September 22, 2007 Dives - Turtle Canyon & Portlock Point (revised)

For my first dives in Hawaii, I decided to be a little conservative, so I chose 2 shallow reef dives rather than the standard here of 1 deep dive followed by 1 shallow reef dive.

On Saturday, September 22, 2007, I dove with Daryn from Aqua Zone. We did two dives, Turtle Canyon, a 40 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef off of Hawaii Kai, and Portlock Point, a 50 foot deep drift/wall dive.

I did not take my camera on the first dive since it was my first dive in the islands. I wish I had. I was the only one to see the Commerson's Frogfish, so I did not get a photo. Daryn had his camera, and I bought the CD from him.

Did a backroll from the side of the boat to enter the water since it was a small boat without a dive platform. Descended along the mooring line and struck out in a northerly direction.

We swam in a large circle around the reef. Saw lots of reef fish and a couple of moray eels. Ascended slowly up the mooring line and boarded the boat.

Here are the photos from the first dive:

Right at the end of the dive, as we were nearing the mooring line, we came across a large greenish Whitemouth Moray Eel that was swimming. We followed it to a coral head where it hid and watched a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse attempting to clean it. It snapped at the wrasse a couple of times. Daryn shot this video:



The second dive was really cool. I had no idea at the time, just how good conditions were, since I had nothing to compare with. It is by far, my favorite dive of all the ones I have done here in the islands in the year since.

The water was absolutely clear. Far and away the best visibility, and I like this site better than any other I have dived. Only problem is that it is a rarely visited site and getting someone to take me there again will be difficult, since the conditions are a little challenging.

Backrolled in and immediately descended to the base of the wall at 50 feet. Daryn deployed the float and we swam along the wall. The bottom is covered with huge boulders. Lots of reef fish and the vis was excellent.

There are several small caves in the wall, and in the first, we found a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Took some photos in the cave and while it was swimming. In the next cave we found a 5-6 foot Whitetip Reef Shark. Same routine - took photos in the cave and as it swam away. Saw one more turtle just before swimming out from the wall a ways and ascending.

I took the camera on the second dive: