Capturing the Moment

Dana, Ben, Heidi, Sadie, and I all gathered together for a fun scuba diver at Wailea point. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we all felt quite warm in our 5mm wetsuits as we walked from the parking lot down to the beach. I love it when you hit that cold, refreshing water on a really hot day. This turned out to be the perfect temperature and one of the few dives where I haven't felt cold towards the end. The water was clear and blue making it a great place for a dive. Part of the dive was a refresher for Dana and Sadie. Once we saw that they were doing great Heidi and I started concentrating on finding those elusive nudibranchs. Usually Wailea Point is a great place to find sea slugs. Today did not disappoint. On the roof of a cave I found this snow goddess pictured on the right. We did our best not to disturb it because it was in the process of laying eggs. The orange/yellow ribbon under the snow goddess nudibranch are its eggs, being attached to the rock. Then Heidi noti...

 A couple hundred yard kick out from Wailea beach yields an expansive reef filled with graceful sea turtles, different coral formations, juvenile fish, and lots of hiding places for moray eels. Today the turtles were plentiful as I had the reef all to myself. No boats tied up and only the occasional fly over from a stand up paddle board which are become a hugely popular option with beach combers here in Maui. A couple of turtles were fast asleep in their caves, out of sight of any would-be predators in the area. And then I came across a couple of young turtles set atop the reef, covered with hovering colorful fish cleaning the algae off its shell. Surgeonfish, potters angelfish, and yellow tangs were all in on the feast, sharing the buffet of algae on the turtles shell.    Wailea Point is also one my of favorite nudibranch hunting reefs. Today was a bit light with only two Vericose phillydias, but while searching the nooks and crannies for slugs I came across ...