Mahu-Kathy

    Two days before their departure, we had dinner down at Sea Village with Kathy and her family.If things had worked out well, we would have been dining upon marlin caught earlier in the day by our hosts aboard the Bite Me II.  As it was, we had ono and mahi mahi caught at Safeway.  It was

Sandra and Hai... Kibitzing at Kawaihae

delicious and a wonderful time was had by all.

     The following morning the group was supposed to convene at Casa Ono for breakfast.  However, I had noticed that their time was running short and the surf was coming up.   My go to web based predictors,  Stormsurf Hawaii and Tides4fishing, had convinced me that the following day should still be good on the beaches of the Great Kohala Bight.  And so, exercising the willfulness of my personality, I convinced one and all that we feed them in the little park at Kawaihaie harbor and then head north to Mahukona.

    The morning in Kona was magnificent and Sandra and I, with a hamper full of bagels, cheeses and fruit, headed north brimming with optimism.  At Kawaihae we met our friend Hai, who I had thought would join us for breakfast and then go swimming with us.  Sadly, he had different plans...to go south to the Mauan Kea Beach Hotel.  This required him to head out without a bagel.  (I suppose we should have fixed him one to go.)

    Following breakfast we all headed out for the last short leg up to Mahukona.  The surf looked very mild, as predicted, and I was brimming with optimism.  On arrival, we headed on down to the ladder entry where we discovered two things.  First, there was a two foot swell that was barrelling up the

A nice milletseed despite the cloudy water. Mahukona, December 2019

outflow of the bay, turning the water by the ladder bouncy and muddy.  The second was our good friend Marla, swimming to the ladder, timing the sets and pulling herself up.

    Kathy, being a reader of the blog, recognized Marla for the celebrity that she is and introduced her to her family.  Then it was time for decisions.  I suppose that it came down to it being a long way to come to turn back empty handed.  In any event,  as the waves swished back and forth around the ladder we got in and headed out through the murk. It cleared a little as we rounded the southern edge of the bay, where we saw a small school of milletseed butterflyfish.  The objective was to swim another hundred yards and see the pyramid butterflies.  However, the water was choppy and we were swimming into a current, all of which combined to make slow going.  Sandra and I had a pow wow, following which our small group turned back.

Juvenile mū in the muck,  Mahukona, December 2019

     On the way back in, I spotted the juvenile mū that you see here.  This is a really neat fish, rarely seen except at Mahukona.  This guy was young enough to show exactly the fancy barred pattern with yellow tail flares that you will find in a field guide and he was remarkably tolerant of my approach.

     Ashore, I had a nice chat with Kent who actually enjoyed the challenges that the surf posed. 

   The following day, with the surf up everywhere,  Kathy and friends  went swimming at White Sands Beach.  Kent had a blast body surfing and took a couple tumbles.  He allowed that while he was driving his head into the sandy bottom the lifeguard was making announcements about neck injuries.  Being a stout fellow, he didn't let that spoil his fun *  Which I suppose is the sort of attitude you need when its a rough day at Mahukona.

jeff

*I can remember not so many years back when I enjoyed the same activity with the same neck wrenching result.  That's the trouble with getting old...you stop body surfing.