Kona Hawaii water temperature was 75 or so today....

Yup, the boat's back in the water. It ended up being a bit more serious problem with the lower unit than expected but it's been taken care of. I had an open water student and a friend of his in the water today. I'd been sending inquiries elsewhere for the last week. I've got bookings for the 23rd and beyond and now I can take the last minute (well, next day anyway) bookings again.

The weather is still a bit quirky... sunny this morning but it's starting to rain now. My other instructor/captain did the first dive, I did the second. The dive I did was quite nice at Turtle Haven (aka Turtle Heaven). Lots of nice reef, with occasional sand patches, with structure that acts as a turtle resting area in the shallows. Turtles will wedge themselves into holes or cracks so they are mostly protected and sleep here underwater, popping up to the surface every so often for a few breaths of air. Highlights of the dive were lots of shells (marlin spike auger snails primarily), a couple of large Helmet Snail shells, a decent sized trevally, a couple of flounder, a big puffer or two, 5 turtles, a school of over a hundred Raccoon Butterfly fish and other goodies. Viz was running in the 100 feet or so range.

Here's an older underwater photo of a puffer that I took on a night dive. These guys are always fun to look at. I personally am not into grabbing them and making them puff up like some DMs will. I did it a couple of times back when I first started working , then I got to thinking how it would be if someone put me into a stressful situation where I had to physically defend myself just for their enjoyment - kinda got me thinking I shouldn't be grabbing them. For now I just like to sit back and enjoy watching.

Later,

Steve