Maui 2011 - Molokini Back Wall

I was back to Maui for more diving a year later.  I enjoyed Lahaina Divers in 2010 so I booked with them again.  This year I only did one day of diving and I chose two locations I did not dive last time.

The first two dives were at Molokini Crater but not quite the normal routine of diving inside the shallow crater like so many beginning divers and snorkelers do.  We cruised around to the backwall, outside the crater.  Here's the description from Lahaina Divers website.  "An advanced dive, the Molokini Wall is a World Class Wall and Drift dive for certified divers only. The Wall is approximately 360ft in depth, however divers will level off at 80ft or less. You may see white tip, black tip, and/or gray reef sharks; manta rays, dolphins, and schooling fish. This is a very exciting dive for the sheer, vertical wall and blue water. Divers should have recent diving experience, good buoyancy control, and be good on air consumption. This dive site is not suitable for snorkelers. This dive requires each diver to carry a dive computer and a safety marker sausage."  The boat was not crowded.  We had two groups of about 5 to 6 people each with 1 dive instructor/guide for each.  The boat does not anchor for this dive site.  They drop you off, stay close, and pick you up, hence the necessity for the safety surface marker sausage although we didn't need to use it this day.  The seas were calm.

The first dive was called backwall/lighthouse due to the lighthouse (not really a house, just a beacon on a pole) on the rock.  We entered off the back, as a group, and dropped to about 80 feet for most of the dive.  Here there is not as much life as there is at around the 40 foot depth but some interesting lava formations.  Molokini Crater is an old cindercone.  There was little to no current on this first dive.  The current flows from North to South and we were at the Southern most point.  Keep your eyes on the open blue water as well as the wall.  I saw at least one white tip reef shark out there.  We dropped down to about 80 feet, swam along the wall and ascended back through the 40 foot "fish" zone to our safety stop.  During the safety stop we were instructed to kick away from the wall, out into open water for the boat to pick us up.  There are times when the boat cannot pull in to close to the rock due to surge/wind and the fact that the captain has to turn the props off while divers are climbing aboard.  Even with 60 plus feet of visibility you lose sight of the rock quick and feel as though you've kicked dangerously far out to sea, blue in all directions, only to find upon surfacing that you've just made it half way to the boat, barely 100 feet from the wall.

They repositioned the boat and moored at "Reef's End" just inside the crater for our surface interval.  We sat, peacefully gazing at Maui and the crater while the crew treated us to a vegetable crudite, fruit and sandwiches.

For Dive 2 we all hopped off at Reef's End and swam to the outside of the crater where the current picked us up and pulled us back towards the Back Side/Lighthouse.  This was a true drift dive, maybe even a little faster then drifts I did in Cozumel.  Highlighting the dive were least two more whitetip reef sharks, one of which was resting in the reef, and a stone crab.  Exit procedures were the same as for dive one.

Maui - 2010 Day 5 - Zip Lining

Day 5 started with a zipline tour at Flyin Hawaiian Zipline Tours.  Yes, it was a bit expensive but worth it.  Not any more then a two tank boat dive would cost.  The tour is about 4 hours long with 8 zip lines in length from 250 to 3600 feet.  As stated from their website, ". . . fly through the magnificent Hawaiian skies, where you'll cross 9 different valleys and 11 different ridges, all while gaining insight into Maui’s rich history and culture. Along the way, we will take time to plant rare, native Hawaiian plants as we zip through the incredible natural diversity that exists on Maui, ranging from the tropical rainforest to the desert and everything in between!"  What a blast.  The staff was great.  All the equipment looked to be very safe and secure.  The views are fantastic.

In the afternoon we found ourselves snorkeling at Honolua Bay.  Honolua is a short drive North of Ka'anapali.  It's quiet, a little secluded.  The land next to the bay is sort of a preserve owned by one of the locals.  The easiest way to get there is to park on the highway and walk down a dirt road through the preserve.  The owner is doing his best to keep everything natural.  He asks that you do not enter the water wearing sunscreen, gives a little lecture, might even ask for a donation but all in all I think he's cool. To see any good reef you have to swim out pretty far to the right.  Once there, it's fantastic.  I've been told that reef is also good off to the left but I don't know from personal experience.  I hear conditions can be rough but on this day it was great.  There may even be a few dive boats in the bay and this would be a great spot for a shore dive.  I've heard, upon asking, the owner of the land will let divers drive down the dirt road to unload and maybe even park there.  Donate a few bucks and keep this option open.  Just before the beach there is a wash you have to cross.  This may or may not have water in it.  When we entered it was dry but was flowing upon our exit.  I suspect water was coming down from a recent rain in the West Maui Mountains.  The last photo shows the wash behind me and the road leading out.

Maui - 2010 Day 4 - Diving Moloka'i

Back with Lahaina Divers at 7am again.  Today I was signed up for 2 tanks off Moloka'i.  In particular the location of Mokuho'oniki Rock.  The site we did both of our dives on was called Fish Rain.  It might have been a rain of fish if we had stayed closer to the reef but we swam out further into open water in search of Scalloped Hammerheads.  Swimming we did a lot of.  I guess this is sometimes done as a drift but today there didn't seem to me much, if any, current.  Maybe five minutes into the dive we had our closest encounter with two Hammerheads.  One of which was a big mama.  I'd have to say 6 to 8 feet.  Sadly I didn't get a picture.  I guess I was thinking we would encounter a lot more and just wanted to savor the moment.  We did see maybe 6 more but they were well out of range of my camera.

However I managed to capture this short video of what I believe was a Galapagos Shark.  I was a little behind most of the other divers and he sort of snuck up on them, literally, then turned and swam way out behind us to my left.

My greatest depth this day was about 90 feet but I spent most of my time hovering at about 60, conserving my air for all the swimming and waiting for something to show up.

We spent a good hour between dives.  I stood, much of the time, in the middle of the boat; motion sickness lingering on the edge of my mind.  I didn't want a repeat of the foggy feeling so I only took one Dramamine this morning.  All in all I did pretty good.  Heading out to Moloka'i can be pretty rough but today was a "good" day.

• Dive site - Fish Rain "Hammertime"
• My max depth - 92
• Time - 34 minutes
• Vis - 90+ feet
• Temperature - 74F

• Dive site - Fish Rain "Hammertime" #2
• Max depth - 86 feet again
• Time - 37 minutes
• Vis 90+ feet
• Temperature - 77F  I was cold (shivering) at the start of this dive but warmed up with all the swimming.

At the end of out second dive we were visited by about 60 Spinner Dolphins.  Gah!  Five minutes too late.

Maui 2010 - Day 3 - Diving Maui & Lana'i

Monday morning got me up bright and early for a full day of diving.  I called up Lahaina Divers the day before and they said be at the shop at 7am.  Lahaina Divers is located in Lahaina on Dickerson, just a block from all the shops on Front Street.  It's a nice, clean, modern shop.  All the staff were professional and friendly.  Upstairs you filled out waivers with coffee and danish.  The boats are a few blocks away at Lahaina Harbor.  The staff will take your dive gear to and from the boat and it's a pleasant walk through the historic Banyon Tree Park.

Our boat was the 46 foot Dominion.  This was a sweet boat.  Not crowded for how many people were on board.  Extra room to spread out up top and on the bow.  Life rafts, O2, all the good stuff.  Dry places to store equipment.  Two ladders on the stern for entry and exit.

They take a maximum of 24 divers which were broke up into 3 dive groups with 1 instructor/guide each.  I think we were just about full for the mornings dives.  The weather was beautiful although the trades were still blowing and the 50 minute boat ride between Maui and Lana'i can be rough.  Today wasn't so bad but I had been popping motion sickness pills in preparation.  We set up our gear on the way to Lana'i but the crew switched out tanks for us between dives.  They also provided sandwiches, cookies and fruit.

