Capturing the Moment

Scuba Diver Silhouette Entering Cathedrals Diving Cathedrals I off Lanai   Cathedrals is one of the best dive sites in Hawaii. Not only do you get an incredible cavern experience, with eerie blue light illuminating this underwater 'cathedral', but once you are outside there is wildlife everywhere, from rare nudibranchs to bandit angelfish. Divers Exploring Cathedrals Cathedrals Dive Site, Lanai, Hawaii   This is also one of the best places in Hawaii for underwater photography. It takes some time to balance your camera settings for the low blue light but the rewards if you get it right can be amazing. And while the empty cavern looks cool enough, having some of your dive buddies swim under some of the skylights brings a better perspective to the different rays of light flooding the chamber.   Luckily our dive guide was pretty laid back about Heidi and I hanging back from the group to continue getting pictures inside. And being the first group in i...

  Best of Maui: Scuba Dives While trying to put together a review of my time here in Maui it quickly became clear that it could not be contained in one post. All the great memories, hikes, dives, animal encounters, and other adventures all deserved their own post so what I am going to do instead is a series of "best of" posts.  I will start off with the best of Maui scuba diving. In my opinion these are the can't miss dive sites for the advanced scuba divers when you come to Maui. Some made the list for big wildlife encounters, others for tiny nudibranch encounters, and others still for incredible underwater topography. Read on to find 'the Big Three' scuba sites as well as a couple of my other favorites. First and Second Cathedrals, Lanai First Cathedrals Second Cathedrals  These two sites both boast enormous underwater caverns. Most dive companies depart from Lahaina harbor but Maui Dive Shop does leave from Ma'alaea harbor on select days. T...

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...