Snorkeling With Kathy

    It requires a certain brashness to write a blog about swimming with someone else's beautiful young wife.  In fact, this blog is about our adventures with four visitors, Kathy, her husband Vernon, Sandy Harris and her husband Steve.  I ask rhetorically, how do you fit all that into a title?  And not only

Two compañeros birdwatching in Ecuador. 

that, although Kathy is still beautiful, she is young only in relationship to my ancient age...she turned
60 the first day we went swimming together.  Kathy is an amazing operating room secretary and Sandy (who has been Kathy's friend since grade school) was a crack operating room nurse, but now hangs IVs for a living.  What a waste.

     I, as you probably know, have not been near an operating room in about six years.   In the words of my departed compañero, Mike Van Ronzelen,  "Think of the lives that were saved."  A little later in this rambling missive we will look at some ghosts.  For now, take a moment to think how someone special, who has touched your life, lives on through your memories.  Now imagine sitting in the pouring rain on the edge of a muddy trail in Ecuador waiting for some stupid bird.  We miss you, Mikey.

   Our first day swimming together was the day after the quartet arrived.  Both the ladies had fond memories of City of Refuge and so that is where we had our inaugural dip.  Ever so long ago Sandy Harris returned to Salem (Oregon) Hospital from a vacation on the Big Island and told me about

Sandra will bring you home safely.

swimming with dolphins at City.  For years after, as a sign of esteem tinged with the green of envy, I called her "girl who swims with dolphins."  The operating room is a jocular place, so you can get away with shit like that.  Plus, back then, social media and cell phone cameras were the stuff of science fiction.  Yes, for many of us smarty pantses the world is a trickier place.

   Prior to this dip on the beach at Honaunau, I had consulted the wave predictor, which said the sea would be clement.  And it was right.  As the six of us hit the gentle  water, it was apparent that we had a variety of motivations and abilities.  I had wondered how I would keep six of us together.  This was not an issue.  Kathy pushed me to swim out with her in search of Gail Deluke's reef shark.  Sandy Harris and Steve headed off together in another direction and it looked like Sandra was going to shepherd Vernon. Not that Vernon necessarily needed shepherding, but in our experience, who knew? 

   Sandra is the shepherd, I shall not want.  She guideth our guests upon the still water.  She comes and gets me when they freak out.  She restoreth my soul.

   Kathy and I made a big loop, not seeing any sharks or anything else unusual.  The water was super clear, and as we approached the drop off into the dolphin pond, we saw a turtle swimming about forty feet down.  Over in the north corner, I relinquished the camera to Kathy.  She took a dozen pictures from the surface, of

Cleaner wrasse and yellow tang.  City of Refuge Dec. 2018  Photo Kathy Yoder

fish that were really far away.  It is a testimony to the camera and the water clarity that she ended up with a couple usable pictures.  This one of the yellow tang and the cleaner wrasse was taken from the surface of fish that were roughly 30 feet down.

    As we swam back to the two step entry, I commented to Kathy that I hoped that no one was mad that we had sort of ditched them for 40 minutes.  She replied, " Well, Vernon doesn't get angry."  And I thought,  "I wonder what that is like?"   How far might I have advanced in this world if I never got angry?  Simultaneously I felt a small wave of relief, because Vernon is a big guy who could probably pick me up and throw me like a dart.  If he got angry.

   Actually, in my dotage I have taken to consuming Costco muffins in much the same way that Homer Simpson goes after a box full from Winchell's..  So I am no longer a 90 pound weakling.  You

Mmmm...Costco muffins.

have to double that.   And its hard to get a good grip for throwing. Lucky me.

    Back on the beach, we compared notes and discovered that on this day Sandra was the big winner.  Swimming by herself after Vernon headed for the exit, she had bagged Potter's Angelfish..

    The six of us went to the Coffee Shack for lunch.  The big winner and I shared a turkey and ham sandwich on luau bread, which includes mac nuts and pineapple.  Yummy.  Over lunch, we decided that on the morrow, the Fishfinder Six would head to Ho'okena.

    Once again, the ocean gave up with out a fight.  I had been worried about getting our flipper walking gaggle through a surf entry.  Lucky me...there was no surf!  This day the group stayed together.  Soon we found the coral with many Potter's angels and one solid look for one and all at a flame.  A bit further out, we found a few gilded triggers for the multitude.

