, and a Frog Fish.

August 10th, 2009

2009-08-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Fishing trip this morning. We tagged and released two Pacific Blue Marlin. A good time had by all!

Night dive at Golden Arches. We decided to do a regular night dive because our returning clients had all seen the mantas before. This dive was awesome!! My first time to do Golden Arches at night, here's all the cool stuff we saw: A Hawaiian Conger Eel, Cusk Eel, White Stripe Urchin Shrimp, octopus, huge Spiny Lobster, Sculpted Slipper Lobster, Regal Slipper Lobster, sleeping Star Eyed Parrotfish, and a sleeping, large, terminal phase Ringtail Wrasse sleeping in a crevasse under the arch amongst the cup corals. On the safety stop we found a cool Speckled Scorpion fish out cruising around. The highlight for most of us was the Textile Cone out hunting... it was cruising and looking for something to kill with its harpoon extended far out in front! So awesome.

August 9th, 2009

2009-08-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today we did Nai'a Bay and Pyramid Pinnacle. At Nai'a Bay, although there was a pod of Nai'a (dolphins) in the bay, we did not see them during the dive. Spotted Eagle Rays were seen by the deep divers, as well as the other usual suspects that live out in the sand... Garden Eels, the used-to-be white, turned orange striped, turned orange frog fish, ( I wonder if the one at Lone Tree Arch will do the same?) Everyone got to see a huge, male Green Sea Turtle, numerous times, and there were so many White Mouth Moray Eels, many of them out swimming around! We also got to see a Tiger Flat Worm, and the yellow frog fish that's still hanging around the mooring.

At Pyramid Pinnacle we saw the Long Nose Hawkfish, Tinker's Butterfly fish, a couple different octopus. Mike found a new large yellow frog fish. Nikki found White Margin Nudibranchs with eggs! We also got to see the two harems of female Flame Wrasses (they are about 10 feet away from each other) with the male swimming between them in full display, proudly marking his large territory. Beautiful!

August 8th, 2009

2009-08-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today, we went to a reef that, as far as I know, does not have a name. It's the reef south of Shark Fin Rock and North of Kailua Pier. Doug and Vikki are here! (from L.A) (Doug Wakeman has a lot of photos on our dive page.... check out his work) Dee and Marcie also were out today. We decided to name the reef after our puppy, Kea. (Dee's idea) so here are the highlights from "Kea's Reef" today: 2 Spotted Eagle Rays, a Zebra Moray Eel, a Yellow Margin Moray getting cleaned by shrimp, an Undulated Moray, Banded Coral Shrimp, an Octo Coral garden larger than any we've seen on the Kona Coast before. On the safety stop we had a curious Great Barracuda come check us out. cool

At Lone Tree Arch, we had a Tiger Moray, Whip Coral Gobies and Two Frogfish. The white one is sharing it's antler coral with some kind of Elbow Crab. The white frog fish is so cool. It has an orange angler, a black striped tail and black toe tips. The other frog fish is right by the mooring and is bright yellow.

August 7th, 2009

2009-08-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

Had a half day "fishing" charter... which turned into a marine mammal charter. We saw Short Finned Pilot Whales! Also, we had an amazing swim with Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. It was one of those days where the dolphins were super social! There was about 150 animals in the pod and they were being very interactive often swimming right up to us and stopping just a couple of feet away! Next we saw something so rare and incredible... Dwarf Sperm Whales! Usually a super duper shy species, it's hard to get a good look at them, but on this day, we got close enough to get a good look. Lucky day.

August 2nd, 2009

2009-08-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

What a great day! The Highlights:

The Naked Lady (sailboat wreck dive): 2 frogfish, one had pink frilly growths! 9 Green Hawaiian Lionfish, Longnose Hawkfish, White Tip reef Shark, the submarine payed us a visit during the dive! cool

Nai'a Bay: Dolphins!! Eagle Ray, 2 frogfish, a very small Helmet Conch cruising on the sand, Peacock Flounder, Peacock Razor Fish

pm Nai'a Bay: 2 Eagle Rays, Garden Eels, lots of moray eels, frogfish

night dive: no mantas, but everyone had an awesome time! On the dive, we saw a lionfish! Also, a slipper lobster, a flounder, lots of shrimp, lots of hunting Undulated Morays, and a couple of Stocky Hawk Fish. The snorkelers saw eels and a turtle!

