March 22, 2008 Dives - The Corsair & Koko Craters

On Saturday, March 22, 2008, I dove with Erin (divemaster) from Aqua Zone, Kevin and Steve. We did two dives, the Corsair, a 107 foot deep dive on a WWII fighter that crashed in 1946 when the pilot ran out of fuel while waiting for an airstrip to open up. The Pilot survived and made it to shore. The second dive was Koko Craters, a 35 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef.

Backrolled into the water and immediately headed down the anchor line about 10'. Kevin was the first in and as soon as he went vertical, his weightbelt went right to the bottom, so Erin had to fix him up with a new one. Steve and I hung out at 10' until he was ready.

Descended along the line until we were at the bottom. Kevin was a little slow coming down.

Made one lap around the plane taking photos. Would like to have gotten a better photo of the Hawaiian Garden Eels, but didn't think about zoom. A little narced I suppose.

I discovered the flash and color!!!!

Got a nice photo inside the cockpit of a Greenhead Moray Eel and some good photos inside the fuselage of Bigscale Soldierfish. I was a little surprised by the color that showed up on the flash photos inside dark places, since you cannot see it at all with the naked eye.

Headed back up the line at the end of the dive. I was a little low on air at the safety stop, so shared air with Erin. Forgot how to set a safety stop bookmark in the computer, but looked it up later. Need to see what I can do to get better air consumption. Less movement, better conditioning, I suppose would help. This is my second most favorite dive site.

This was my first dive with my new dive computer. I felt much more comfortable than the past two dives with Andre'. I knew how deep I was and how much time I had.

On the second dive, backrolled in and dropped down to the bottom. Peered under ledges and looked for turtles and other critters. Lots of turtles. Most had large growths on their heads caused by agricultural runoff.

Got a good photo of Hawaiian Squirrelfish. Erin found a Leaf Scorpionfish and showed us all. A little later, she also showed us a Devil Scorpionfish.

Looked at a Cushion Star, actually saw two of them.

As we were headed back to the mooring line, came across a Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a, but was not able to get a photo.

Ascended without a safety stop and hauled out.