Waiting for Peter

    This was an eventful week.  On Thursday my lovely wife and I played hosts to Peter and Marla, who made the trek down from Hawi to go snorkeling with us.  On Friday, just two days ago, I had a couple skin cancers excised.  Suffice it to say, the dermatological experience was sufficiently distressing so as to further confuse my already addled sensorium.  I promise to do my best, but If things seem a a bit disjointed, bear
with me.

Aug. 17, 1:53 PM  The last look at the leaf .

    Peter was eager to see the snorkeling sites around Kailua Kona, to put a face, as it were, on the locations we mention in the blog.  However, he was seriously jonesing for a gander at the leaf scorpionfish that had been hanging out under a certain coralhead at Kahaluu at high tide.  So much so, that we had picked a day for his visit when the tide would be high in the morning.  The idea was that we would get in and have a look at the leaf scorpion before the hordes descended on the beleaguered bay and disturbed our target fish.

   If you are an astute reader, you will have taken note of the past tense.  Although my brain may have been a bit scrambled by Dr. Panniker, her scalpels, curettes and electro-cautery,  the photographic record is intact.  Sandra and I first saw the Leaf Scorpionfish, waiting patiently in his watery lair, on May 11.  My last recorded encounter with the scorpionfish was on August 17th and on August 23rd we made plans for Peter and Marla to come to Kona.

   As the days passed, it seemed prudent to check out Kahaluu, reassure myself that that the object of my friend's desire was still where it belonged.    On September 1st, Sandra and I went down on a hot afternoon at high tide.  The water was warm and cloudy.  With a bit of chop, it seemed almost sticky, like struggling through warm molasses.

Red Shouldered Tang, juvenile  kahaluu, Sept 2016

   I might say that the best part was the cold shower après  plongée.  But we did see one good fish.  It was a juvenile red shouldered tang.  About four centimeters in length, he bore a distinct orange shoulder patch outlined delicately in charcoal.  We both got a good look at him on the way out to the vacant scorpion-coral.  On the way back in, Sandra decided to go ashore and enjoy the cold shower while I spent some time capturing the fair picture you see here.  In my defense, this was an extremely active little fish and the water was both cloudy and choppy.  Excuses aside, I'm sure you get the idea.   

As I'm sure you have gathered, the leaf scorpionfish was not found.  He was present at that coral head for three months.

    After taking the picture, I was lucky to find an enthusiast nearby and show her the cute little surgeon.  (not to be confused with Dr. Panniker.)  Back ashore, the lady of a certain age, which happens to be  my age (approximately...I could be older) enjoyed a fist bump.  Snorkelers of the world unite! 

Devil Scorpionfish.   A face only a mother could love.

    I went back to Kahaluu the following morning, hoping that if only I showed up early enough the scorpion would be back where I had left him.  Sadly, this was not the case.  On the way in, I looked for the little red shouldered surgeon.  I couldn't find him, either, but while I was looking, a Devil Scorpionfish appeared.  Having seen one (probably the same individual) in this location a month or so earlier, I wasn't terribly surprised.  This time he put on quite a show, flapping  his garishly colored fins while he promenaded among the rocks.  I got a movie that shows two complete fin flaps.  Being a Luddite, I can't show you the movie.  But here is a fine picture of the fish with his fins extended and a crisp picture of his face.  Did you know that he had a trace of orange at the corners of his mouth?   


    Well, that was that.  We sent a message to our friends saying that, as they had feared might happen, the scorpionfish had found a new home.  Their kind reply was to the tune of, We knew that would happen.  Additionally they asked if they could come on Thursday, a day later.  

Devil Scorpionfish.  Fancy Fins!

    The following afternoon, the day before this highly anticipated visit, I went down to the pier in hopes that I would find something special to show our friends.  I swam out to Paul Allen's reef, seeing a small gurnard in the Inner Harbour, but little else of interest in the water.  Lucky for me, it was Wednesday and the circus had come to town.  In the area around the shower their were lots of finely coifed tourists from the Polyneisian Princess (or whatever they call that behemoth of a cruise ship).  As I stood their stowing my gear in the mesh bag, one of the well heeled ladies exclaimed, "Look!  He's got a kangaroo!"  

    And , blimey, if it didn't look like one of our honored indigents was cradling a wet joey in his arms.   On closer inspection, this particular gent of the Big Island outback had captured a baby goat and placed a rope leash on it.  The kid was shivering in his arms, perhaps as a result of the sudden attention.  The bloke was partnered with a particularly crazy fellow exhorting us to come to Jesus in a variety of aberrant ways, and I left the camera in the bag.  so you'll have to take my word for it that it was a goat and not a kangaroo.