August 1st, 2009

2009-08-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

High Rock and Nai'a Bay, highlights: An awesome, very large Zebra Moray Eel, we got a good look at it including its sweet face! We also saw a Hawaiian Swimming Crab, a few Whitemouth Moray Eels and an Octopus. We saw Spotted Eagle Rays and 4 more juvenile Hawaiian Hawkfish! It's awesome that we've been seeing so many of these juvenile hawkfishes, almost every day on almost every dive. There have been more this year than any other year I can remember. It will be interesting watching them grow up to see how fast they grow up and if the adults also continue to hang around our local reefs.

July 31st, 2009

2009-08-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

We did Kaloko Canyon and Nai'a Bay. Mike Bynum found me a Titon Scorpion Fish!! Thanks, Mike, they are one of my favorites. I counted a total of 6 juvenile Hawaiian Hogfish. I saw 3 on each dive!

July 30th, 2009

2009-08-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

Dolphins! Dove at Pyramid Pinnacle and Turtle Pie. Long Nose Hawkfish, Tinker Butterfly Fish, Flame Wrasses, octopus, lots of Moray Eels, Leapord Blenny, Frog Fish, Leaf Scorpion Fish, flat worms, A yellow and orange bumpy sea cucumber (I forgot the name) and at Turtle Pinnacle, we saw a turtle getting cleaned by Yellow Tangs and Orange Rimmed surgeon Fish.

July 29th, 2009

2009-08-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

High Rock on Torpedoes! My favorite way to dive at one of my favorite places to do a Torpedo Dive! This massive reef is best explored on a Torpedo. We covered Wacky's and High Arch as well. Tons of cool critters, including mating octopus. The highlights that the divers who kicked instead of using the Torpedo didn't get to see, ( because they couldn't cover the kind of area we did and ran out of air) included, a white tip reef shark, a DRAGON Wrasse and one of the most awesome and frilly frog fish I've ever seen... ( and we've been lucky enough to see some really curmudgeony frog fish lately, this one had so much growth, it was beyond curmudgeony, it was FRILLY!)

July 27th and July 28th, 2009

2009-08-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

On the 27th we went to Nai'a Bay and Skull Cave. The highlights were Spotted Eagle Rays, Red Stripe Pipefish, Whip Coral Shrimp, Peacock Razor Fish, Horned Helmet Conchs, octopus, wide variety of moray eels. It was our first visit to Skull Cave in quite a while since summertime brings the south swell, which makes Skull Cave super surgy. it was nice however and we saw a White Tip Reef Shark (Lala Kea)

The dive on the Naked Lady on the 28th, was off the hook!! We have not dove there in so very long, but heard from Dee that there were lots of cool critters hanging around. She was right. Our action-packed 26 minute bottom time brought on the following plethora or marine life: A chill Lala Kea hanging around on the sand, 8 Green Hawaiian Lionfish, Frog fish, a Longnose Hawkfish, Curious Wormfish everywhere, a HUGE Ewa Blenny, a HUGE Peacock Flounder, Flagtail Filefish, Bicolor Anthius, a Helmet Conch, a few Peacock Razor Fish, an octupus, and a TON of Domino Damsel Fish. The water reached 81 degrees for the first time this summer! YAY!

Our second dive was a drift around Kaiwi Point. The highlights were, A Tiger Moray out and about. I think Mike Smith got some good pictures. We also saw a Zebra Moray, Belted Wrasses and Tinker, Flame and Banded Angel Fish.

July 26th, 2009

2009-08-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I got a little behind with the blog. That's what happens when you work 17 days straight, with 9 of those days being morning trips AND night trips. So the next few blogs are a little spotty, but I'm going to get caught up so I can get back on track, blogging daily.

Mike, Theresa and Linda are here! haven't seen the Smith's from Ohio in two years! We missed you guys! Theresa, if you read this blog for the dates you were here, please feel free to fill in the gaps!

We did Golden Arches again, because I really wanted to show M,T and L the two frog fish we found yesterday. I wasn't really expecting to find either one, and we found BOTH! The black one was near where it was yesterday and the big grey one was about 20 feet from where it was yesterday also. (by the way, I'm writing this on 10th of August, and we haven't seen either one ever since. My point is, you have to enjoy and appreciate every moment, you never know when it may be your only chance to see a particular animal)

Another highlight for me was the two White Stripe Urchin Shrimp, which were on the spiny urchin that the black frog fish was hiding under. They are awesome! Purple with a white stripe down the middle of their back, these two were the biggest I've ever seen, almost two inches long. We did another dive after that, (Theresa... help! I know your detailed log is filled with every critter found!) followed by a Manta Dive at night, there were over a half dozen rays. Aloha.

