Wetsuit Adventure and Mama's Fish House

This was a really great day. I (Connie) got to try my new wetsuit and we celebrated Ed's birthday with a Fantastic dinner at Mama's Fish House.

Karen and I started the day as we usually did, breakfast on the lanai with the birds. Then we goofed off for a while and snacked on some stuff.

After 1:00 pm when the ocean supposedly warmed up a bit, Rob and I went snorkeling. This was also my first chance to get my wetsuit wet. It really did give me quite a bit of buoyancy. I felt a little off-balance at first and a little out of control. The waves were kicking up a little and snorkeling didn't seem very attractive. We decided to just swim around and enjoy the water. We spent about an hour playing in the waves and just being goofy. We met some nice people also swimming and then rinsed off in the fresh water shower and packed it in for the condo.

We had a little time to spend before we had to get ready for dinner so Rob and I read one of Terry Pratchett's books together and rested.

Karen and I got to wear our new outfits to dinner. The restaurant was fantastic. We all had one of their specialty drinks before dinner along with some appetizers. Everyone but me tried the sashimi. I stuck with the seared tenderloin tidbits.

I had a fish for dinner called an ono. It was served with caramelized Maui onions and some other vegetables. Wow, was it good. Luckily, I had room for dessert. I finally got to taste the famous Black Pearl dessert. It's hard to describe. Think chocolate ganache shaped like a ball with cream cheese filling on a thin cookie and whipped cream. I'm surprised I could finish it. Rob did help a little. Everyone else had the dessert with lots of strawberries. Altogether a very nice meal.

We have a little clean-up to do at the condo before we leave for home tomorrow. We'll probably get up early to take care of it. We won't be posting again until we arrive home.

Bye for now.

Shopping and Subbing

We went over to Lahaina today for a little shopping. This is the busy side of the island. A cruise ship (the Golden Princess) was in port and people were everywhere. They also had an art fair under the banyan tree on the main square of town. This tree was planted some time in the 1800's and covers the entire square with its many secondary trunks. We found some neat things for sale, but didn't really buy much. It's really hard to get large carvings or paintings home and they really wanted a lot of money for them.

We continued to shop along Front Street and picked up some real bargains. Karen and I both found some really neat dresses. We thought we would wear them at Ed's birthday dinner Friday night. There were many sales going on. This was a real indicator of the lack of tourist numbers here. Most places wouldn't admit to reduced business but we could tell they were desperate.

Rob thought it would be nice to go on the submarine Atlantis while were there. He checked for tickets and found that some were available for today. We got on the 3:00 trip. The naturalist that led our little group was a real comedian. He made jokes all the way out and during the trip. We watched a school of goat fish form a bait ball and then get attacked by fish called jacks. One of the jacks was lucky and scored a fish. The naturalist then played taps and gave a short eulogy.

We got as deep as 128 feet and saw a lot of fish. We even saw a spotted eagle ray. Before we submerged we had seen a whale and her calf. When we surfaced and got back on the shuttle boat we saw some whales a short distance away start breaching. They jumped once together, then they separately jumped about six times each. The boat captain said he would have to charge us an extra $20 because of the additional whale-watching entertainment. Yes, he was kidding.

On the way back from Lahaina, we stopped in Kihei at the Who Cut the Cheese store to pick up some munchies. We also found the flavored sugar marketed by the Maui Culinary Academy as a fund-raiser. This stuff is great. Coffee will never be the same. We also got cheese and crackers which we nibbled on later while waiting for Rob to pick up a pizza from Mateo's. That was really yummy too.

What a fun day.

Lazy Day

We didn't do much today. It was mostly just lounging by the pool. Karen and I (Connie) had our usual breakfast on the lanai in the company of a pair of cardinals. They patiently waited until we put a few crumbs on the edge of the table, then they hopped down from the railing and scarfed them up. They were very polite and never begged. The mynah birds, on the other hand, waited until we went back inside to hoover up any leftovers. They weren't very social.