Our "sub" group of 6 or so was led by Rebecca.  She's da bomb.  She is extremely knowledgeable on the fish, coral, etc.  She also appears to be the shop photographer and, for a price, would provide you with a photo cd of the dive.

Our first dive site was Cathedral 2.  This is a little cavern/lava formation with many entrances and holes for light to shine through.  Watch your buoyancy.  On the inside ceiling is a large black coral formation.  It's apparently doing very well and we'd hate to see anything happen to it.  Although considered endangered, much of the black coral around Hawaii has been mined for jewelry.  There is also a black trumpet fish of considerable size here that Rebecca called out to her like a puppy dog.  He and I posed head down (trumpet fish style) for a few photos.  I'd forgot my camera, on the boat, bummer.  On this day there was no current and a slow surge.  Nothing like the surge I felt in the Keys or Akumal.

• Cathedral II
• My maximum depth - 59 feet
• 55 minutes
• Minimum temperature 79 degrees F
• Vis 60+ feet

We then motored a short distance and chilled off the scenic South cliffs of Lana'i for about 50 minutes.  The next dive site was called No Name.  This was a nice reef with some swim throughs.  A bait ball of blue striped snapper impressed me on this dive.  The reef is healthy here in Hawaii.  Much nicer looking reef then what I saw in the Keys.

• Dive site - No Name (really, that's what they call it) 
• My max depth for site 2 was 57 feet
• 50 minutes
• Min temp again 79 degrees (((((warm)))))
• Vis was about the same

30% of the fish in Hawaii are endemic.  The following is a list of what I saw while diving & snorkeling that I could document with Hawaiian names, when possible, included. * indicates only found in Hawaii.  Flying Fish (Malolo), Threadfin Butterflyfish (Kikakapu),Teardrop Butterflyfish (Lau-Hau) *Milletseed (Lemon) Butterflyfish (Lau-Wiliwili), Reef Triggerfish (Humuhumunukunukuapua'a) Hawaii State Fish, Moorish Idol (Kihikihi), Ornate Butterflyfish (Kikakapu), Longnose Butterflyfish (Lau-Wiliwili Nukunuku'oi'oi), *Bluestriped Butterflyfish (Lau-Hau)Yellow Tang (Lau'i Pala), Black Durgon Triggerfish (Humuhumu'Ele'ele), Orangeband Surgeonfish (Na'ena'e), Unicornfish (Kala), Convict Tang (Manini), Bluestriped Snapper (Ta'ape), Whitespotted Pufferfish ('O'opu-Hue), Red Bullethead Parrotfish (Uhu) (female), Blue Bullethead Parrotfish (Uhu) (male), Trumpetfish (Nunu), Needlefish (A'ha), Green Sea Turtle (Honu), Peacock (Bluespotted) Grouper (Roi), *Stripped Squirrelfish ('Ala'ihi), Spotted Moray, Seastar (Linekia), Pincushion Star, Octopus (He'e Mauli), Yellowstripe Goatfish (Weke), Manta Ray (Hahalua), Black Sea Cucumber, Slate Pencil Urchin (Punohu), Galopagos Shark, Scalloped Hammerhead, Orange Spined Tang (Unicornfish) (Umaumalei), *Brown (Goldring) Surgeonfish (Kole), Saddlewrasse, Indo-Pacific Sergeant, Agile Chromis.

See more pics of this dive here - Lana'i Scuba Diving Set

Back to the Lahaina Harbor to let off the morning divers and take on the afternoon.  The crew also had to switch out tanks etc.  I had about thirty minutes to and hour to poke around Lahaina.  I felt a little light headed walking off the boat.  I think that was from the motion sickness drugs.  Some guy tried to sell me some weed under the Banyon Tree.  I had lunch, felt better.  Back to the boat.

We were a little less crowded in the afternoon then the morning.  Did I mention that I kept running into people from Arizona or Washington?  Yeah they were everywhere.  On the boat, in the shop, on the beach.  It's a small, small world.  This always seems to happen to me.  In the Florida Keys, where Clifford and I were kayaking, way back into a mangrove, we come across two other people.  The only other kayakers we saw and they were from Seattle.

