MHK

   The other night, Sandra and I were sitting on the couch watching Bridget Jones Diary.  This is one of our favorite movies.  I mean, Colin Firth, Renée dressed up as a chubby playboy bunny and Hugh Grant as an intolerable jerk who

I will not fall for alcoholics, workaholics, or fishaholics.

 gets what's comin' to him... What's not to love? 

    Anyway, we had just gotten to the part where Hugh Grant throws Renée over for the skinny bitch from the New York office, when Sandra said, "I have a great idea for tomorrow.  After my doctor's appointment, why don't we go to Beach 69."  This was a brilliant idea. Kaiser Permanente is on the north side of town and it would be easy to slip on up to the north shore for a dip.

    I took a moment to consider this clever plan and then I suggested, "Silly Bridget. Why don't we go to Mahukona?"'

    Mahukona is a location on the Kohala coast, not so different from Ho'okena.  Both had been small communities served by boat. Now connected to the rest of our island community by road, the infrastructure associated with serving an outpost by water is

Klein's Butterflyfish, Mahukona April 2015

falling into disrepair and the human element is drifting away.  In Ho'okena there are a few more residual people and in Mahukona the landing facilities are substantially more intact, but the similarity is definitely there.  And they are both excellent places to go snorkeling.

   We had been introduced to Mahukona (some people simply call it  MHK in honor of the adjacent international airport) by Peter and Marcie.  Peter writes a blog, had noticed mine, and eventually we all connected at their favorite snorkeling spot, MHK.  For over a year Peter had been regaling me with promises of Regal Parrotfish, Fantailed and Yellowtailed Filefish.  Just recently he had thrown in Blacklip Butterfly, which I persist in calling Klein's Butterfly.  This is because not only do I like the old names but the name reminds me of one of my professors back at the Oregon School for Bewildered Anesthesiologists.  I suppose that Dr.Klein meant well, but

The Ladder Entry at Mahukona

 he could be a bit of a beast.  Now that he is a butterflyfish, the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.

    We connected at MHK in April.  Ten miles north of Kawaihae, it might be out of the Waika-blowah wind pattern.  The fact is, it is probably windier at MHK than at Waikaloa Village.  On that day there was a steady 20 knots of wind gusting to 35.  I suspect that the wind blowing between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa converges at this point with the wind accelerating around Kohala Mountain.  Marcie had a word for those 35 knot gusts, blasters.  One got the impression that the blasters were not an unusual feature at Mahukona as, despite the fact that the wind was having a significant

effect on the sea, our hosts were all, "let's get going."

    The entry at MHK is, to my knowledge, unique on this island.  Here there still exists a cement pier with a rusting crane.  And there is a stainless steel ladder which presumably at one time served the crews of small boats.

   There is, at this time, no facility for docking a boat, big or small, and one is pretty much obligated to enter and exit the water using this ladder.   Marcie noted that some people choose to jump in to the water off the pier.  We actually saw a couple people do this. I

Sandra and her pet Gecko, Gus.  Roaches need not apply.

 would not recommend this technique to the uninitiated, as there are rocks next to the pier and it might be hard to climb up the ladder with a broken leg or a a compressed T2.  Capisce?

    Despite the fact that the wind driven swell was surging to and fro at the foot of the ladder, the water level altering about 18 inches with each watery cycle, we all made it in.  Soon, Marcie had found both the filefish.  We swam out over the north cusp of the small bay where Peter showed us an immature Regal Parrotfish and a pair of Klein's Butterflies in twenty feet of clear water.  On the way back in, we fought a moderate wind driven current, but we were rewarded with a fine Devil Scorpionfish and a pair of Klein's Butterflies in the shallows.   All in all, Sandra and I were quite impressed with the large number of interesting fish in the small bay at Mahukona.

Regal Parrotfish, Mahukona October 2015

     As a perfect end to a wonderful snorkel, we joined Peter and Marcie at a fish restaurant in Kawaihae.   They are both ecologists with a tie-in to the University of California at Berkeley.  As Peter fed a bit of his Longboard Lager to the gecko that resided at our table, Marcie told us that it was quite possible to train a cockroach to come for tidbits, as well.  Recently, Sandra has trained a gecko to take strawberry jelly from her fingertip.  Now, every time we leave the house, Gus (the gecko) is out there throwing us a forlorn look from his perch on the railing.  We agree that we are drawing the line at cockroaches.

