This wasn't much of a dive trip, it was actually a family vacation during which I managed to squeeze in a day's diving, just to get wet after a long layoff; I include it here for completeness. Unremarkable diving apart from the brief distant whale encounter. The vacation and the Big Island were great, though!
Here are my dive log entries for the trip:
| Dive No. | Date | Dive Site | Max Depth | Bottom Time | Notes |
| 292 | 3/10/02 | Big Island, HI | 40 | 0:45 | 1-hr ride south down from Kona. Fairly boring dive highlighted by gorgeous 6-8" juvenile dragon wrasse w/big thingies on its head. Lave tubes & caves w/lots of surge & not much else. Mostly typical tropicals, plus very cool "short-bodied blennies" in coral at end of dive. Mike & Earl of Aloha Divers are both very cool. Freezing in 75-degree water! Good viz but not superb. Crazy profile tough on ears - 40', then 8' in caves, then back to 30-40'. |
| 293 | 3/10/02 | Big Island, HI | 40 | 0:45 | Whales spotted at end of surface interval, just as we were about to go in. Scrambled for position & jumped in but saw only a dim outline and huge tail flukes at the limit of visibility, awe-inspiring nonetheless! Caves again but more interesting this time. Bright orange lobster, rare "mole" lobster, cool multicolored "ridgeback"(?) slipper lobster. On exit from cave started wandering in the coral a bit, found a free-swimming octopus heading straight for me! He took cover in a hole on top of the coral but I could see him well, nice rich red color and powerful suckers. Alas, divemaster signalled "time's up"... |