Hawaii Vacation!

[Cap'n]

Returned last night from a week in Oahu where my new bride and I spent a good deal of our time snorkelling the fantastic and varied beaches. Highlights included swimming among a large school of achilles and convict tangs, being chased by a very aggressive 12" picasso trigger and its' much larger mate, following a fat snowflake eel, lots of huge trumpetfish, very friendly saddle wrasses, and up close and personal with a green sea turtle. Had a wonderful, unforgettable time. Inspired me to provide my fish with the best piece of the ocean I can.

Cpt Capsized

[Zerandise]

sounds great!!!

At some point the Wife and I want to go reef hopping. Will be a wonder to see.

[LostMind]

Man, sounds like fun.

I am heading to mexico in september - hopefully can get in some snorkeling.

Next year I get to go to malaysia, indonesia and brunei. Hopefully I can snorkel around there too (my fiancee's family is out there).

[Jason McK]

Sounds incredable. any Pics?

J

[Cap'n]

Yeah, we do have some pics, I'll try to put some on tonight but will probably wait to have the last film developed. I'll make sure I post the good ones. Using an underwater camera while wearing goggles is kind of a "point and hope" game.

[Delphinus]

LOL, good analogy.

But sometimes you do get an awesome shot. :cool: Looking forward to the pics.

[muck]

Still waiting for the pics... :mrgreen:

[ed99]

Cpt Capsize,

I'm actually thinking of going to Hawaii myself this November, but not yet sure of which island (I've only got a week). You mentioned snorkeling but do you (or anybody else reading this) have any recommendations on where the best diving is around Hawaii?

Thanks,

Ed

[Cap'n]

Ed, we loved Hawaii and plan to go back. It will definately be one of the other islands though, Oahu is just too crowded and commercial. We want to go to Kuai. It's called the garden island and has lots of good snorkelling / diving.

[Cap'n]

So the photo lab here in Calgary screwed up and didn't give us a CD for the last roll of underwater film, need to go back and complain. In the meantime I will post some of what we have. Right off the bat I have to say that everything looked better in person than on film (usually does) but this should give you an idea.

These first few photos are from the beach beside Waikiki. Very shallow with sparse amounts of rock. Paled in comparison to other beaches we went to later.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1093moray01s-med.gif

This is the snowflake moray that I followed into a piece of rock where he hid from me. It was about the same thickness as a beer bottle. My wife saw a zebra stripe just before we saw this one but it was gone by the time she found me.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1093bluespots.gif

A pair of bluespot puffers. They let me get extremely close before they moved from their rock.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1093trigger01s-med.gif

This little devil almost bit me! He was about a foot long and was VERY much against me getting any closer to him and his mate, and she was huge! He kept darting in at me and herding me away from one area. We went back later to see if they had calmed down a bit but they were still gaurding the same spot just as aggressively.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1093puffers.gif

At Sunset Beach we couldn't see too much of anything because of all the sand being kicked up by the surf. We did see this pair of 18 inch puffer glide by below us. Noticed that a good portion of the fish we saw were paired up and stuck very close to their partner.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1093snorkel02s.gif

The Captain posing for a "point and hope" underwater photo shoot.

Once I finally get the other photos I will let you all see them as well.

[EmilyB]

:cool: I would love to see a triggerfish in my face :mrgreen:

[Cap'n]

The humu triggers were everywhere and were very docile. When I found the pair of picasso's I expected similar temperment and swam right up to them. At first I wasn't sure if this guy was just curious or if he really was threatening me, so I swam closer. Soon became very obvious he meant business and I quickly started back-peddaling out of there so I could keep my eye on him. He was so close he was swimming around my flippers as I scooted away.

[ed99]

Thanks for tips- we definitely want to avoid the crowds. Have to do some more research before we decide, there seems to be lots of nice places to go.

Ed

[reefhawk]

the carribean side of mexico is a divers/snorkelers paradise. It is prolly less expensive than hawaii ( in my humble opinion).
emily b- you would be very surprised how big and aggressive some triggers get and they even snap their jaws loud enough to be a little scary.