July 25th, 2009

2009-07-26T02:10:00.000-07:00

Morning trip was awesome! Saw a small pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins right off the bat. We had a great group from L.A. (shout out: so great diving with you guys!) We went to the crowd pleaser: Nai'a Bay and then to Golden Arches. Golden Arches was off the hook. Rose found a BLACK FROG FISH! It had a white fishing lure and white toes! ( well, the very tips of it's pectoral fins, that it uses like toes... or hands... were white) We also had mating octopus that we watched for over 5 minutes... mating. We also found another huge frog fish, grey, with lots of curmudgeony growths... awesome. We lost an Ono between dives, but caught one on the way home!!! Fresh fish for everyone for dinner! Looking forward to having you guys out again tomorrow!! (oh, Nai'a bay was awesome too: rays, eels, conchs, frog fish, cornets, box fish, brittle star, whip coral shrimp.........)

July 25th, 2009

2009-07-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray Night Dive: One Manta. Light plankton. Lost an Ono to the Fishing Gods (again)

July 24th, 2009

2009-07-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

Morning trip: Decided to do Mike's reef again, because it was so awesome yesterday and we also visited Turtle Haven. The highlights: Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins passed through the dive site while we were underwater. We saw about 6 Crocodile Needle Fish at a cleaning station, a Milk Fish, the biggest Sea Cucumber Crab ( almost completely black with awesome white spots on the fringe of the carapace) Crown of Thorns Sea Star, and a Hawaiian Swimming Crab. On the way to the next dive, we hooked an Ono... but it got away. We decided we'll come back for it tomorrow.

Turtle Haven was awesome. Haven't dove there in a while and we found two Frog Fish!! One was a bright yellow, golf ball sized, juvenile, very similar to the one at Nai'a Bay. We found it right near the mooring. The other, we found in the rubble, on the bottom, on it's side!! Weird spot to see one. It was rubble colored and softball sized. Also found 4 Flame Angel Fish, 2 Red Stripe Pipefish, octopus, a big red crab and we got to watch a large, yellow Trumpet Fish with its mouth wide open as it got dental work by a cleaner wrasse... and the cleaner wrasse was way in there! too cool.

July 23rd, 2009

2009-07-26T01:32:00.000-07:00

Morning trip: Happy Birthday Dee!! We went to the Birthday girl's requested site, Mike's Reef. The south swell was cranking, but up north, underwater was awesome! Manta Ray, Reticulated Butterfly Fish, Oval Butterfly Fish (at 50 feet!), black Long Nose Butterfly Fish, and more. Sand Chute was the second dive. We saw a Fuchsia Flat Worm, 2 Spotted Eagle Rays, Teardrop Butterflies, and a Brown and White Dendrodoris Nudibranch, (my first!!)

July 23rd, 2009

2009-07-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray Night Dive. 6 Mantas, light plankton. We hope this isn't the beginning of a slow period. We always get nervous when the plankton is light. The Mantas have been in such strong numbers since April. We're kind of due for a shift, but we don't want one! We love you, Mantas!!

July 22nd, 2009

2009-07-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Morning trip: We went to Freeze Face and Nai'a Bay. South swell is picking up again. Freeze Face got surgy in the hour that we were there. Underwater, there were still lots of fun critters including; Flame Angel Fish, Dragon Wrasse, Huge Yellow Margin Moray, Bone Fish, Spectacled Parrot Fish, Star Eyed Parrot Fish, and a Devil Scorpion Fish. Nai'a Bay had the usual awesome critters. Spotted Eagle rays, Huge Great Barracuda (that Mike named "Spike") Heller's Barracuda, Frog fish.

July 22nd, 2009

2009-07-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray night dive. All were snorkeling. We had 9 Manta Rays.

July 21st, 2009

2009-07-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

Another Manta Ray Night Dive tonight. Lots of Manta Rays (11) and another gorgeous sunset. We also saw a spiny lobster and a pimpled basket ( a kind of mollusk, buried in the sand in the day time) It was out cruising around, the slug like creature was completely out with its shell on top.