The lizards around here are really funny. The geckos chirp at night but keep the bugs way down. They also have a wiggle when they run that is hilarious. The Jamaican lizards run along the railings and stop occasionally to do push ups. They also flip out an orange flap under their chins. I think they are just showing off. Could also be marking territory but we certainly don't look threatening.

Later that evening we went to Joe's Bar and Grill over in the Wailea Grand Champions complex. Some of Ed's friends have a condo there and we met them for a very pleasant evening. I had the opakapaka, Rob had the prime rib, and I forget what everyone else had. It was sooooooo good. We also had mai tai's because Ed was driving. In fact, when we parked, some guy met us in a modified golf cart and offered to take us to the restaurant. Nice service.

We all turned in as soon as we got back. Stuffed as usual. I've probably gained 10 pounds since coming here. Darn.

...To the Bottom of the Sea

While everyone else was getting massages, I, who could never sit still that long, went out for an evening of diving.

The Maui Divers Boat Maka Koa first took us out to the north rim of Molokini, where the crater dips into the water. Just as we were putting our fins on, a whale breached only 50 ft from the boat. Despite a mad scramble to get into the water, none of us managed to get time with the whale in the water. After descending, we worked our way along the crater lip, checking out the many small shelfs and caves along this section. Inside most were white tip sharks.


In one, a small white tip huddled in the back with a 40lb lobster with claws as big as my foot, if not bigger. The white tip made a scramble out of the cave when the lobster shifted to one side and gestured at us with its claws. In a fight between the two, the white tip probably would have lost; the lobster was that big. Molokini is a preserve, so we couldn't take him back to the boat for dinner. There was also a huge cornet fish that was as long as some of our divers.

Dragging my huge video camera through the current, I ended up being the first back again, but I got a special treat during my safety stop. Underneath me, passed a large gray shark with a square nose and a dark gray/black dorsal fin. Upon returning to the boat, there was much discussion about what I saw. It was probably a large gray reef shark whose fin had turned dark with age, or so the "experts" on board eventually concluded. Apparently, grays occasionally slip into the crater for a sunset feed and it certainly wasn't a white tip or a tiger. Unfortunately, it took me too long to get the camera out and I didn't get a picture and it was gone by the end of my safety stop, when others began to arrive at the mushroom weight.


After a dinner of submarine sandwiches and fruit, we moved onto a proper night dive at a location off of Makena Landing known as "Five Caves." It is marked by a rock that sticks up half way between shore and where the boat moored. There are five caves of various sizes filled with turtles, eels, and white tip sharks. I also managed to get some footage of a small squid about the size of my arm and a large brown crab eating an urchin. One of the dive masters spotted a school of barracuda with two sharks working our fringes by turning his light off and letting us get ahead a ways, but he couldn't get me to come back to him with the light in time for filming. Apparently, this is the "trick" they normally use to also locate the rays, but the sharks and barracuda were scaring off the other potential trailers.

While trying to catch up, the crowd suddenly disappeared on me while in the middle of a tidal bowl and I was alone with the trailing dive master. Apparently, they had all swum into the small cave entrance and it opened up/went far enough back that I could not see their lights. I was down to 1000psi at this point and the wave action was starting to pick up. Going into an unknown cave didn't feel right to me. After surfacing with him and finding out where they went, I cruised the bowl and snorkeled it a bit with the trailing divemaster until they came back out.

During the predive, Mike, our dive leader this trip, mentioned that he was going for all five caves and we might need to do some swimming to get back to the boat. After cruising along the bottom a little farther away from the boat, I was down to 400 in 20 feet of water and had to surface. The trailing divemaster stayed with me back to the boat. It was at least 300 yards and the surf was up. There was no opposite reference point to the boat, so I had to swim face first, dragging the camera low in the water along the way. There was a nice 6 foot swell, but I snorkeled it because I wanted to make sure I had plenty of air when it came time to try to get on the boat. That turned out to be a good idea because the swells were even higher by the time we got there. Switching back to scuba, I took my fins off about 20 feet away with the drag line nestled under my arm and hauled my way to the boat, timing it for the mildest swells. My exit ended up fairly easy as a result. The others who followed behind me had a variety of experiences getting back on board. In the end, though, all had a great time on this dive. We didn't see any manta rays, but the experience was well worth it.

