Capturing the Moment

   During his Hawaii visit Hunter wanted to not just get some diving in, but go deeper than ever before. So we signed up for an advanced shipwreck dive off of Oahu's southern coast. We decided to tackled the wreck of the Sea Tiger. Here is the online description of the dive:  "One of our favorite wreck dives on the south side!  The Sea Tiger is 168 ft of artificial reef, sunk in 1999.  An amazing array of marine life is already taking advantage of this ship, including squirrelfish and filefish, morays, endangered green sea turtles, spotted eagle rays and reef sharks.  The main deck sits at around 80 feet, while the hull hits the sand at about 127 ft. The ship was originally named Yun Fong Seong No. 303, the ship was apprehended by the Honolulu Harbor Police carrying 93 illegal Chinese immigrants and became legend as Hawaii’s largest seizure of illegal immigrants.  The name Sea Tiger came from one of the ship’s later owners, a Vietnamese...

   One of the most popular boat dives along Oahu's south shore is the shipwreck of the Sea Tiger. Sitting upright on the sand at 127', the wreck of the Sea Tiger makes for a challenging, but still recreational deep dive. It was purposefully sunk just outside of Kewalo Harbor to become an artificial wreck. The wreck itself is 165' long and about 40' wide. You can penetrate into the wreck thru some open refrigeration hatches on the deck.   Heidi and I were playing tourist today as we headed out on the boat, listening to the safety briefing. Last time we did a boat dive here in Oahu the boat was filled with Japanese tourists. We were shocked this time when it turned out to be just four of us divers on board. The conditions were great, no wind or waves, although the water looked more inky blue than light aquamarine in the early light of day. The light got better as the dive progressed but at first glance from the surface we couldn't see the wreck.   I was the ...