So now that we're home, time for the trip report and a few pictures. We stayed in the town of Lihue on the east shore. I chartered two days of boat diving with http://bubblesbelowkauai.com/ and it was well worth it. I had originally set up one day of shore diving and one day boat, so we could play around with weighting and whatnot for the warm-water gear. While in Denver the week before our trip, I got a call from Linda, the owner, to see if I would be interested in changing to a boat dive for that day instead, because they had been having lots of stormy weather and runoff was (in her words) making shore diving conditions and visibility "just awful" (when I asked what her definition of "awful" viz was, she said about 15-20 feet. When I got done laughing, I told her that wasn't so bad, but she said they wanted me to have a *better* experience than being at home, and I'd really really enjoy the boat dive a lot more...)... She assured me they had plenty of good spots available for this time of year, across the south side of the island with lots of variety and cool stuff to see.
Well, I managed to find their departure point at the Port Allen Small Boat Harbor down on the south shore of the island, met up with the crew and my fellow divers. Got our gear all sorted out with rental bits and pieces, suits, etc. Finally it was time to hit the open water and head for one of their sites. Tied the boat up to a submerged buoy, did the dive planning, dropped over the side in a backwards roll-off, and promptly lost my mask and had a fin dangling loose (not strapped on tight enough...). Got all that sorted out and dropped along the buoy line to the line anchor at about 40 ft. Yeah the visibility was amazing. Even in what they considered just average conditions, about 50 ft, I was pretty impressed... Saw my first sea turtles towards the end of the dive, and I confess I probly busted my air consumption thru the roof just from that experience. 'bout hte coolest thing I have ever seen!
Following dives had more cool new sights to see and (try to) photograph. Among the highlights were a White Leaf Scorpionfish, several species of Moray eels, and a Frogfish doing an amazing job of hiding in plain sight. There was a lot of coral, but an awful lot of bare rock too - Kaua'i at least is not big reefs because it barely makes it into the coral's temperature ranges. A lot of it seemed almost barren compared to the profusion of life everywhere around Puget Sound. But it was still pretty damn cool!
I hated to leave, but time in paradise doesn't last forever. So at least I have some good pics out the many many tries! (camera was the new replacement XZ-1, Oly housing, no additional lights just the diffuser - worked OK most of the time, the bad shots are my fault but they're improving...)
And to the fine folks at Bubbles Below - Linda, Nate, Amber, and Nick - Mahalo nui loa!
Jim
Welcome back!
