Bandit Angels from Kona Hawaii....

Here's a couple of Bandit Angels (Desmoholocanthus arcuatus) from a dive the other week. Hawaii only has a limited number of angelfish species on their reefs, most of which are dwarf species ranging to only 2-4 inches in length, Bandits however reach about 7 inches in length. These guys are not real common, but we've got a couple of spots where there's a good shot at seeing them.

So the latest on the boat is... it's still being worked on. Longest 3 weeks of my life... Anyways, it's really starting to shape up. It sat once again for a short while but we've got someone working on it now. We're fabricating new hatch covers, moving fuel lines/vents/etc, finishing the interior grinding/sanding/fiberglassing and such and it should be ready for paint hopefully sometime next week. After that it'll need about 6-10 hours of work - that's probably a week in mechanic's time - and it'll be done. I've got all my charters pretty much set for the rest of the month on my friend's boat and then hopefully I'll be able to hit the ground running after a couple days of runnning it. Pat and I will probably be in the poor house when the final bills hit, but the rebuild beats building one from scratch. When it's all done you'll likely be seeing a big post with lots of pictures... early on I thought I'd post pictures while it was all being done, but frankly it looks pretty horrible when you are in the middle of it.

Other Kona news. The NEW HIGHWAY is open - sort of. They've been working on a new highway coming into Kailua, starting at about the harbor, for about a year and a half. The new section opened up about a week ago, and they promplty redirected all traffic on to it and have torn up the existing highway to rebuild it, so we're still operating on basically a 2 lane road (one in each direction) for a while. At least you can tell what the plan is though.

Gotta hit the hay, I've got a charter in the morning. Later,

Steve

Gorgeous weather in Kona right now.

We had a real rainy morning the other day, but it cleared up nicely and has been beautiful since.

We've had a bunch of good diving. In the past week or so the divers have seen frogfish, white tip reef sharks, dolphins on the dive, leaf scorpions, eagle rays, flame angels (I found a new spot with a trio - A customer had mentioned seeing them near a certain spot a couple winters back, I think I found the spot - they're highly territiorial so I expect to be able to find them from here on), several groups of psychedelic wrasses, garden eels and other goodies. Vis has been outstanding, with upwards of 120'-150' + on a couple of days earlier this week.

We're off to do a night dive tonight. There haven't been any mantas for a couple of weeks, but there was one last night. I'll give the divers the option of trying the manta dive or another spot for a regular night dive.

Here's a shot of a diver taking photos at an archway at Kaloko where the tiape like to hang out.

Later,

Steve

Hawaiian flame angel (centropyge loriculus) underwater video...

This is by no means a great video, but I've spent some time trying to get a decent still photo of a Flame Angel (Centropyge loriculus) and had little luck. They tend to dart and dive into the coral anytime you get near them. As it was, I had to stay about 6 feet away from this little fish and zoom in, which makes for a shakier video as any shake is magnified when zoomed in. At least it gives an idea of what the fish looks like.

I had the day off today from both jobs (yep, I've taken on another part time job that'll work around my schedule during the busy times) I found this one at the Place of Refuge this morning at about 65 feet, I was trying to get a shot of a pair of Potter's angls and this thing popped out in the middle of them. Other highlights of the dive were a manta, several eels, the turtle cleaning station and such.

Water conditions were excellent at 10:30 am this moring, with a slight swell starting to pick up towards the end of the dive. Current Kona water temperature?? Brrrr... I had a reading of 73 pop up on my computer during part of the dive, otherwise 75.

Aloha,

Steve

Happy 4th of July!

So I'm liking my Olympus sp-350 still. This is an underwater photo of a strawberry nudibranch. I've tried to get a picture of one for years with 3 different cameras and underwater housing setups and this is the first one that I've taken a good photo of this critter with.

I'm getting closer to getting a good picture of a Flame Angel (Centropyge loriculus). They are very timid and tend to dodge cameras... this one was oh so close to a good shot.

Kona diving conditions have been very good as of late, with good viz and warming water, but the surface chop has been up so the boat rides have been a bit bumpy on occasion. We had a passenger feeling a bit queasy a couple days back and we told her the proper remedy and she tried it last night, which was bumpier yet, and felt great. If you have EVER had sea-sickness issues, or even if you don't know due to lack of sea time, do take Bonine (generic active ingredient is meclizine hydrochloride) or the less drowsy Dramamine (same acitve ingredient) for it - A couple bucks investment can relive a world of misery. The dosage practically every dive operator I've been around recommeds is usually one the night before the dive and then one two hours before the dive if it's a morning dive, or one in the morning and then one about 2 hours before the dive if it's an eveing outing. Taking a pill right before you get on the boat will do pretty much nothing, don't blame the meclizine, it takes time to get into your system and work.

Gotta go buy me some meat for the grill, later.

Steve