Sunday, February 28, 2010

Tsunami!

It has been a pretty surreal day! I was blasted out of a sound sleep this morning at 6:00 when the tsunami sirens just outside the hotel sounded off. I knew there had been a large earthquake in Chile last night so I knew what it was. I turned on the TV and they were announcing that a 10-12 foot tsunami was expected to hit the islands around 11:00 am!

That was a little shocking. I got dressed and went down to get a parking pass so I could go to Safeway and get some food and water since they were suggesting that everyone have 5-7 days of food and water on-hand. In the lobby I found out that roads into Waikiki were closed so I could drive out but not back in.

I decided I would walk to Food Pantry. There were a few people on the street, but mostly waiting in front of ABC stores that were not going to open today. When I got to the store, it was surprisingly orderly and the crowd didn't seem bad, except for the checkout lines. They went clear around the inside of the store.

I got my groceries and waited in line which took 45 minutes! Just as I got to the front of the line, people started flooding into the store and some of them looked a little wide-eyed and panicky. The security guards had formed a line outside the store and were only letting people in as others left the store. When I got outside, the sidewalks were now crowded with people trying to either get supplies or get out of the area.

I waited it out in my hotel room while watching the TV and blogging.

As it turned out, the tsunami did hit, but it was almost a non-event in Hawaii, thankfully. A little stress but it turned out well.

My thoughts have been with those in Chile and on Robinson Crusoe Island and all the devastation that are dealing with. Also, Okinawa - they had a 7.0 earthquake last night, the largest ever recorded there. With over 500,000 homes destroyed, there are millions of homeless people tonight that are suffering. It is heartbreaking - we are all safe, but they are not.
My reaction to all this took me a little by surprise. I am reminded of a quote by John Donne:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind: and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

New Favorite Song

Dance With My Father
by Luther Vandross
(#65 at the bottom of the Blog)

I don't remember dancing with him, but I would give anything to play cribbage with him in a camp trailer!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

February 20, 2010 Dives - Electric Beach, Black Rock & Land of Oz

On Saturday morning, February 20, 2010, I dove with Shawn McElravy (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts and Paula Hoover as the victim for Paula's Rescue Diver class. We did the two Rescue dives - unresponsive diver on the bottom and unresponsive diver on the surface. Since I was the victim, I set up on the bottom and then Paula had to come and find me, bring me to the surface and then tow me to shore and get me out of the water while doing rescue breaths.

She found me quickly and did a good job with getting me to the surface except she was a little bit aggressive on the speed. We came up about four times too fast. I was glad I was only down 18 feet.

She put the rescue mask on me and began towing me to shore. She was working pretty hard, but I wasn't allowed to help her out. It was a lot more work for her than when I did it with Shawn. When we got close to shore, she removed my BCD and hers and then drug me out onto the beach.

Everything went really well except that in all the confusion of trying to get the BCDs back on and the sand rinsed out, my mask disappeared. We all searched for quite a while, but it was gone. Shawn lent me one of his for the afternoon/evening dives.

Later in the day I dove with Grant (divemaster) and Justin, an Advanced Open Water student. There were 6 divers and 2 guides. Justin and three others were doing their first three Advanced Open Water dives with Grant, and I rounded out the group. We dove Black Rock, an 80-foot deep dive on a coral reef with an overhang for the afternoon dive, and Land of Oz, a 65-foot deep dive on a coral reef for the evening and night dives.

On the first (third) dive the three students were doing their deep dive. We dropped down to the bottom at the base of Black Rock and looked at how depth affects colors. Then went on a tour. Visibility was exceptional - probably 120 feet!

This Kangaroo Nudibranch was out in the open on the top of the reef.

Kangaroo Nudibranch

There were several big Yellowmargin Moray Eels on the reef, mostly tucked back into little holes and overhangs. These two were where I could get photos.


Yellowmargin Moray Eel

This is the only site I have seen this Red Seaweed.


Dasya iridescens

There are always lots of these urchins at Black Rock, but they are always out in the open and getting a decent photo is a challenge.

Pebble Collector Urchin

One of the Advanced Open Water students.

Eric Hess

A cloud of reef fish over Black Rock.

When my buddy ran out of air, we were right at the mooring line, so we slowly ascended, did a safety stop and then got out. Justin had less than 500 psi and I had 1200.

On the second (fourth) dive, the students were doing their navigation dive. I helped by stretching a line out 150 feet for them to measure their fin kicks against. when that was done, they were all supposed to swim a square with 150 foot sides using a compass. Since Justin needed a buddy to go with him, I followed along intending to take some photos and just enjoy it.

Boy, was I wrong! He took off and it was all I could do to keep him in sight. When it appeared we were going to swim all the way to Kaua'i, he finally stopped and made a 90 degree turn. I didn't get caught up, but was able to cut the corner and get close. He then swam about 150 feet and turned again and we headed back for the long swim to equal out the first leg. By an absolute miracle, he stopped at exactly the right place to make another turn and swim 150 feet back to the mooring line. Unfortunately, he was down to 500 psi. I did manage to stop him at that point and took him up to 15 feet and we swam directly back to the hang bar. I got him on an emergency regulator, helped him adjust his buoyancy and checked his air gauge. He was at 200 psi. After a three minute safety stop, we ascended and got out. I still had 1300 psi, but was pretty tired!

After a very long surface interval while we waited for the sun to set, we got in for the third (fifth) dive. I was cold to start the dive, but warmed up as we went along. Right at first it dawned on me why Justin is going through so much air. He is vertical in the water and is constantly treading water to stay off the bottom rather than adjusting his buoyancy!

