Kona's water temp has bumped up quickly...

In the course of 4 days the temp readings on all our computers (Bob's, mine, and our customers') jumped 4 degrees. I've been getting readings of 79 from the old airport diving area up to Garden Eel Cove and slightly north. This was looking to be a very cool summer of diving last sunday, but it appears our last south swell brought in the warmer waters. I haven't seen it jump that quickly before.

I haven't posted the last few days. On tuesday's night dive we saw 4 manta rays. That night we did a dive early with a customer who I certified last year. He hadn't dove since, but did great, getting around an hour on the dive. After his dive we dropped back in the harbor and picked up the divers I've had earlier in the week for the trip out to the Kona Airport for the manta ray night dive. It was a good dive, nice and warm for me... I've been getting quite cold on the night dives 'til the temps started bumping up. Next year I'm going to need to get a thicker wetsuit when the temps drop.

On Thursday, we had a double. We took a couple out for the day. They'd dove with Bob for several years and saw him in town and got our number. Bob did both dives with them, saw lots of stuff, including Harlequin Shrimp. I'm not going to name the site with the shrimp, as once they set up on a good coral head they can stay for a few years - I'm hoping we find them regularly at that site... sometimes they disappear.

On the evening trip, we had a diver who hadn't dove in 5 years and 4 snorkelers. I dove him on the first dive, he did great! It was a nice 60 minute dive. We saw lots of critters, loads of banded coral shrimp and 2 eagle rays- It was a nice lead in to the manta dive. There was one manta on the dive that evening, but it gave everyone a great show.

Here's a much better picture of a Dragon Wrasse (Novaculichthys taeniourus) that my wife, Pat, took on the dive the other weekend. These guys are really tough to get a good picture of with a point-and-shoot digital camera because of the focus and shutter delays these cameras have in low lighting. I've yet to get anything this decent.

Later,

Steve