Getting Ready for Company

    More than anyplace else that I have lived, one can find virtually everything he needs to run a household at garage sales.  The Big island of Hawaii is a place of itinerants, us hau'olis come and go with fierce regularity.  And more often that not, when we leave it is simply not economical to take our possessions with us.  One can save the thousands of dollars required to move our dishes, chairs and beds and replace them with new stuff where ever we land in the lower 48.

Austin Rogers, Jeopardy Champion and Bargain Basement Clothes Horse

    I am reminded of a Jeopardy champion from a year ago.   Austin Rogers works as a bartender in
Manhattan and claimed that all the clothes he wore on Jeopardy he had purchased at second hand stores.  "The people of the lower east side will give away anything", he said,  "except, apparently, health care."  Austin would have a field day on Saturday morning in Kona.

   So it was, on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, that we happened upon a young family getting ready to leave their home and set out on an adventure.  They were selling virtually everything with the intent of purchasing a motor home in Colorado and touring the country.  Among the things that we obtained from this adventurous family was a wonderful car seat and two bags of toys.  (My younger son and his family of four are visiting in January and we got all this stuff for less that you would pay to rent a car seat for a week.)

Garage sale fisn and the bait ball

   In addition to the above mentioned children's gear, I purchased a fine set of fins and a fine snorkel for three dollars.   My other son, Charles, is coming for a visit in two days and it is time to press that gear into action.  he and I being roughly the same size, it seemed reasonable that I test out the equipment in advance of his arrival.  Besides, its summer at the beach and any excuse to go for a swim is a good one.

    Yesterday I swam on the Ironman side of the pier.  The water was a little cloudy, but it was a perfect temperature.  I'm going to guess 84 degrees with cooler spots courtesy of the nightly rains. 
The new fins were marvelous and I got a picture of the fins with the scads from the baitball swimming just below.

My picture of the coral croucher

   That day I had used the snorkel hitched on to the mask and Charles asked if I would try out the one that I purchased from the Colorado bound family.  So the next day I took a dip on the Paul Allen side.  The water in the Inner Harbour was a pleasant 84 and just a bit cloudy. I saw a nice fat Christmas wrasse by the heiau and then it was over the rip rap and across the small inlet.  Not far from the entrance to Paul's private lagoon, I saw an inviting cauliflower coral with a nearby hand hold.  Diving down and hanging on, I was pleased to see not only the relatively common red guard crab with yellow spots, but also a coral croucher.  This was my second or third croucher.

     My photographic attempts were not very fruitful, so just like the first time I saw a coral croucher, I'm showing you my incredibly weak effort and someone else's picture, so you know what were talking about.

    The croucher is a tiny fish, perhaps an inch and a half in length, a relative of scorpiofish, that lives deep between the leaves of Pocillipora coral.  It is totally dependent on this genus of coral for habitat.  You will hopefully recall that I have been commenting on the warm, rather than hot,  water this summer.   Unless I am mistaken this is our third summer with reasonable water temperatures, following two disastrous years when virtually all our Pocillipora coral was wiped out.

A coral croucher in an aquarium

    As I swam back across the inlet, I noted how many cauliflower corals were now thriving,  I dove several of them and on my third such investigation I ran face to face with a small octopus.  His head was about as big as one of those hacky sacks we used to monkey around with in the seventies.   Every
time I got near, he hunkered down;  my best effort caught a picture of his radial eye  Never the less, this incarnation of the holy spirit got his song and Charles is going to get a very lucky snorkel.

jeff

Your faithful correspondent and the lucky snorkel.