Vernon and your humble correspondent in the shallows at Ho'okena

   The pressure was off, so we swam near the shore.  Our friends had some good looks at the usual Quell domage.  
suspects.  This was a nice swim in clear water with lots of fish, but nothing unusual.   We had a good time talking at the table, from where I first saw the dolphins at Ho'okena.  This day there was lots of good company, but no dolphins. 

     On our last day of swimming together, we went to the best kept secret.  Our flat seas held and our flipper walkers were able to flop down the small sandy beach on the Ironman side and into the cool water without a hitch.  Thankfully, the fish showed up.  There was a nice representation of butterflies and everyone got a good look at a Mu.  And they all got a great look at the palace, which isn't a fish, of course, but I think that look from the ocean at the palace is perhaps my iconic image of Kona.  Certainly worth the swim.   

Milkfish, Kailua Pier, Feb 2015.  Silvery ghosts swim over the sand

    By this time Vernon was really comfortable in the water and he and I looked at a couple fish, including a small school of milkfish.  There have been times when milkfish were pretty regular out by the fourth swim buoy.  Currently that is not the case, so this was a pretty good sighting.  In their own way, milkfish are pretty cool.  They are bigger than most of the fish we see.  And with those large forked tails they are almost shark-like.  Being pearly white, they are a bit like fast swimming ghosts as they cruise above the sand.  I hope Vernon enjoyed them as much as I did. by the fourth swim buoy.  Here I am including the best picture I have taken so far of this school, from about two years ago.  Suffice it to say, a fair amount of processing went into that picture.

  Kathy and I were the last to hit the beach and we got a great look at the baby gurnard.  Its hard to get tired of this handsome fish which scratches out a living in the sand with those magnificent little claws.  Here is the best picture from that day. 

Helmeted Gurnard Juvenile,  Kailua Pier  December 2018

    That night we had a farewell meal at the Big Island Grill.  Vernon and I enjoyed my special loco moco, bed of fries, roast pork with pork gravy and an egg easy over.  Better than a box of donuts, to be sure.  I thought we were done swimming, but Kathy said she might try to squeeze in one more

Lined Butterlyfish  Kahalu'u December 2018

swim in the early morning.

 And so it was that at just before 0700 she texted me to say she and Vernon were headed to Kahalu'u.   We were the first ones into the shelter at K Bay, but by the time we were ready to go in the water, there was a mother with two kids who were racing between the tables.  Vernon had decided
that swimming at 7:30 was just too crazy, and he bid us good luck as we hit the water.

   The water was clear and calm, but Kathy later remarked that this was the most current she had experienced.  That is the funny thing about Kahalu'u; from the shore it looks so safe.  Luckily, Kathy is a recreational swimmer (who knew?) so her observation did not imply any risk.

    For me, 7:30 is early, and so I didn't really know what we might see.  I was hoping for an octopus.  As it turns out, we saw a lot more diurnal fish than I had expected.  Remember, this was one of the shortest days of the year and the sun was barely up, but yet there were twelve wrasses swimming, eleven parrots chomping, ten surgeonfish...

The luminous juvenile of the Hawaiian cleaner wrasse

    Over by the breakwater we enjoyed a close encounter with a pair of lined butterfly.  They stuck around long enough for us to both get a few photos.  The one I am showing you was taken into the
rising sun, as opposed to having the sun behind me, so I am surprised that it turned out as well as it did.  My swim buddy had been doing a little work in the old Hoover that we had loaned her and the lined was her target fish.  Suffice it to say, we aim to please.

   We swam across the bay to the mauka side by the Rescue Shelter and there, plying his trade in one of the remaining  Everman's coral was a tiny juvenile cleaner wrasse.  This fish has such a luminous blue against a black stripe, a blue so deep it might remind you of a male indigo bunting, perched on a branch on a hot, humid New England spring morning singing its heart out.  Quite a bird and quite a fish.  I'm showing you a

The male indigo bunting courtesy of NestWatchers

picture of the juvenile cleaner wrasse from that morning.  Not the best picture I have taken of this fish, but it gives you the sense of its size in the space and the intensity of its color.  The bunting picture is borrowed from the internet.  I hope you agree with me that the intense dark blue is pretty close to a match.  And by the way, like the juvenile cleaner wrasse, you don't see an indigo bunting every day you go bird watching.  Both are pretty special.

   We met Vernon on shore and soon we were saying our good byes through the car windows.  Perhaps the nicest thing one can hope for a friend is that they end up with a wonderful companion.  Especially one that will come along when you are looking for a new fish.

jeff

Kathy and Vernon Yoder at the Kailua Pier.