October 12, 2009 Dives - Mahi & Makaha Caverns

On Monday, October 12, 2009, I dove with Jo (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Mahi, a 95 foot deep dive on a ship that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Makaha Caverns, a 50 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef with lava tubes and swim-throughs.

Since I was with Jo, we were first in the water. There were 13 divers and two "guides", so they paired up all the divers and the two guides each took a group.

Visibility was good - about 60 feet. Our group consisted of Jo and me and three women who were diving together. Jo told me she would see me on the bottom so I did a giant stride in and descended immediately. There were several Spotted Eagle Rays hanging around and when I got to the bow of the wreck, I spotted a Hawaiian Green Lionfish hanging out in a coral head.

Hawaiian Green Lionfish

When the rest of the group got down, I showed them the Lionfish and then turned my attention to the Spotted Eagle Rays. There were a lot of them.

Spotted Eagle Rays

Here is a patch of Corrugated Coral. It looks pretty impressive in the photo, but it is a macro photo and is probably just two inches across.

Corrugated Coral

A dark blue Variable Terpios sponge.

Variable Terpios

Lately, it seems like there are always at least a couple of Blue Dragon Nudibranchs hanging out on the hull.

Blue Dragon Nudibranch

I did my safety stop under the boat and then swam up to the ladder and climbed out.

On the second dive, we made the normal tour through Makaha Caverns. This is my first dive with my new camera filter so I was taking lots of photos to figure out how it affects things. All I can say is, Wow! It makes a huge difference on the shallow photos. The reef actally has color!

Lei Triggerfish

Whitebar Surgeonfish, Lei Triggerfish & Yellow Tang

Lei Triggerfish, Saddle Wrasse, Convict Tangs, Brown Surgeonfish, Common Longnose Butteflyfish & Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a

Whitebar Surgeonfish

Yellowtail Coris & Lei Triggerfish

Yellowtail Coris

Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a

Yellowtail Coris

Pinktail Triggerfish

Milletseed Butterflyfish

Moorish Idol

Green Sea Turtle

Divided Flatworm

Threadfin Butterflyfish

Getting the camera filter has been an unqualified success! The color that it adds to the fish and reefs under 50 feet is fantastic. Here are a couple of photos of the reef.

Teated Sea Cucumber>

Blackfin Chromis

The last 10 minutes of the dive, my camera housing began to fog up. You can see it in this photo.

Hawaiian Hogfish (juvenile)

We got back to the boat with time and air left, but my camera was so fogged at that point that I could not take an photos, so I slowly ascended and got out.