July 19th, 2009

2009-07-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

We went back out for a two tank afternoon/ night charter. We decided to go up to Garden Eel Cove for both dives, because it was still a bit choppy. On the way there we had an Ono strike our lure. It looked like a nice one, but it didn't stick. bummer. On the afternoon dive, we saw the Garden Eels and a Tiger Moray out and about. They look more like a snake eel than a moray, and they move more like a snake too. We got to watch as it slithered along the bottom. Also we saw a large White Mouth Moray Eel with its mouth wide open and a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse in its mouth giving it a dental treatment. Cool. On the night dive we had over 15 Manta Rays, plankton was thick and they put on a great show! The ride home was smooth sailing, the ocean calmed down nicely by then. Thanks for the brownies with raspberries, Vicky and Becky! Everyone enjoyed them all day and night!!

July 19th, 2009

2009-07-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

On the morning charter we visited Golden Arches. We saw a Hammerhead Shark out swimming over the drop off. Then we spotted a Devil Scorpion Fish and a Leaf Scorpion Fish. We also found a couple of octopus and both White Mouth and Undulated Moray Eels. The wind kicked up and it got a little choppy, so we headed for protection at Nai'a Bay, and were we ever glad! We saw two Tiger Sharks. I'm fairly certain they were two different sharks. One had much lighter coloration than the other... and we were close enough to see their stripes! They were shy though, so as soon as we saw them, they slowly swam away. After that we found a large White Mouth Moray out swimming, 3 Horned Helmet Conchs, a pair of Red Stripe Pipefish, the same yellow Frog Fish, and Marcie found a couple very large Crocodile Needle Fish swimming above us. Sweet day... Hammerhead and Tiger sharks!

July 17th, 2009

2009-07-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Why do we keep going to Nai'a Bay, when we have so many dive sites to choose from?? Well, we heard it yet again today from the excited divers after the dive... "That was the best dive we've ever done!" We saw 3 Manta Rays getting cleaned by the Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasses. They we're doing slow circles over the reef as the fish swam up to greet and clean them. Since we didn't spook them we we're able to sit and watch for 10 minutes! Then we saw a White Tip Reef Shark, a green Sea Turtle, octopus and a Frog Fish. At Pyramid Pinnacle we saw Red Stripe Pipefish, A Viper Moray Eel, a Divided Flatworm and a huge Porcupine Puffer swam over to check us out! (strange behavior for the usually shy puffer) No night dive tonight, so we celebrated our fun day with apres dive beers at the Kona Brewing Company. Cheers!

July 16th, 2009

2009-07-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

On the way up to the Garden for the night dive, We hooked up with a pod of Spinner Dolphins. They escorted us for the next mile as we headed north. Conditions were ideal with a GORGEOUS sunset! The night dive was equally awesome with 20+ Manta Rays and thick plankton.

July 15th, 2009

2009-07-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

We saw a Tiger Shark at Nai'a Bay! Not close enough to see the stripes, but we saw the huge silhouette off in the distance. Out in the sand we saw a White Tip Reef Shark and then an odd thing happened. A school of Heller's Barracuda that was up higher in the water column dove down to the shark and started riding in it's wake. About 1/3 of the school started trailing the shark. Once it got a fair distance away, the barracuda turned and promptly joined the rest of the school back up in the water column. funny fish. We did Eel Cove second, it was super fishy and beautiful, although the visibility was a little below average.

July 12th, 2009

2009-07-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Dolphins, dolphins, dolphins!!! They we're so friendly today. I was teaching but I wish I was Torpedo Diving! They stayed in shallow over the reef the entire dive. And THAT, is why we call it "Nai'a Bay" (Dolphin Bay) So while I was teaching, the certified divers saw: a Barred Conger Eel, (very cool), a HUGE, male Green Sea Turtle, a Flying Gurnard out in the sand (so Awesome!!), Horned Helmet Conchs, a White Tip Reef Shark and a Frog Fish. Needless to say, the divers came up STOKED! Our second dive we drifted North from Thunder Reef. We had a perfect current, not too strong, but kept us moving along. The highlights were a Spotted Eagle Ray and Tom found a Blue Dragon Nudibranch. It was so nice to dive with you, Tom and Marni! We've missed you!!

July 11th, 2009

2009-07-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today we visited Nai'a Bay and Golden Arches. The highlights were numerous... We saw Harlequin Shrimp, 2 Leaf Scorpion Fish, an Octopus getting cleaned by numerous glass cleaner shrimp, (awesome!) We found a Fire Dart Fish!!!! The first one we've seen since summer of 2007. Last year we had none... hopefully, we'll start to see more. I heard of another sighting recently at Pyramid Pinnacle as well. yay. Other higlights include, a Triton's Trumpet, a Flame Back Coral Shrimp, a big red crab, a Divided Flatworm, an Undulated Moray, a Zebra Moray, and a Spotted Eagle Ray. Another great day of diving in Kona!