From the Top of the Mountain...

We began the day driving through the beautiful central valley to the 10,000 foot high crater of the dormant volcano Haleakala. The name means "House of the Sun" in Hawaiian.

On the way up we stopped at a little town called Kula. They had several shops where we stocked up on souvenirs and water. There is no food at the summit. They gave Karen a discount because she gave them exact change. They are a long away from the nearest bank and singles, fives and coins are always welcome. All the way up we saw protea bushes in yards and fields. They are a very popular flower. We occasionally see them on the mainland in bouquets. They are everywhere on Maui. The porch of the shop had several different kinds on display.

Further up the road we went through eucalyptus forests and opened the windows to breath in the scent. There weren't many clouds this early in the morning but we could still tell when we were high enough to look down on the few that were floating around.

The temperature was a little chilly at the summit. We had brought warm jackets along and didn't have a problem. As usual, there were a few people with shorts and t-shirts that were shivering. One child had her bathrobe on over several layers of other clothes underneath. And she was still cold. We bought some books at the visitor center, took a few pictures, watched the activity at the scientific station next door, and headed back down.


Evidently one section of the facility has the job of tracking near earth objects in space. It looks like a large glass jar with a metal frame. I have no idea how it works but I'm glad someone is looking.

The trip back down the mountain was a lot faster than going up. We met two bikers who we had also seen on the way up. They were still going, and going, and....well I assume they finally made it.

We also saw a group set off on horses for the trek down into the crater. A forbidding place if I have ever seen one. Once inside one can't even find north with a compass. There is a hill called "Magnetic Hill" that has such a high iron content it deflects compass needles. People really have to stay on the trail, and not just to protect the rare plant and animal life. Speaking of which, the silverswords were spectacular. They only grow on this one volcano and are strictly protected. Even walking near them will crush their root system and kill them. And to think, people used to dry the leaves and use them for kindling. We're lucky to still have some around.

After coming back down from the heights, we stopped at the mall for a few things and continued back to the condo. Rob went for a boat dive (more to come on this), Ed and Karen had massages and Connie baked by the pool. Ah, Maui.

Whale Watching (and being Watched)

We went whale watching this afternoon on the Alii Nui. There were whales breaching and tail slapping everywhere until we cleared the harbor. Then, like someone threw a switch, there was calm everywhere. For 30 minutes, the boat captain searched in vain for a spout and asked us all to look for any sign of a whale. Finally, I spotted one at one o'clock and another, closer at 11 o'clock, surfaced with a calf. The captain cut out the engine and let us drift into them.


The calf was a newborn -- still light grey as they are at birth. The mother, unescorted, first tried to shepherd her newborn away from the catamaran. Just as everyone was getting bored with the occasional spout in the distance, the baby had a tantrum. Tail slapping, spouting, even trying to breach! Eventually, the mother relented. She was large and this clearly wasn't her first. She let the baby circle closer and closer to the boat, keeping her body between us at every step. Eventually, baby and mother were less than 10 feet from the boat! On several occasions, the mom actually went under the catamaran and we could see her body inches from both surface and hull through the netting under our feet. They were clearly looking at us as we were looking at them. If the deck was lower, we could have touched them and risked the $300 fine.

Larger than our boat, the mother whale started to scare one of the human ladies with children on board. The captain helped her to the center of the catamaran, where she could not see the large animals cavorting under her feet, and calmed her down. The rest of us were overjoyed at our luck and ignored the fact the mother could have sunk or flipped the Alii Nui at any time.

After an hour of exploring the boat and the people on it from every angle, the baby finally became bored with us, as all children will, and wandered away with mother in tow. The captain remarked that he had only gotten that close three times in his 21 years providing whale watching tours. With that, he turned back for port.


