On Saturday, December 4, 2010, I dove with Aubrey Summerlin. 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.
There were 29 divers and five "guides". This was my first time as "staff" on the boat since getting my Instructor rating. Ocean Concepts had 9 divers and 3 staff. Deep Ecology was sharing the boat and had the rest. I was with Aubrey, a PB guy who was on his first dive in 10 years so I was his private guide. We were always the third group in the water.
Visibility was good - about 60 feet. Aubrey and I descended slowly down the mooring line. He did pretty well for not having dived in all that time. He had a little trouble with buoyancy, but otherwise did fairly well. He was trying to dump air from his BC when inverted. Once I righted him and helped him, he did OK.
As soon as we got down to the bottom beside the wreck, we came upon a Devil Scorpionfish right out in the open. These are the best photos I have gotten so far of one of these guys. The second one is from the rear as he was "flashing" his pectoral fins.
Devil Scorpionfish
Up on the stern of the wreck, the big Yellowmargin Moray Eel that normally hangs out there was in his normal place.
Yellowmargin Moray Eel
On closer examination of the photo, you can see a Hinge-Beak Shrimp (species undetermined) on the wall of the wreck behind the Eel. It looks like it is about to become a meal, but it is not.
Hinge-Beak Shrimp
I found a couple of little nudibranchs to show Aubrey. The first is a tiny Blue Dragon Nudibranch that was in the open end of a pipe.
Blue Dragon Nudibranch
The second one is a Desirable Nudibranch. This is the best photo I have gotten of one of these.
Desirable Nudibranch
As we came up on the bow of the wreck on our way to the mooring line, a couple of Spotted Eagle Rays swam right over us. I was a little slow in reacting and only managed one photo and a short video.
Spotted Eagle Ray
Right on the bow of the wreck was a Whitemouth Moray Eel poking is head out of a hole.
Whitemouth Moray Eel
We ascended slowly on the mooring line and did our safety stop, then swam up to the ladder and climbed out with 500 psi left for Aubrey and 1200 for me.
On the second dive, we started out to make the normal tour through Makaha Caverns. About a third of the way through, I turned right instead of left after coming out of a swim through and we got off course. We ended up a long way from the boat and had to do quite a bit of swimming to get back to the boat. Aubrey got cramps in his calves twice during the dive and I was not completely sure we would not have to have the boat come and pick us up.
Before the wrong turn, I saw a huge crab tucked up under a little overhang. It was the largest Sleepy Sponge Crab I have ever seen - its carapace (top shell) was probably 8 inches across.
Sleepy Sponge Crab
The top of the reef had quite a few Green Sea Turtles today.
Green Sea Turtle
As we got back closer to the boat, we came across a Spanish Dancer Nudibranch Eggcase and a Spotted Linckia.
Spanish Dancer Nudibranch (eggcase)
Spotted Linckia
We overshot the boat a little and ended up offshore of it. Just then Aubrey got his second cramp. I helped him stretch it out and then we beat it back to the boat and got out. He was low on air and I had 600 psi left.