July 9th, 2009

2009-07-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

For the morning trip today we visited Pawai Bay and Turtle Pinnacle. We had a group of beginners on the boat this morning and they had some awesome beginner's luck! We saw a Manta Ray on BOTH dives. The one at Turtle Pinnacle hung around for a while, allowing us to get a close encounter. Conditions were especially beautiful this morning. Visibility was amazing and we saw so many schools of beautiful, colorful fish. I also found a Jeweled Anemone Crab in the sand patch near Turtle Pinnacle. Cute!

July 9th, 2009

2009-07-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

We did a Manta Ray Night Dive at Garden Eel Cove tonight. It was awesome, an epic night with 23 Manta Rays!!! Thick plankton and we saw a couple Undulated Moray Eels out hunting. A good time was had by all!

July 7th, 2009

2009-07-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

We did a night dive at Garden Eel Cove. We had about 6 Manta Rays. The plankton was fairly light. We also saw a Huge Undulated Moray Eel out hunting, a Devil Scorpion fish and a Peacock Flounder.

Independence Day, 2009

2009-07-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today we did High Rock 1st. The highlight was a Zebra Moray eel all the way out cruising around on the bottom. He didn't seem to be concerned with us watching him and it was fun to see him hunting around. We also saw a pair of mating Scrambled Egg Nudibranchs on the side of High Rock pinnacle. We also saw a few White Mouth Moray Eels and an octopus. At Nai'a Bay for the second dive, it was filled with life as usual. The short list; A Lala Kea (our puppy's namesake, White Tip Reef Shark), Spotted Eagle Ray, A Scribbled Filefish cleaning station, where 2 were getting cleaned by the Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse, allowing us to get a nice long look. We then saw an Uku (Grey Snapper) usually seen out a little deeper and shy due to the spear fishermen always hunting them, this one was curious, swimming a half circle around us to check us out. Very cool. We also saw 3 pairs of Lizard Fish in the shallows. The baby Frog Fish is still hanging around near the mooring and is still bright yellow, but is now the size of a golf ball. Very cute. Hope you all had a happy 4th! We enjoyed chili, cheese dogs, fireworks and friends!!

July 5th, 2009

2009-07-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Aloha! Today we saw a Lizard Fish hanging out with a Chromis in his mouth. And the Chromis was still breathing! The Lizard fish was working on the long, slow crush. We also found some Whip Coral Gobies (on a whip coral, of course), a Spotted Eagle Ray, a Tiger Cowrey, Octopus, many Moray Eels, a Frog Fish, a huge school of Cornet Fish (50-70 of them!!!) and Picasso Trigger Fish.... aka: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, in Hawaiian. (the fish with a nose like a pig), aka: the state fish of Hawai'i. dived: Mike's Reef, Nai'a Bay.

July 2nd, 2009

2009-07-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

First time to Thunder Reef after the south swell. So amazing that our critter friends held up against some impressive waves. The big yellow Frog Fish was about 5 feet away from the last place I saw it, in 60 feet of water... you know that surge had to be powerful there. Even crazier... is that inside the lava tube, which must have been a giant blowhole, all the Fellow's nudibranchs were in the same spots too... with egg sacks! I now realize that a nudibranch can make you feel, as out of your element, as a dolphin can.

Dive two was at Pyramid Pinnacle. The biggest octopus we've ever seen in Hawaii. It's head was as big as Kea's! We also found the biggest, most curmudgeony Frog Fish ever! It looked like a rock... covered in curmudgeon. The Long Nose Hawkfish and the Flame Wrasses were also still there. :-)

July 1st, 2009

2009-07-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today we did a wreck dive called the Predator. We saw both the male and female Whitley's box fish there. Gerard saw an Ono hanging out with Opelu, or the other way around. (unusual, those fish usually are found in open water, not near the reef. Divine Pygme Gobies and about 30 Taylor's Dwarf Gobies in the engine hatch. Yellow Spot (Island) Jacks were hanging out under the craft. Both Gold Lace Nudibranchs and Raspberry Nudibranchs on the wreck. Next we drifted Kaiwi Point. Again, there was a lot of destruction from the recent waves, I felt like I needed sunglasses because of all of the exposed bright, white rock. Great dive though, nice current. It was very fishy with hundreds of butterfly fish. Pyramid Butterflies, Pennant Butterflies, Blue Fin Trevalles, Red Velvet Sea Star, (felt like velvet!), Sphinx Nudibranchs, 3 Tiger Cowreys together, a Sea Cucumber Crab and an unidentified spider looking crab.