Once back on dry land, we did some shopping for necessities: toilet paper, snickers bars, donuts, muffins, and books. Karen got her first experience shopping at Hilo Hatties. She "won" a couple of "free" pearls at the oyster station and they were pretty good sized, but not worth the $250 the clerks were insisting on charging to have the pearls set as a part of the promotion. Connie skipped dinner, but Karen, Ed and I all had Mahi Mahi at the Wailea Golf Club.

Tomorrow: The Summits of Haleakela!

Diving and Winery Visit

Today Rob went diving at Molokini Crater and Karen and I (Connie) drove upcountry to visit the Tedeschi Winery. It is now called Maui's Winery but is still the same thing.

It was a long way up past the Haleakala Crater turnoff down a twisting narrow road to find it, but it was worth it. Karen and I tasted about 7 or 8 different wines and bought way too much of it. We both bought the framboise (raspberry). The lady serving us said to dip a champagne glass rim in the wine and then in flavored sugar. Then let it dry and serve champagne in it. Yum.

We made it back down the mountain and into Maalaea Harbor just in time to catch Rob as he stepped off the boat. We picked him up and drove back to the condo to get Ed. Then we went to a neat little sandwich shop and bar in Kihei. They had dollar bills with people's names and other artwork on them pasted all over the walls and ceiling of the bar. We looked to see if there were any silver certificates, but they all seemed to be more modern. There was some foreign currency there too.

After we got back to the condo, I decided to take a nap. Fourteen hours later and it was Monday. I guess I got a little sleep-deprived on the flight out. Ya think?

Connie :-)

Diving Molokini and Wailea Point

Well, while Connie and Karen went uphill to a winery, I slipped back down into the water again.

On the way out to Molokini our dive boat had to stop for a group of humpback whales breaching, tail slapping, and sparring with each other. One of the males tried a particularly high tail slap only to be "nudged" from underneath by a much larger male. As a result, he ended up doing a complete flip, with only his nose failing to clear the water. It was to be the best part of the trip for me, though I didn't know that yet.

Molokini was to be a disappointment, unfortunately. First, no back wall -- there were too few experienced divers to fill a boat. Second, the 18 lbs of weight turned out to be too light to keep me down. Third, there was a strong current, so the divemaster had to turn back early and we were swept farther from the boat than he intended. While trying to follow the others back, under-weighted and against the current, I burned over 1500 psi of air in under 3 minutes. :( When I realized what was happening, I signaled the divemaster I was low on air and going up. Staying down and heading toward the boat, I realized I would run out of air before I got to the line we were supposed to use, but I could reach the mooring line on the other side. I made that line with 550psi left in the tank, did my 3 minute safety stop, and crawled backwards up the line to the surface with less than 250 psi of air left. Another gentleman, in a similar situation, skipped his safety stop and bobbled to the surface completely out of air right behind me. Fortunately, there was almost no current at the surface as the others found themselves surfacing a good distance away from the boat and had to swim to it. however, most of them did manage to enjoy 40+ minutes in the water to my 25.

The second dive was at Wailea Point and I scored another 2 lbs. to make sure I stayed down, but I ended up with a shorter dive again. I was able to eke about 40 minutes out of this tank, but it was still less than the others. We saw the usual schools of colorful fish, coral nudibranchs, other odd forms, but it was spoiled for me. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the cold water was causing me to respirate faster and burn air. Scott, the divemaster for both trips, was wearing two 3mm suits plus a hood and gloves. The others were all wearing rental wet suits at least the 5mm thick. If I do another boat dive, I may rent a 5mm suit just to have some reasonable dive times.

Shore Diving Madness

While the ladies were relaxing after the journey here to Maui, I hit the water with shore dives at White Rock and Ulua Beach. Like last time, I had the divemasters with the Maui Dive Shop lead the way. It costs a little bit to have someone local lead or act as dive partner, but it beats diving alone. There are always the risks of current and dangerous life in unfamiliar waters and, despite being rated a divemaster myself (or maybe because of), I know the advantages a local diver brings to a dive.

