Our Aloha Blog

    This week we have been struggling

Kawaihae Harbor  High Tide

to find something special to write about for our aloha blog.  That's right, two days hence the Redoubtable SKG and your humble correspondent will board the silvery bird and head to the land of grandchildren.  Although there will be more snuggles dished out than the average evening with Beverly Goldberg, I doubt if much will happen of a blog-worthy nature while we are in the vicinity of PDX.  But one never knows.  Starting in late October, though, my beloved and I will be in the land of the Aztecs for two weeks.  That should give you something to look forward to.

   But enough about the future.  Let me regale with you what's been happening this last week.   Fish or no fish, the most important thing that occurred was the confirmation of our next supreme court justice.  Political shenanigans aside, and I assure you there were more than a few, we will be snorkeling with Bart O'Kavanaugh for the rest of my lifetime.  And unless you are the youngest of my readers, probably your lifetime, as well

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The Mauloa, Sailing Masters and the Charter School

  Que lastima.   That's Aztec for pass the tequila.

   Here on the windward coast, while the nefarious senator Grassley was screwing the pooch, Sandra and I did our best to find a fish or two.  Five days ago we made the pilgrimage to Kawaihae harbor.   In doing so, we made a significant mistake...not checking the tides.   When we arrived, the tide was really high, so much so that it covered the base of the platforms.  In addition to cloudy water, neither of us felt safe swimming under those submerged platforms.  We saw a few fish, but nothing earth shaking.

    The action in the sweet little park beside the harbor was another story.   There beneath the trees, a benevolent deity had parked a koa outrigger sailing canoe.  When we returned from our swim, there was a class of red shirted students and a sailing master who explained about this interesting vessel. 

Svelte Ironpeople wash off after a training swim.  Kailua Kona pier  2018

At the end of his talk, after the students and the sailing master had blessed the canoe and each other with a long and complicated chant in Hawaiian, we were able to corner the skipper and get the skinny on the boat.

   The name of the boat is Mauloa.  Her hull was crafted from a single koa trunk harvested on the slopes of Mauna Loa.  Carving was done entirely by hand and the master, who introduced himself as Maulili, stated that this was the first sailing canoe built with ancient methods in 250 years.  He called her an island canoe.  Unlike Hokule'a, she was not intended for long open ocean voyages and has
spent most of the last 25 years in the waters around the Big Island.  Her furthest sail has been to Honolulu, a voyage of some significance in our opinion.

Finescale Triggerfish  Kailua Kona 2018    Devil with the blue lips.

    The rest of the week has been spent gardening, packing and cleaning, but I have been lucky enough to squeeze in two swims at the pier.   A few days ago I had a nice swim on the PAR, touching bases with the coral croucher and his court of guard crabs, but seeing little else.

Collector urchin adheres to the cowry with blood crab.

     As it is October, the Ironman is upon us.  On that day I had the pleasure of meeting two
competitors from the Czech Republic.  My policy is, when I hear folks jabbering in some inscrutable tongue, I ask them, during a break in the dialogue, where they are from.  This guy, unfortunately for him, was the recipient of my friend Bud Hanzel's comment that there is no such thing a a bad check.  A bad Pole perhaps, but never a bad Czech.  Suffice it to say, that Ironman couldn't get away quickly enough.

   Today was our last chance to find a fish for the next five weeks.   The tide was high again and the water was really warm, maybe 88℉.  It was clear and since it was the afternoon, most of the Ironmen had done their swim training hours earlier...the chance of getting mowed down was greatly reduced.

   Out by the last swim buoy I happened upon a finescale triggerfish.  More often than not, this species is skittish.  This fellow, however, was very cooperative.  When I dove for a picture he rolled

Come out, come out,wherever you are.  Blood crab hiding in the cowry.

on his side, providing me with a nice profile.  Later, back at the ranch, Sandra remarked upon his blue lips.  As previously noted, the water wasn't all that cold, so I think this individual just happens to have really swell kisser.

    The aloha swim was winding down and I was approaching shore when I noticed a cowry shell motoring with true determination across a coral.  As you can see from the pictures, this shell, almost two inches in length, was well covered with gray detritus that matched the dead coral to a tee.  Had it not been moving, it would have escaped notice.  I swooped down and grabbed it.  Turning it over, I was greeted by a set of gray, hairy legs and two yellow antennae.  This was a bit of a tricky location and I fumbled my prize, watched it roll under a coral, to be followed by a collector urchin I liberated from its perch.

    It took only a moment for me to extract the collector urchin and the cowry hermit from under the coral where they had come to rest.  In this brief minute, the collector urchin had already formed a

Blood Crab Kahalu'u 2013  Gray hairy legs and yellow antennae.

bond with the cowry to the extent that when I lifted the urchin with my gloved hand, the cowry came along.  The internet reports that collector urchins manipulate objects onto their test with their tube feet.  And there are reports of the adhesives that all urchins produce to seal leaks in their various hydraulic systems.  In my quick search I could not find a description of the adhesive used on the outside of collector urchins to secure runaway hermit crabs, but I can report that the adhesion was impressive.