June 30th, 2009

2009-07-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Pawai Bay and Turtle Pinnacle. It was the first time we've been to Pawai Bay since the three week long south swell we've had. Viz was off the hook. I was struck by how bright it seemed underwater, and later realized it was because of all of the overturned rocks and broken coral from the waves. There was a lot of white. However, the fish didn't seem to mind. It is still one of our fishy-est sites. Lots of eels too, many out and about... overturned homes? White Mouth, Tiger, Undulated and white Stout Moray Eels. One White Mouth was swimming around and biting rocks! strange. We also found two Bicolor Nudibranchs, a rarely seen Nudibranch with a lame name. They are beautiful! Other highlights: Red Stripe Pipefish, Divided Flatworm, Banded Coral Shrimp, Peacock Flounder, a Red Spot Nudibranch ON a Sea Cucumber! Also a school of gorgeous juvenile Oval Chromis. They look like they have a neon yellow light inside of them.

June 29th, 2009

2009-07-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Had a great day at Mike's Reef. A close encounter with a friendly Manta Ray. He hung out for 15 minutes or so. We found a super rare (but not that rare at Mike's Reef) Male Whitley's Box Fish. The females are common, why there are so few males is a mystery! We also found a Red Spotted Nudibranch, a Sponge Crab, 5 pom pom crabs cruising in the rubble patch!! Too cool! 3 Tiger Cowreys, One of the most beautiful and perfect Triton's trumpets, I've ever seen, an Octopus, Corn Kernel Nudibranchs. I actually call them "Cyclops" since they only have one rinophore. They are the size of a grain of rice, to really get a good look at them you need a magnifying glass.

July 28th, 2009

2009-07-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

Afternoon fishing trip. FUN! We found a school of small skip jack tuna. Caught a few of those and used them as bait to try to get something a bit bigger. About 40 minutes of live baiting produced a strike. We hooked up about a 300 lb. Pacific Blue Marlin. After about an hour and a half fight, we released it. Way to go guys! Great to see you again Jen. Great hanging out and catching up with the Radwick's.

June 28th, 2009

2009-07-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Nai'a Bay, and Kaloko Canyon. The swell is going down so we could get into Kaloko, yay! Lots of cool critters and 3 firsts for Nikki today! 3! All at Kaloko. 1st was a Sherif Badge Sea Star... it looks just like you'd think. 2nd, a Decorator Crab. It had the most fanciful hat! He was a tiny little guy that collects bits of this and that to disguise himself. This guy had a hydriod on top of his collection that looked like a feather in his cap. We found him on the rubble bottom drifting around at the mercy of the surge. 3rd, we found a Psydellic Wrasse in the middle of it's change between female and male. It was with a few other females. It had the spots of the female but the orange head of the male. I was stoked!! Other highlights: We found two Viper Moray Eels sharing a home. At Nai'a Bay: Spent about 15 minutes with Manta Rays getting cleaned by Cleaner Wrasses, got a manicure by the Scarlet Lady Cleaner Shrimp, the white Frog Fish was still hanging around (still don't know what species it is), Corn Kernel Nudibranchs, Hellers Barracuda getting cleaned on the reef... and more. Awesome Day!

June 27th, 2009

2009-07-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Spent the day in Keahole Bay again. Can't remember the last time we had a south swell this big. The water has been so strange. Warm currents, cold pockets, crystal clear water, and then these green, murky pockets. Very weird. Anyway, we did Garden Eel cove and Sand Chute. We found a Hawaiian Lionfish at Sand Chute! cool. Other highlights include, A female Long Fin Anthius, a Triton's Trumpet, an Octopus, a Peacock Flounder and a Zebra Moray Eel all the way out just chillin' and letting us hang out and take lots of photos!