    All of which brings us to yesterday morning.  I got up bright and early to do the watering and play fantasy baseball.  I'm the General Manager of Sandra's team, the Kona Shave Ice (Go Penguins!), who may just

Our mascot, Pablo says, "Go Penguins!"

 bring home the bacon if the boys can hold it together for two more days.  There is a lot of pressure from upstairs not to screw the pooch at the last minute, so playing fantasy baseball took a little more time than usual.  We were all set to leave for Kaiser when I discovered that I had cleverly hidden both pairs of my dark glasses.  This was not a particularly good omen.  Hence, we called upon the augur who conveniently lives in our ohana.  He killed a gecko and examined its entrails which proved inconclusive.  With some trepidation, we proceeded with the days program regardless of the fates and without my dark glasses.

   The doctor visit went fine except Sandra was told she had to eat less chocolate while watching television at night (like that's going to happen) and we soon found our way making the left and the right to get through metropolitan Kawaihae.  One would like to think of Kawaihae as being a dusty little crossroads associated with the only deep water port on this side of the island.  That would be wrong.  A modest artsy fartsy and restaurant community has grown up here, catering to the wealthy patrons and residents of the northern resorts and the fancy Kohala neighborhoods

Hawaiian Hogfish  Mahukona 2015

 just to the north that have sprang up over the last ten years. So when one is is making that right, they have to be careful not to swing at high speed into the Blue Dragon and Coastal Cuisine.  

     Even in Kawaihae there was not a puff of wind. By the time we got to MKH, however, there was a cooling 10 to 15 knots blowing from the southeast.  Soon we were changed and flopping off the ladder into the bay.  The first thing we noticed was the water temperature:  about 80 degrees, it was easily the coolest water we had experienced since returning from the Rose City.  Almost immediately, we found dramatically less coral bleaching and death than we have seen elsewhere along the coast in the last two weeks.  As we swam along, I wondered if the steady wind that this location produces a venturi

Yellowtail Filefish  Mahukona September 2015

effect over the water, with increased evaporation.  The resultant and ongoing latent heat of evaporation then cools the water.  It makes sense to me and there is clearly healthier coral here than in Kailua and at City of Refuge.

   As we swam out, we examined the coral heads where Marcia found the two filefish six months ago.  We didn't see any filefish, but we did see a couple blustripe butterflyfish, a fairly uncommon species that seems to be a regular occurence here.  While I was looking for filefish, Sandra found a nice pair of reticulated butterflies swimming nearby.ervagor aspricaudus

    We swam into deeper water and I found a male Regal Parrotfish.  My picture does not do this handsome beast justice.  He was thirty feet away when I spotted him and as we approached he swam deeper.  Large male parrotfish in general are wary animals, so a

Pervagor aspricaudus  Mahukona October 2015

photographer has to do the best he can.  In the picture you can see the diagnostic streamer tail with the blue crescent.  We were able to appreciate the pink stripe at the base of the dorsal fin and the the pink scalloping on the flanks.  He was gorgeous!

    There were no Klein's Butterflyfish, or blacklip butterflyfish either, so we headed back in.  Passing over a ridge, I saw a yellow fish with a big black spot.  In a trice I identified her as a female Hawaiian Hogfish.  A species that must be more common below snorkeling depth, we see one of these adults about once every two or three years.  They are always deep and elusive. I took three deep dives and the hogfish let me approach within fifteen feet.  You see the best of my efforts below.

    We swam further in, again examining the coral heads for lurking filefish without results.  Just opposite the outer corner of the pier, I saw a yellowtail filefish.  This cute little aspricaudus proved to be the most

Shortnosed Wrasse, Mahukona October 2015

cooperative fish of the day from the photographic standpoint.  Its hard to take a picture of a dark fish and capture facial features, but I thnk these pictures turned out pretty well.

   After we scared the filefish back into his crevasse, I decided to take one more look on the far side of the small bay for the Klein's Butterfly.  I'd gone ten yards when shmoopie somoned me back urgently.  "Red fish!"  she yelled.  Once I returned, it took only a moment to locate the small red fish.  In fact, it was, at about five and a half inches,  the largest Shortnose Wrasse I have ever seen,  He, too, was rather cooperative and we had several opportunities to dive him and take pictures.  Unlike parrotfish, this species has proved remarkably approachable in my experience.  On two previous instances one on the PAR and the other on the Ironman side of the pier, I have encountered

At some angles the Shortnose Wrasse looked quite red.

 individuals that let me get within a foot and take some very nice pictures.  in the case of this big brute, I got withn about six feet.  Still, the results aren't too shabby.

    We took one more swoop over to the far a side, not finding the blacklip.  As hard as we worked the bay, I really don't think he was there.  Fan tailed filefish are way more stealthy, however, and I woder if Marcia had been there if we would have she would have found him.  Or perhaps she would have found an amiable cockroach with which to share our lunch.

jeff


In the event that you would like to view Peter's blog, here is a link:
  https://onebreathkohala.wordpress.com/

You will find lots of fine photographs and interesting observations. 

The Blustripe Butterflyfish is a Regular at MHK.