Peter Pursues a Peck of Pickled Puffers

    Finally the big day arrived and schmoopie and I repaired to the shelter at Kahaluu.  As predicted, the tide was high and there were waves washing across the bay.  Peter and Marla had yet to arrive, so I made friends with a young lady with a European accent, it turned out she was Czech, who had just emerged from the less than tranquil waters.  She was wearing a wet bathing suit and carrying a snorkel so this wasn't a feat of extreme deduction.  Or to put it another way, she was not the Bohemian equivalent of the Hound of the Baskervilles. 
   My new friend was Czech, but she lives in Switzerland,  probably works in one of those secretive banks.  She had flown in from Zurch, arriving  late Wednesday afternoon, about the time I was kibitzing with the kangaroo. She had enjoyed her swim, but she wanted to know if it was always so rough.  No, I said, the tide is really high and the surf is up just a bit.  When the tide goes out in a few hours the bay will be much less turbulent.  She should have then asked, "Well, if you know all this, why are you going

Sandra  and Marla Surf K Bay

swimming now?"  And that would have been an excellent question.

    Peter and Marla arrived shortly there after.  Soon enough we were out to the coral head sans scorpionfish.  Following that we all circled around the bay.  Sandra and Marla had fun surfing the breakers while Peter became frustrated... its almost impossible to take a picture of a a fish while you are being swept away by a breaker.  We found a coral with at least one large zebra moray and Peter tried to identify a small toby,  but this was mostly a recreational swim. It was his impression that the small fish had thrown on a camouflage pattern.  We have seen this among the small puffers in Indonesia, but I can not recall a similar shape shifting puffer in these Very Sandwich Islands.  If you watch Peter's blog, onebreathkohala, he may have a picture of this camouflage puffer.  He is an excellent photographer, but was, as we mentioned before, operating under difficult circumstances.

Fingerprint Toby, Eclipse Pattern, Lipah Bay, Bali 2014

    My lovely wife put on a toothsome brunch featuring her new specialty, focaccia bread, along with a variety of other delectables.  After some good conversation (Peter and Marla both recommended Reef.org. as a backbone for a potential island wide fishwatching society) we headed down to the pier.  Knowing that I was having surgery the following morning, Sandra stayed behind to do some things that I could help with before being rendered hors de combat.  

     The surf had been around for a few days, rendering the water on both sides of the pier cloudy.  We looked at the Ironman side first, focusing on that fine patch of coral adjacent to the pier.  Peter removed some fishing debris from the reef, which is a constant problem there.  As I told him, if it had been a bit later in the day there would have been fisherman admonishing us to get away from their fishing hole.  The Bodyglove was moored, so we did  not go out to the reef around her mooring buoy, where we have seen

Focaccia Bread ala Sandra

Potter's angelfish and the shortnose wrasse.  On our way in I spotted a few small colonies of hydras, which at least gave us something to look at. 

   As we walked across the pier to the beach in front of the hotel, the difference between a Wednesday and a Thursday could not have been more extreme.  There were virtually no tourists and the bloke with the goat was nowhere to be seen.  Baah!  

     Not only that, but the Inner Harbour was completely clouded.  Peter and Marla were hoping to see the gurnard, but the poor water quality ruled this out.  As we swam out to the reef the water cleared.  By the time we cleared the entrance to Paul Allen's canal, it was quite good.  And this was lucky.  Peter and I were looking down about twenty feet when a moderately large female parrot took a nip at one of her

Let's get a rope on the little feller and we'll head down to the pier

bridesmaids.  The little witch had an atypical tail.  I thought it was a female regal, but Peter quickly corrected me.  This was a female  spectacled parrotfish.  Steel gray on the sides and broad red terminal band behind a light caudal peduncle.  I'm hoping that I would have made the identification as soon as I got back to a field guide.   This was my first spectacled parrot in several years and the first in the vicinity of the Kailua pier.  She has been happily added to the list.


    Peter says, that like so many good fish, the spectacled parrot is not uncommon at Mahukona.  Dr.Panniker not only resected the hideous growth from my left cheek, but she also scraped off a basal cell carcinoma from my back, all the while admonishing me to wear my new UV resistant swimshirt and lots of sunscreen.   Hoping for a quick recovery, I will be getting up to Mahukona to search for more spectacled parrots in a couple weeks.  If you see some pale ghostlike creature lurking around the pier with a snorkel and fins, be sure to stop and say hello.

jeff