The dive started along a small wall. The rest of the group just took off and didn't even look at the wall. There was a big Decoy Scorpionfish. He was a little skittish, but I managed to snap a couple of photos.

Decoy Scorpionfish

Still along the wall, just past the Scorpionfish, I discovered a Hawaiian Green Lionfish - the largest I have ever seen. He was out in the open and was all spread out displaying. I tried to get the attention of the others, but they just ignored me.

Hawaiian Green Lionfish

During the surface interval, I should have eaten a sandwich, but didn't really feel like it. Instead, I ate cookies and chips. I paid for that during this dive. I had a huge case of heartburn. Of course, underwater, there is no way do do anything about it! As the dive went on, it just got worse and worse.

We spent most of the dive out in the flat instead of along the walls or little canyons on the site. Consequently, we didn't see as much as we could have. Toward the end of the dive, I came across an enormous Tiger Cowry with its mantle out and covering its shell!

Tiger Cowry

About this time Grant decided he and Justin would go back to the boat since Justin was low on air again. I followed along, since my stomach was killing me even though I still had 1500 psi left.

After I got back on the boat I took a big drink of water and immediately lost it back over the side. Nothing else came up and I felt queasy for a while, but that solved the heartburn! Next time I have to eat something, but I am not a big fan of the sandwiches. I may start taking a yogurt and a granola bar.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Valentines Day 2010 - Roses

Like normal, I was not around for Valentine's Day, but this year Lauri wasn't either. I had to fly back to Honolulu and Lauri and Rebecca flew to Kansas to spend Cydney's birthday with her.

When Lauri got home, however, her roses were waiting for her just the same.

I love you Sweetheart.

Friday, February 12, 2010

February 12, 2010 Night Dives - Airplane Ledge & Turtle Reef

On Friday, February 12, 2010, I dove with Carlos Santana (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts and Nick Long. We did two dives, Airplane Ledge, a 110 foot deep dive on an airplane that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Turtle Reef, a 35 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef.

We got a little bit of a late start since as we were heading out of the harbor, one of the divers "discovered" that she did not have her weight pockets. We had to go back to the dock where Shawn rustled up a couple of pockets to fit her BCD. This is my first dive with my new ScubaPro Equator BCD.

On the first dive I was partnered with Carlos, so our group was last into the water. There were 10 divers and three "guides". Half of the divers were students.

Carlos lead our group and I brought up the rear. The other four were Night Diver students and were on only their second night dives. We all dropped down to the wreck and looked around a little. Photographs were hard to come by. Lots of suspended stuff in the water, so backscatter was a real problem. Still, I got several really good photos of Decoy Scorpionfish. They were everywhere on the bottom by the wreck!




Decoy Scorpionfish

This Pebble Collector Urchin didn't have any pebbles, so you can get a good look at it.

Pebble Collector Urchin

There are always several of these little fish around at night. They are pretty shy, and so far, I have not been able to identify them.

????

A new species of crab - the first one I have observed!

Hairy Portunid

And another crab that I see all the time. . .

Hawaiian Swimming Crab

This big Undulated Moray Eel was hanging out under a little ledge and kept poking his head out.

Undulated Moray Eel

Another new species - this one a sponge.

Blue Suberites

When I ran out of no-deco time on my computer, I headed over by the mooring line and followed the students up to safety stop depth. Carlos and I did our safety stops together and then swam over to the boat and got out. I still had 700 psi of air.

The BCD functioned perfectly! It does not have the internal frame like a Glide Pro or a Nighthawk so it is lighter and has less inherent buoyancy. I will probably be able to drop a couple of pounds of weight, but need to wait until a daytime dive so I can see to do a post-dive buoyancy check.

On the second dive, I went with Shawn's group and since one of his divers decided not to go on the second dive, I was buddied up with Nick Long. Once again, the plan was that Shawn would lead and I would follow the others and keep them all together. That was a good plan, but Nick kept dawdling along and we just fell behind. That was OK, though since I a pretty familiar with this site and so I just lead Nick on a tour.

This was a gorgeous Red Pencil Urchin! I tried several times to get a decent photo and failed because of all the stuff stirred up in the water and the resulting backscatter.

Red Pencil Urchin

I spotted this guy as the surge swept me past and had to turn around and go back to get a photo.

Yellowhead Moray Eel

This little Ornate Octopus was out swimming as we past over it. It immediately stopped and then started crawling along the bottom, stretching out its tentacles a long way! While I was photographing it, my batteries died. That just made my day! In addition to the other challenges with getting photos, I had do deal with that. I can usually nurse a few more photos out, but it is a hassle.


Ornate Octopus

Nick found this big fellow and pointed him out to me.

Scrawled or Broomtail Filefish

When Nick ran low on air, we slowly ascended and climbed out at the boat. I was ready to get out since I was getting a little cold even though I still had 1200 psi left.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Ice Castles

This evening we drove up to Midway to go see the Ice Castles with Grandma Pat. A guy there in Midway creates these castles each winter and this is the first time we have gone to see them. I suppose it would be fun to see them in the daylight as well, but at night, the lights do create very interesting effects.


Jes and Dave and the boys came along to enjoy and explore. We all had a good time and enjoyed taking photos.


You can tell we were all a little cold just from the poses!


This was my favorite view of the evening.

Sittin' on the park bench. . .

The whole crew minus the photographer.