Capturing the Moment

  One of the amazing parts of taking a boat between the Hawaiian islands on this amazing Un-Cruise itinerary is the ability to see how unique the islands are both above and below the water. This past week we snorkeled near the southernmost point of the United States, at night with manta rays, on a partially submerged volcanic crater, and over the wreckage left behind from a huge hurricane back in the early 90's. It was among this wreckage of the old Mala Pier off Maui's west side that we completed the snorkel wildlife trifecta, turtle, shark, and a ray!   Hawaiian green sea turtles often hover over the wreckage of Mala pier to let tangs and surgeonfish have a chance to clean off their algae covered shells. The turtles hover a few feet over the wreckage and all of us would watch as fish would calmly swim up to grab a free meal as they cleaned off the turtle's shell.    The wreckage also provides a hiding spot for resting white tip reef sharks. Scuba divers some...

  A weekly treat aboard the Safari Explorer's Hawaii itinerary is a chance to spend an afternoon cruising the deep offshore waters of the Big Island to search for different kinds of marine mammals. The underwater topography drops off to thousands of feet just a couple of miles off the Kona coast, and this is where very interesting odontocetes like pilot whales, spotted dolphins, sperm whales, false killer whales, beaked whales, and other rare encounters are most likely.   We were lucky this week on our search as our chief mate Amy spotted some splashing over where a few fishing boats were maneuvering. As we crept in to investigate it became apparent that we had a huge pod of active pan-tropical spotted dolphins most likely going after the same fish the fishermen were. The dolphins wasted no time in zipping over to our vessel to ride the bow wave and our wake just behind the boat. I had a great time trying to time the shutter just right to catch the dolphins right as they ...

  Every week I like to push the guests to try something new and to embrace new adventures. Traveling with Un-Cruise here in Hawaii can be filled with these new experiences. It is not uncommon for our guests to be on the more adventurous side already, but one excursion that usually puts people a little more out of their comfort zone is the night snorkel with manta rays. A Hawaiian Flagtail Fish  Manta in the Night Lights   It all starts with a warm up snorkel to make sure everyone who will go out at night has already gotten used to their gear and being in the ocean. Then during dinner we bring in a manta ray expert, usually Ian or Katie from Kona Dive Company, to talk about manta rays and answer questions.     As soon as dinner wraps up we head out on the back deck to get into wetsuits, snorkel gear, and wrist glow-lights. Then we load up into our skiffs and motor a few hundred yards over to the manta snorkel area. From here six or so guest will jum...

  It is December and the humpback whales are still scarce here in Hawaiian waters but are on their way from their feeding grounds in Alaska. In the meantime we are having a blast with the year round resident dolphins that call Hawaii home. Large groups of spinner dolphins show up along the coast, pilot whales can be seen a few miles off the Big Island, and a few good encounters with Tursiops truncatus , bottlenose dolphins, have delighted the guest.    Without the ship changing course or speed these bottlenose dolphins swam over to the Safari Explorer and delighted the guests by bowriding the pressure wave created by the moving ship. Passengers were squealing with delight which mixed in perfectly with the squeaks and squeals coming from the dolphins. And as we looked down at the dolphins one would occasionally turn and swim on its side, looking right back up at us.         Dolphin and Whale Pictures  Here's Looking at You

Rare Encounter with a Pelagic Jellyfish, Maui, Hawaii   A rare encounter with a pelagic jellyfish occurred off the southern coast of Maui last week. We spotted it while at anchor on the Safari Explorer. Someone spotted something colorful about five feet under the surface. We could see it was a big jellyfish but it was until I jumped in that I could see all the juvenile fish that were making the bell and tentacles of the jellyfish home. I only had a point and shoot underwater camera but it was good enough to capture these images of the rare encounter. I had my friend Amy take a picture as I dove down next to the jelly to give a size reference 

Frogfish Camouflage   I've been so busy the last week and a half working my new gig as expedition leader on the Un-Cruise Hawaii itinerary that I have just now gotten around to going through some of my last dive photos from my week in Maui. I took my friend Jackie out for a stellar dive at one of my favorite spots, 5 Graves, off the South Maui coastline.    I was pretty shocked that I didn't find any nudibranchs, usually it is a hotspot for those marine treasures, but we lucked out with two great frogfish sightings. It was funny watching Jackie shake her head, telling me she doesn't see what I am point at, until the last second when she separates the camouflaging frogfish from its environment. We see frogfish in all colors and sizes here in Hawaii, but these two were particularly beautiful. Since they trust their camouflaging ability so much they let me get very close in for a couple of good shots.    The rest of the dive we focused on the charismati...

Hossmer's Grove   With a powerful rental car hugging the windy road, and Nate and Kelly in tow with the wine and crackers, we sped up the road to the roof of Maui, the 10,023ft summit of Haleakala Volcano. It was late afternoon already and we wanted to get there in time to see the sunset. We ended up getting there rather quickly so we had time to stop for a few pictures on the way, plus a quick nature loop trail as Hossmer's Grove to find the rare endemic I'iwi, or scarlet honeycreeper. Sunset behind the Telescopes     When we got to the summit I was pleased to find no snow or freezing rain and just a little bit of wind. The temperature here often dips below freezing which really messes with your mind since the rest of island is bathed in 80 degree tropical heat year round. Coming up to the volcano has a way to transport you to a distant place far far away.    We found a little nook out of the wind, cracked open the wine and crackers and sat ...

Mala Pier  The sun was out and the wind was light as usual on Maui's west side. This bode well for a couple of scuba dives that I had planned to show off a bit of the Hawaiian underwater world to my friend Corie. The first spot we hit up was the wreckage of the old Mala pier, just north of Lahaina. This has always been one of my favorite sites to dive for underwater photography. The water here is almost always clear, the wreckage covered in beautiful coral, and charismatic megafauna abounds.  Bleached Coral Head  Imagine my surprise when I drop down and the first thing I see isn't clouds of fish, or turtles, or beautiful colors....it is a big vibrant white coral. It had almost entirely bleached. There has been a lot of news surrounding Maui lately with the increase in water temperature leading to mass bleaching events around the island. This happens whenever something like increased water temperature, sedimentation, acidification stresses the coral causing it ...

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