June 26th, 2009

2009-07-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

We went and hid from the south swell in Keahole Bay today. Great conditions at Hoover's and Sand Piper. (Wash Rock) On the way there we caught an Ono! It was about 30 lbs. There were Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins in the bay, and between dives everyone got to see them. On the dives we found: A baby Commerson's Frog Fish, a huge White Mouth Moray Eel, Teardrop Butterfly Fish, 4 Saddleback Butterfly Fish together! We also found the largest Cone Hermet Crab I've ever seen (maybe 3 inches) They are gorgeous with bright yellow and orange stripes. We found 2 big Spiny Lobsters. Sandpiper is a beautiful dive site with so many huge Antler corals, some of the nicest anywhere. On the way home, we caught another Ono!! about 20 lbs. With so much Ono... looks like I'm going to make my famous Civiche! A great day!

June 25th, 2009

2009-07-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

WOW! What a day... we saw so much cool stuff. Still had a south swell today, we had surge at 115 feet at Pyramid Pinnacle! We also went to Nai'a Bay again, with the protection from the south swell it is one of the best dives right now. Despite the swell, the viz was great. Out at the point at Pyramid we saw a Giant Trevalle getting cleaned by the Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse, and Opelu getting cleaned as well! (bait fish) Both are unusual to see on the reef. Down at 115 in the Black Coral we found a large Longnose Hawkfish, at 85' we found Flame Wrasses with a male in full display... a real treat! Continuing along, we saw a Tinkers Butterfly fish, a Banded Angel Fish, a Devil Scorpion Fish, a Leaf Scorpion fish, an Eyespot Shrimp, 2 Saddleback Butterfly fish, a Dwarf Moray Eel, a Slendertail Moray Eel (very Rare) and a giant Porcupine Puffer. That was all on just the first dive!! At Nai'a we found; a juvenile Peacock Razor fish, a half a dozen juvenile Domino Damsels living in the thorns of the Crown of Thorns Sea Star (too cute!), a baby yellow Commerson's Frog fish, and an all white Frog Fish, (Commerson's?)

June 24th, 2009

2009-07-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

We are having a rather large south swell, so viz was not the greatest today. We went to Nai'a Bay and Golden Arches. Here are the highlights: Garden Eels, Tiny Sea Hares ( we couldn't find them in the ID book, so we looked them up online and the species name means, 'small') There was a colony of maybe 6 or 8 of them. They were about 1/4 inch in length, black with a blue ring on top. We also saw an Octopus, Spotted eagle Ray, a huge Yellow Margin Moray Eel and the Magnificent Sea Star was still hanging out in 80' of water! yay! At Golden Arches, we saw: a Shortnose Mantis Shrimp, 3 White Margin Nudibranches with and egg sack under the north archway, a Triton's Trumpet and a Flameback Coral Shrimp.

June 19th, 2009

2009-07-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Morning two tank dive at Nai'a Bay and Skull Cave. It's such a great time of year for Nai'a Bay, we've been doing it regularly.... and will continue to, it's so "critter rich" in the summer time! Anyway, here are the highlights from today's visit to Nai'a Bay: Green Sea Turtle, Spotted Eagle Ray, White Tip Reef Shark, Viper Moray Eel, Horned Helmet Conch, Tiger Moray Eel, Whitemouth Moray Eel. At Skull Cave, we saw a large, beautiful Levaithan Cowrey on the wall of Suck Em Up lava tube. In the rubble outside of Skull Cave we found a Pom Pom crab! It's a small crab that had stinging anemones in place of pinchers. It looks like it's carrying around little pom poms... too cute!!

June 18th, 2009

2009-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

We had a snorkle charter this morning. At Mike's reef, we swam with two Manta Rays that were getting cleaned by Saddle Wrasses! It was very cool! We also swam with a very friendly pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. They hung out with us for over an hour. They were very frisky displaying lots of social behavior including ariel jumping, where they would spin multiple revolutions in one jump! In the water they were quite noisy... chirping, whistling and clicking. Another epic day in Kona with Manta Rays and Dolphins!!

June 17th, 2009

2009-07-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

This morning we did Nai'a Bay and Turtle Pinnacle. The highlights were MAGNIFICENT! We saw a Magnificent Snake Eel and a Magnificent Sea Star. The magnificent Sea Star is a very rare find!! Usually they occur much deeper than divers go and rarely do they wander into shallower depths. This one was spotted at about 80 feet, we noticed a star pattern in the sand and swept away the sand to reveal the sea star, then we watched for the next couple of minutes as it reburied itself. Awesome! We also saw a tiny, baby Commerson's Frog fish, 3 Spotted Eagle Rays, 3 Tiger (Divided) Flatworms, 3 Whitemouth Moray Eels and 2 Redstripe Pipefish.

