Back in Good Ol' Kailua

     Sandra and I arrived back from Portland a couple days ago.   The first couple days were taken up with gardening (We felled and delivered to the yard debris a twenty foot papaya, not to mention a trunk full of

Delicious Menpachi, City of Refuge 2012

overgrown lilikoi.)  Our second night back it rained torrentially; there were flash floods all over the state, but here in Kona the water just percolated through the lava.

    So yesterday it was time to go snorkeling.  With that in mind, I repaired to the ohana where we had stashed our sundry equipment in deference to our house exchangers.  I brought up our masks, fins, swimshirts and caps.  Then I went to the safe to retrieve the cameras.  I had never put the cameras in the safe before, but they are sort of expensive, and there was plenty of room, so I thought, "Why not?"

    The answer to that rhetorical question became apparent over the next few minutes.  The safe wouldn't open.  This afforded me the opportunity to talk to several First Alert technicians back in Illinois.  It turns out

that those little lights, and  more importantly the locking mechanism, relies on electricity supplied by a battery that one is obligated to replace at an appropriate interval.  Apparently when we purchased the safe a move or two ago, we were supplied with an override key, which is long gone. And how was I supposed to know about replacing the battery?  

     This is a round about way of telling you that there will be no original underwater photography until the override key arrives from Chicago. At least the cameras were safe from the nefarious DeLukes, our house exchangers, who are more honest that Milburn Drysdale.  To paraphrase Jed Clampett's banker, "If you
can't trust Gail and Martin DeLuke, who can you trust?"  As the blog progresses, you will hear more about our new best friends the DeLukes.   

If you can't trust the DeLukes...

    At this point I invite you to join me at the Kailua pier.  It was hot, humid and relatively deserted.  As I entered the water, a plump family of tourists were attempting to do the same.  Our eyes were collectively drawn to a dead Epaulet Soldierfish, swishing back and forth in the shallows.  The alpha male was proffering an identification, which I politely corrected (I'm always polite.)  I went on to say that the Japanese fisherman call them menpachi and they are reputed to be delicious.  But I wouldn't eat that one.

     The water was really warm and moderately cloudy, so unless we saw something really unusual, there would have been no reason to take pictures.   It being so warm, I swam for about an hour, enjoying being back in the ocean, but not seeing anything of note.  Towards the end of my swim, I ventured under the swim rope.  The Body Glove was getting ready to depart, but I felt safe as there was a trio of youths taking turns in a shopping cart. 

Let's Go Surfing!

    One of the young gentlemen would get in the cart and the other two would roll him off the pier into the water; as long as I kept the shoppers between me and the boat, I reasoned, I would be safe.

     Near the pier I saw a pair of Blacktail Snappers.  This handsome (albeit introduced) species seems to be increasing in numbers.  And over the small reef I saw a fairly large number of menpachi.  Last but not least, there was a curious wormfish that seemed to be displaying to a wiggly white lure hooked on the coral.  If you are as warped as me, you might consider this the fishy equivalent of an inflatable sex doll.  Talk about curious!

    At the showers there were a couple well tatooed gentlemen enjoying a cool ablution.  One was telling the other that his tongue had gotten ripped up the other night when his tongue piercing technician experienced an epileptic seizure right in mid-pierce.  And I thought that it was bad to be locked out of my safe!

jeff

The beautiful Blacktail Sanpper is becoming more common in Kona