Saturday, October 27, 2012
Back from my attempt to get to the boat harbor....
Well traffic leaving town was crazy nuts, going into town not so bad until I got about h half mile south of the King Kam3 highway, there to Lako was near a dead stop. It took ages to get past Lako and by then I was well past the time that they'd shut off all coastal bound traffic, so little to do but head uphill and head home.. Keeping my fingers crossed that the tsunami is less, or at least little more than expected. Supposedly the first surge should be hitting the NE shores of Maui and the Big Island about now. Sirens are going off frequently. Gas stations were full on the way into town, lots of police activity on the ocean side of the highway directing traffic, lots of cars parked alongside the uppper highway after I'd turned it around.
So the tsunami sirens started about 5 minutes ago.... surprisingly the neighborhood dogs are silent..
What gives? The state of Hawaii sets off the sirens at 11:45 am on the first weekday of the month every month, and the dogs howl and bay. It's kind of fun. Tonight, it's surprisingly quiet. I'm debating on whether or not I'm heading down to the harbor to move the boat. It's a 30 minute trip and the reality is the boat park is quite a ways above the water, but when things are coming our direction we usually move the boats. This one's tough because it's coming from the northeast. Better safe than sorry, I'm likely to head that way in the next few minutes.
Aloha,
Steve
Aloha,
Steve
More tsunami news....
OK, more like stories. I've been watching a rather dissappointing Oregon State versus University of Washington game (Beavs lost) and after the game ended a friend called and said to turn on the news. I did, it is news here. They're not expecting much, maybe 3-6 feet on sides of the island facing Canada, however it's really hard to tell what will happen.
Tsunami time in Hawaii again. Hilo has just been recommended to evacuate...
Not expecting much here, but you never know. Looks like I get to drive down to the harbor to move my boat again.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins in Kona...
Howdy. Just got back from vacation (Oregon, first time I've been back for more than a few days since I moved here in '99) and I'm back to diving.
Haven't posted in ages... I had a minor camera flood last year and set the camera aside (it's OK), didn't want to deal with camera issues with customers in the water, and have been busy with dive charters for most of the year. Now that we're in the slower season I need to get back to taking photos.
On to dolphins....
Our commonly seen dolphin species here is the Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin. They're a smallish dolphin, maybe in the 5 foot range, and hang out in large groups to rest in the bays during the day. We see these quite often on charters, and with some frequency underwater as well. It's always neat to see them on the way to a dive site or underwater.
There are numerous other dolphin and whale species that we can see from time to time. On occasion we see Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins in the wild. These guys are a larger heavier dolphin. We usually see these in twosies or threesies, smaller groups anyways. We don't see them frequently underwater, but I've seen them a few times underwater over the years. There have been 2 or 3 coming into the night dive the last half a year or so, it's been a thrill for everyone that sees them. Earlier this spring I did a whale watch with a group and we went offshore and ran into a group of several dozen that were hanging out with a group of whales... quite the thrill... I haven't seen a large group before.
Well, on yesterday's dive we had a special moment.... more like a special 5-7 minutes. We'd seen some dolphins on the surface off the Golden Arches area and they submerged, did not approach the boat as spinners will often do, so I thought since I only noticed 3 or 4 that they were likely Bottlenoses. We went on up to Hoovers (north end of the Kona airport) for our first dive (lots of shrimp, a couple flame angels, two reticulate frogfish and more) and then moved on down to the Kaloko Ponds area for a dive. While diving I heard one of the diver's shaker going and turned to see a couple of dolphins just behind me, they passed me and laid down in the sand....
Check it out... Customer Jeff was shooting video at the time...
http://youtu.be/62AerqSdjDM
Haven't posted in ages... I had a minor camera flood last year and set the camera aside (it's OK), didn't want to deal with camera issues with customers in the water, and have been busy with dive charters for most of the year. Now that we're in the slower season I need to get back to taking photos.
On to dolphins....
Our commonly seen dolphin species here is the Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin. They're a smallish dolphin, maybe in the 5 foot range, and hang out in large groups to rest in the bays during the day. We see these quite often on charters, and with some frequency underwater as well. It's always neat to see them on the way to a dive site or underwater.
There are numerous other dolphin and whale species that we can see from time to time. On occasion we see Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins in the wild. These guys are a larger heavier dolphin. We usually see these in twosies or threesies, smaller groups anyways. We don't see them frequently underwater, but I've seen them a few times underwater over the years. There have been 2 or 3 coming into the night dive the last half a year or so, it's been a thrill for everyone that sees them. Earlier this spring I did a whale watch with a group and we went offshore and ran into a group of several dozen that were hanging out with a group of whales... quite the thrill... I haven't seen a large group before.
Well, on yesterday's dive we had a special moment.... more like a special 5-7 minutes. We'd seen some dolphins on the surface off the Golden Arches area and they submerged, did not approach the boat as spinners will often do, so I thought since I only noticed 3 or 4 that they were likely Bottlenoses. We went on up to Hoovers (north end of the Kona airport) for our first dive (lots of shrimp, a couple flame angels, two reticulate frogfish and more) and then moved on down to the Kaloko Ponds area for a dive. While diving I heard one of the diver's shaker going and turned to see a couple of dolphins just behind me, they passed me and laid down in the sand....
Check it out... Customer Jeff was shooting video at the time...
http://youtu.be/62AerqSdjDM
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