June 17th

2009-07-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray night dive tonight! On the way to the dive sight we had a pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins escorting us. They were playing in our boat wake, surfing and twirling. Next, we hooked up and landed approximately a 35 pound Ono. It was a beauty! Everyone got to take fresh fish home to bbq. A beautiful sunset as well. On the night dive we had 8 manta rays , a beautiful pink Decoy Scorpion Fish, and some Marbled Shrimp. A great night at the garden.

June 16th, 2009

2009-07-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Aloha All! Mike and Nikki are doing great and still enjoying Kona and it's amazing ocean! Giving another go at the blogging. So each day we will try to give you all the highlights of our day. That way when you've had a hard day at the office, you can relax and unwind with our daily diving, fishing and snorkeling log! Can't wait to see all of you out here again! Please feel free to comment or post your photos of your day with us.

June 16th, 2009

Black water night dive. 2 miles due west of Honokohau Marina in Kona. Depth 2000+ feet. 2 Hawaiian sea horses! They were about 1-2 inches tall. We usually find them near the surface but we found these at depth. One at 70 feet and one at 40 feet. Many squid were attracted to our lights. The biggest siphonophore we've ever seen, at least 50 feet in length. Lots of salp chains, gelatinous mollusks, and critters in their larval stages. Very cool, as usual. You feel like you're in outer space, but really, you're in inner space and everything around you is glowing and pulsing with light. A high adrenaline dive for sure.

May 5, 2007

2007-05-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

P1010186.JPG

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

Dive Log, April 10th, 2005

2005-04-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

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

2005-03-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

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

2005-02-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

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

2005-02-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

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

2005-01-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

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

2005-01-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

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!

Dive Log, January 21, 2005

2005-01-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

It was so nice to get underwater today. After 5 days of a rather
sizable north swell, the familiar calm Kona water was so welcomed. We
couldn't wait to get under and blow some bubbles.

However, before we could get to our dive site we saw two different
Humpback Whales and a pod of dolphins. This pod was unusual. It was a
mixture of two varieties, both Hawaiian Spinner and Spotted. Also,
there was an unusual number of babies, we counted 7 or 8!

The first dive was at Manta Ray Bay... one of our favorites... because
it produces! Again, it did not disappoint. We saw big moray eels,
illusive peacock flounder, several octopus and a beautiful spotted
eagle ray.

Between dives we headed offshore to look for whales. A few miles out
from Kailua Bay, we found a pod of Pilot Whales! They were acting
fairly social, spy hopping and logging. So, we decided to go for a
swim. Before entering the water Nikki briefed the divers and informed
them of the appropriate behavior for interacting with these beautiful
creatures. Everyone did just as they were told and slipped quietly into
the water and gently swam in their direction stopping a good distance
away and just floated there, resisting the urge to try and get a closer
look. If they are feeling curious, they will come to you, if not, they
will dive deep and out of sight. Swimming too close and too fast will
always result in them diving down. Lucky for us, they were a bit
curious and came over to check us out there were 9 of them and a
juvenile who rolled sideways to get a better look at us. It was an
awesome encounter and everyone was soaring with adrenaline.

As if the day couldn't get any better, the second dive at Eel cove
produced three rare critters. We saw a lion fish, a zebra moray, and a
dragon moray!

What an unbelievable, epic day!

Daily Dive BLog, Kona Hawaii

2005-01-16T02:57:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2005

It was a beautiful sunny day. Not a cloud in the sky and the snow
covered peak of Mauna Loa was quite a site! After gazing at the
stunning topside scenery, we plunged into the 79 degree water.
Underwater, the viz was over 100 feet. Gorgeous.

Today we dove Pawai Bay Marine Sanctuary. There were Humpback whales
frolicking just off shore. We didn't see them underwater, but we could
hear them singing off in the distance.

The highlights of the day included two endemic fish species (that means
they can be seen no where else on the planet) A group of three Banded
Angel fish and a harem of about 8 female Psych-head Wrasses being lead
around by their guy. The females have really cool psychedelic spots and
a red tail, where as the male has a bright orange head and shimmery
golden spots.

Next we saw a HUGE, spiny lobster and a porcupine puffer fish hiding in
a crevice in the side of a pinnacle.

Everyone was really impressed with the health of the coral reef and the
abundance of fish. For all 6 divers, it was their first time in Kona
and had only Oahu and Maui reefs to compare it to. All agreed that Kona
is a very special place, indeed.

Best Fishes, Nikki and Mike