This time we had just a short trip South of Lahaina to the wreck of the Carthaginian.  The Carthaginian is a replica of a 19th century whaling brig similar to the ships that first brought commerce to the Hawaiian Islands.  It was docked at Lahaina as part of the whaling museum.  She became to rusty to tow to drydock for repair and they were afraid it would sink right where it sat.  Atlantis Submarine tours purchased the brig and prepped it to become a reef and part of their tours.  As a bonus, we can dive it.  She rests in about 95 feet of water for about 5 years now and is showing some growth.  On our particular dive there were two frogfish resting on the bow which I wouldn't have noticed except one of the dive instructors kept pointing at them.  One of Atlantis subs cruised by.  Pretty cool.

• Dive site - Carthaginian
• Max depth - 95 feet
• 37 minutes
• Min temp 79F
• Vis 80+

We spent about 45 minutes between dives motoring to our last site of the day.  A very short trip between sites.  Manta Point was uneventful and it involved a lot of swimming.  We went searching for Manta Rays.  They're known to frequent this area.  Something to do with a rise in the sea floor that sharks, the Manta's main predator, don't like.  Today, however, they seemed to find refuge elsewhere.  We saw one, about a hundred feet off, swimming away.

We did see a huge Moray (spotted, zebra) eel hanging out on the bottom.  I wanted to drop down and take a photo but my ears wouldn't equalize.  This has never happened to me before.  I kept the whole dive above 38 feet because of it.  There was a nice thermocline at about this depth keeping me warm anyway.  Christine came down with a cold just before our trip and I think I caught a mild version of it which I blame for this.  I had no problems the following day decending below 80 feet but more on that next post.

• Manta Point
• My max depth - 38 feet
• 40 minutes
• Temperature was 80!!! at my depth
• Vis 80+ feet

Maui 2010 - Day 1 - 2

Well, I made it to Maui.  Our plane landed in the early afternoon.  As you walk out of your gate the airport is open air with beautiful views of West Maui Mountains and palms blowing in the trade winds.  We were all walking to baggage and I remember looking at my friends who were all focused forward and saying, "Does anyone else see this?"

From the airport we picked up our rental van, hit the Costco & Kmart and headed South through the sugarcane fields.  Slowly our highway curved round the South end of those mountains and up Northwards to Lahaina and Ka'anapali.  To the left the coast with views of Molokini crater, then Lana'i and finally Moloka'i.

Saturday we spent chillin on the beach.  I snorkeled for about 40 minutes in the morning and another 40 in the afternoon.  This got my back a nice red sunburn.  It turned into a decent tan after a few days but my back peeled after a week.  We stayed at the Westin Villas and the snorkeling was great right off the hotel beach.  Lots of fish, nice reef, even a turtle.

Sunday we got up early.  Real early.  About 3am.  We all piled into the van and drove up Mt Haleakela for the sunrise.  Mt Haleakela is about 10,000 feet tall and takes around 2 - 1/2 hours to drive up from Ka'anapali but it was worth it.  It's like no other place I know on this planet.

From the summit you watch the sun rise over the volcanic crater.  In the distance you could see the Big Island rising out of the clouds.  The same clouds that were blowing up into the crater and right over us.  The color and light kept changing from minute to minute.  Clouds below in the crater were soon lit up like fire and illuminating the crater as if it were still active.  The landscape varies in colors of reds, oranges, browns & gray.  Aside from the clouds it's not unlike images sent back from Mars.  I did a short hike down the Sliding Sands trail and all I could hear was the wind and my footsteps in the soil.  No planes, no cars, nothing.  Fantastic.

Oh and it's cold.  At least for sunrise.  Bring a jacket.  Forty five degrees for the overnight low with those trade winds blowing.  I told my friends this but they still weren't prepared.

More topside pictures here - Maui 2010 Set

Hawaii

Going to Hawaii (Maui) in September. Finally.

Project 365

One photo uploaded every day of something that happened that day for 1 year. To see it click - 365