Capturing the Moment

  Today I headed out to the offshore waters of Oahu for my first boat dives since moving to this island. I was invited out to ride along with Island Divers to check out their operation. Our first dive was just under 100' at a site called 'Big Barge'. This huge barge had sunk onto the sandy bottom and became a magnet for marine life. Blue dragon nudibranchs crawled over the top while fish of every color swam through the cracked structure.   At the very back of the barge a huge superstructure, possible a wheelhouse, had toppled over. Inside grew a forest of black coral which lit up bright orange under the strobe light. I looked hard to see if there were any long nose hawkfish hiding in the coral but I didn't see any. The wreck itself looked like great frogfish habitat but I also came up empty on those.   The visibilty was great. When we jumped in we could see the bottom about 90feet below us. Even with the great visibility you can't see the end of the wreck...

Heidi and I signed up with Reef Pirates Dive Shop to go do a deep wreck dive off the coast of Hawaii-kai in Oahu. I had never dove on a plane wreck before so I was very excited. Plus there are always cool critters on wrecks that you just don't see other places. This was no exception! The is a worry about the current at this offshore location so we had to time it right. We descended down the mooring line and the outline of the wreck soon became visible. The right wing was broken and the left wing was buried under the sand but otherwise the wreck is in great condition. The landing gear is still extended from the back of the plane which you can see in the top right picture. Sometimes you can sit in the cockpit and get your picture taken but today a toxic spiny sea urchin had taken up residence right ontop of the pilots seat so that was a no go.   One of the coolest parts of this dive is that the sand surrounding the wreck is filled with rows upon rows of garden eels. Slim, ...