Capturing the Moment

The whales have started showing up for this winters whale season and the wind seems to have kicked up a notch for their arrival. Hopefully soon we will get some nice, calm whale watching conditions but for now we can enjoy the incredible weather formations from cap clouds covering the west maui mountains to rainbows over the harbor. I don't think it can stay windy forever. As the year comes to a close I am looking forward to lots of whale encounters, getting my underwater camera fixed, and surfing some legendary winter swells.

 Reports had been coming in all week of a 10+ foot tiger shark hanging out in some of South Maui's most popular snorkel and dive spots. My friend Josh spotted it early in the morning while leading a snorkel which prompted Heidi and myself to rush down to the local dive shop, grab a couple of tanks, and hit the water for a dive I call, 'The Search for Tony.' A tiny snowflake eel peering out of its lair A very large white mouth moray eel    We went to a site called White Rocks and waded in. The water wasn't the greatest visibility, especially close to shore, but you could still see about 20ft. It cleared up even more as we headed off shore. It was quite fun searching the rocks and coral for our usual treasures of nudibranchs and eels but it is much harder when you are constantly scanning the water around and above you for something big. We covered a big area of the reef for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We found some very fun turtles all playing and rou...

The opening to Cathedrals First Cathedrals has been on my dive list for a long time and I was about to get to see it! I was so excited. I was the first one ready in my group so even though I was a bit cold from the first dive I jumped in to see what lay below. The opening of Cathedrals could barely be seen 50ft down or so because of the clouds of fish. Sargent majors and black triggerfish schooled in huge numbers above the cave system but the real draw here is the topography. That was until I saw how much life was on this dive!  Entering into an underwater cavern with light filtering in from different directions is always an eerie experience. There is an unnatural shade of blue that gives everything a ghostly haze. But if you turn on a flashlight there is an amazing amount of vibrant bright colors.  Inside the cave opens up into a massive open area which is where it gets the name Cathedrals. I would have loved to spend more time inside but there is so much to see. We...

 For an early birthday present Heidi surprised me with a dive trip to a location I have been wanting to go ever since moving to Maui. Off the coast of the island of Lana'i there are complex lava formations, one of which created a huge underwater cathedral type cave know as First Cathedrals. Somehow without me knowing she booked us a trip and got Ben, Diana, and Flora on board as well. We would depart out of Ma'alaea Harbor the next morning at 6:15am.    Its a long trip to Lanai from Ma'alaea so we kicked back, talked nudibranchs and what we wanted to see, ate some breakfast, and were surprised to see some large black bodied dolphins  heading our way. I snapped this picture of what may be a false killer whale or perhaps a short fin pilot whale. Either way it was a very cool sighting and a great start to the adventure. Since Cathedrals is a relatively shallow dive at 50-60ft we headed a little past it for our first dive at a place called Wash Rock. A juvenile roc...

 I try to spend as much time in the water as I can. So when the weather and conditions look good for a scuba dive (and they almost always look good here in Maui) I jump at the opportunity. This dive at white rock was filled with turtles and rare fish.  The bright blue and orange fish at the top is a Potter's Angelfish. Angelfish are hard to spot here in Hawaii because they dive deep into the reef when they see a diver nearby. The beautiful fish in the picture on the right is the second Hawaiian Red Lionfish that I have seen, both in the last few weeks. And to round out a great rare fish dive I came across this neon yellow fellow to the left, a Commerson's Frogfish. This frogfish still has its juvenile coloration. You would think bright yellow would not work as a camouflage but when you are surrounded by bright yellow sponges and corals you could swim right past him. I thought this snowflake eel was too cute not to post. He was giving his best snake impression.

I am always looking for a new place to dive and explore so it was a thrill to try a new site along the south Maui coastline known as 'White Rock'. It is a little trek across some beautiful beaches and some sharp lava outcroppings to get to the entry point but it was definitely worth it. Right off the bat we had a white tip reef shark hanging out in this great swim thru. Then we started finding our treasured nudibranchs. The gold laced nudibranch on the left is always one of my favorites. Our big new find came when Heidi checked some Spanish Dancer eggs which look like a velvet rose and found some egg eating nudibranchs on one of the 'petals'.  You can see how small the nudibranchs are. They get their red color from the eggs they are feasting on. This is one of those times when it pays to have done your research. Who would have thought to look on nudibranch eggs to find more nudibranchs!?  One of the benefits of going slow and checking all the nooks and cr...

 I've been to Molokini many times but it never fails to surprise me. The beautiful water is almost always a constant but whats in it can vary greatly from day to day. Molokini sits a few miles offshore from the Maui coastline so swim bys by big pelagics are something I always hope for. Today I was in for a treat! Right when I jumped in I looked down to see a 16ft whale shark cruising by under me. A whale shark! I always hope to see something like this when I jump in at Molokini but this time I was totally unprepared. I quickly grabbed my camera, let air out of my BC to start descending, tried to catch my breath, realized I still had my snorkel in instead of my regulator, kept descending, switched my reg to my mouth, kicked hard after the quickly disappearing whale shark, snapped a couple of pictures, and then it was gone. Phew. I also glanced at my dive computer and realized I was at 94ft. What a way to start a dive! I couldn't believe it. There was a much smaller (4ft) grey...