Greg was my divemaster for the the two morning dives. We decided to explore a beach area known as "White Rock"(Palauea Beach). Closer to shore there was very little beyond fish. Farther out, we found lots of turtles, spotted eels, octopus, crabs, small shrimp, and nudibranchs.

The second loop around the rocks north of the beach was fairly similar. Visibility was about 50 feet and the water was cold for Hawaii at 21 Celsius (69F). I got a nice video of one octopus Greg scared out of its hole. Fortunately, the octopus never inked. I am not a big fan of harassing the wildlife for customers, but I took advantage of it nevertheless.


After dark, Michelle (another Divemaster from Maui Dive Shop) and I slipped under the waters of Ulua Beach for a night shore dive. Again, nothing much near shore, but she wanted to drop down before getting too deep so we wouldn't pull in a tiger shark, which sometime come shallow at night to feed on carrion in the water. The Whale song was extremely loud and verbose. Multiple males were clearly at it within a mile or two of us. Unfortunately, our lights were lucky to penetrate more than 50 feet. After swimming out a ways further along the bottom, we were able to spot multiple octopus hunting along with a yellow-faced eel and an anemone crab. There were also the usual schools of colorful fish as well, but most were embedded in the reef and they quickly sought deeper and darker holes when our lights passed over them.

For most of the dive there was a large dark gray shadow continually following behind us. The mystery fish was probably a shark, taking advantage of anything blinded by our lights. Michelle turned early into shore and I left the water with almost 800psi left in my tank. I thought Michelle had been unnerved by our large grey darting fish(?), until later when I realized that she had been shivering with cold when we got out.

Hawaii's waters are usually in the mid-70s at least. Most of the Divemasters out here have no body fat, so a drop of 5-10 degrees in water temperature is more than they can handle in a 3mm wet suit. Greg had been wearing an 8mm Pinnacle that I would have cooked in. Michelle clearly needs a heavier suit and/or a few good meals, so I tipped her a $20 bill anyway.

After a quick clean up back at Ed's Condo, I "kissed" my wife and collapsed onto the bed. Molokini is in the morning at 6am!

Paradise Revisited

Connie and I are off to Maui again. Spring break is here for me. Connie has got to break out of work before she springs a leak and explodes. ;) It is also Ed's birthday, so we all decided to meet in Maui to celebrate it despite the fact that Ed was in Oshkosh up until two days ago. (Yes, we're all insane.) Karen Smith, Connie's sister for those not in the know, came with us. This is her first trip to Maui. Because the prices were down and it can be a very uncomfortable trip, Karen, Connie, and I went first class.

We spent last night at the Chicago Hilton to ease catching a 7:15am US Air Flight that didn't leave until after 11am. To be fair, the pilot was preparing to taxi on schedule, but every time he applied the brakes, the plane shuddered and tried to turn hard right. Rather than deplane us and board another aircraft, we all sat there as he first had to wait for an open gate and then for the mechanics to fix the problem. Being in first class, we at least had comfortable seats and plenty of complementary goodies to keep us entertained when the mechanic's circus act got slow.

Once finally in the air, most of the trip was cloudy, so we both read. I managed to polish off a 436 page novel by Clive Cussler called Corsair. It was a fun light read that replaced the usual technical and teaching manuals my mind has had to absorb of late. Connie consumed Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child -- not much deeper, but a fun read for her nevertheless.

We transferred at Phoenix and spent several more hours of uneventful flying to Maui's Kahalooie (OGG) Airport. Ed met us at baggage claim with leis in hand. After a short trip to his condo and some quick unpacking, we watched the sun set then walked over to Mateo's for pizza. By the time we got back to the condo, it was 9pm local time. I prepped for an early morning dive (why do I do this to myself?!? Oh, yeah, I'm insane...) and we all dove into bed.

More tomorrow

-Rob
:)