We’re back in Kona, and after the hurricane delays we’re finally doing some diving. The plan for the trip was to get our advanced open water certification, since apparently the insurance companies are forcing dive shops to be more strict about requiring it, and the good folks at Jack’s Diving Locker found a way for us to schedule the necessary dives after our course on Kauai was cancelled, and then found a way to reschedule again after we were unable to catch our flights out of Kauai. As of now we’ve done four of the six planned dives. Last night was the famous manta ray dive, and while we didn’t have the crazy extravaganza that we experienced four years ago, it is still incredibly cool when a twelve foot wide ray swims a foot over your head. As an added bonus, as I went to kneel down in the diver circle at the bottom I looked to my left and saw a small moray eel smiling up at me, so I had an extra companion throughout the dive. Yesterday’s other fun find was a monk seal on our late-afternoon dive who was scratching himself on the mooring line; you don’t realize how large a seal is until it swims next to you and it’s bigger than a human.
Today’s two dives were both instructional dives required for the course, so we did our obligatory deep dive (one hundred feet) and then the much-dreaded navigation dive. The deep portion of the first dive went fast as we swam down to one hundred feet, did a few quick skills, and then returned to shallower waters where we spent an hour enjoying the fishes. The highlight was a snowflake eel out hunting in daylight; they aren’t big but they’re an impressive white color, and this guy had no fear as he snaked his way along the bottom towards us. The second dive was compass navigation, and without the aid of reading glasses and in a mild swell I did a horrendous job of navigating to the desired endpoint, but Audrey nailed her navigation assignment so we’ll let her lead the way the next time we need to get around with a compass underwater.
Two days remain, then it’s sadly back home and back to work after a most unusual trip.