    Once liberated from his new host, I positioned the cowry shell this way and that in hopes that in hopes that the blood hermit crab (for that is surely what this hermit was) would make an appearance.  In my experience, this species of hermit is often found in tritons, but i have seen it in auger shells, as well.  This was the first time I have seen a blood hermit in a cowry shell.

   Three times the hermit made an escape when I was otherwise occupied.  After his third disappearance, I called it a day.  God willing, he is out there making new crabs even as you read these words.

     I see a blood hermit about once a year and, despite not getting a picture, I got a good look and it was a great end to the aloha snorkel.  Look for our blogs from Mexico.

Hasta luego,
jeff

   While we are in Oregon our good friends from Calgary, Anita and Brian will be looking after Casa Ono.  Anita will attempt to hold up the fish watching end while Brian sips a cool drink and edits science fiction novels.  

Snorkeling With Bart O'Kavanaugh

   This week the blog comes to you from the land of Bart O'Kavanaugh, where up is down, things go

Bart O'Kavanaugh.  I think I'm going to ralph.

sideways and, when all else fails, you can have another beer.  Beer is a judicial beverage.  I like beer.   So does Bart.

  A couple days ago I went snorkeling down at the pier.  the giant cruise ship that goes back and forth between Vancouver and Sydney was anchored off shore and there was a veritable mob on the mean streets of Kailua.

     While I was getting ready, I had a nice conversation with a young man who had just completed a training swim.  He was from So Cal, down near Oceanside and his uncle lives here in Kailua.  As you might guess, he was here preparing for the Ironman.  And yes, we need to be more careful out on the highways and byways, for the Ironmen are zipping hither and thither on their bicycles.  Best to forego that judicial beverage if you're going to drive in Kona this week.

A trio of juvenile moorish idols, Kailua Bay September 2018

     Considering how many people were hanging around the pier, there were relatively few in the water.  The water was pleasant, in the mid eighties, and not all that cloudy considering that there has
been some pretty good surfing conditions over the last few days.  Not to mention several days of rain.  

    On the way out I saw nothing, but did manage to run into the only other snorkeler in the bay.  Luckily, neither of us was a belligerent swimmer.  We shook hands and promised to meet out at the old airport later in the day where the 100 Keg or Bust event was being hosted by Mark Judge.   What an appropriate name for the purveyor of judicial beverages.  N'est pas?

A flowery flounder regards us with his widely spaced peepers.  Kailua 2018

     Shortly after that friendly collision, I saw a large, pale flatfish.  Despite its lack of remarkable pattern, it was probably a flowery flounder.  to paraphrase John Lennon, "Its all in the eyes, you know."  This guy has widely spaced eyes to the left of his mouth, which, I am sad to say (because I always want it to be a rare fish) is pretty much the end of the story.  Regardless, there is something compelling about these strange, compressed fish who fly across the sand like Alladin's magic carpet.

    Its almost enough to get one humming the eponymous rock classic by Steppenwolf, which I am told was on the sound track of the 100 Keg spectacular out at the Old Airport

    Small groups of juvenile Moorish Idol were in residence and virtually begged to have their picture taken.  And then, close in, I discovered a juvenile barred filefish and a lagoon triggerfish messing with something under a coral.  The spotted juvenile filefish is a late summer specialty.   Ordinarily he

A juvenile (17 perhaps) filefish and a Lagoon Trigger looking for beer.

is quite shy and I don't think I have ever seen him working with another fish ... file, trigger or otherwise.   Eventually the three of us tired of this rendezvous and went our separate ways, the fish to gnaw on a hunk of coral and I, your candidate of choice, in search of a beer.  Did I mention that I like beer?

   Apres swim I was showering with a young, tall gentleman from Australia.  In fact,  he was dousing his children as well as himself.  I asked if he was here for the Ironman and he replied no.  He was off the cruise ship.  Over the next minute or so he revealed that the family of four had flown to LA, gone to Disneyland etc., flown to Vancouver and boarded the ship the very next day.  They were going to disembark a couple days hence and fly home to Sydney from HNL.  Such a family man was this bloke that he called this pilgrimage a holiday.

Photo courtesy of Chuck Hill the Younger.  Preposterous!

    As a bit of a post script, I would like to bring your attention to a photo that found its way into the blog's in-box.  It appears to have been taken on the slopes of Mauna Kea within the last month. When I showed it to Sarah Sanders, she pronounced it preposterous.  But, as Sarah knows, presumably better than most, truth is in the eye of beholder.

jeff