Kawaihae At Last

   Two days after Bob and Kim Hillis flew back to their Rocky Mountain hideaway, I got good and sick.  This lasted about a week.  As soon as I started feeling better, my soul mate fell to the same foul virus.  By the time we were both feeling better the plague stalked the land and social distancing had become the watch word.  We would drive by places like Kahalu'u Beach Park and see droves of people in and around the shelter and snorkeling in

Does this beach look closed?  Sunbathers and boogie boarders at White Sands. Picture SKG

the bay.  One had to wonder who these people were: infected tourists from the mainland taking advantage of cheap airfares?  Whoever they were, we didn't want to be around them.

   Two days ago our Sandwich Islands politicians finally addressed the pandemic, closing many of the local beaches.  Sandra thought we should take a spin along Alii Drive to see what our favorite beaches looked like under the new restrictions.  Kahalu'u, guarded by a variety of maintenance workers and lifeguards, was indeed empty.  But other places like White Sands Beach sported tourists tanning and boogie boarders playing in the waves.  We only have 5 cases of Covid-19 on the Big Island, but it seemed down right unpatriotic for people to use these closed parks.

A lone keiki on the sand at the King Kam

   Our tour ended down at the pier.  Both sides of the pier remain open to swimmers.  In a truly Hawaiian twist, Governor Ige has asked people to shelter at home, but encourages us to exercise.  This specifically includes swimming and surfing.  On this morning the usual battalion of lady recreational swimmers, who daily ply the waters of the Ironman side, were nowhere to be seen.  Only a couple down and out kapunas were in the water.

   In front of the King Kamehameha Hotel, the beach was virtually empty.  One lone mother sprayed her daughter with sunscreen following which the chubby little girl frolicked down the sand to the Inner Harbour.

    Up at the showers, I had the pleasure of watching a down and out kapuna finish his laundry, soaping and scrubbing a sweater on the concrete shower floor while the water ran wide open.  Is this where I want to take my chances against the dreaded Covid-19?

In a couple hours  I have to get up, pee and wander around the house.

   Last night, in response to its failing battery, my cell phone chimed at 2 AM.  This is about the time that, like Bob Newhart  in the Big Bang theory,  I get up to roam around the house.  You know...  do the dishes, paint a butterfly, work on the blog, etc.  So dealing with the pager in the wee hours was no problemo.   Imagine my nocturnal pleasure when I saw an invitation from our good friends up in Kapa'au; Would we like to meet in the morning for a swim at Kawaihae?   Wood eye!?  It had been three weeks since I had been snorkeling.  How exciting!

  We arrived at the harbor to find a virtual gale blowing out of the south.  On a happier note, the sun was out and a wind surfer was racing back and forth.  Considering that in the winter windy conditions are frequently present at this otherwise patch of flat water, its surprising that we haven't seen a wind
surfer here before.

Windsurfing Kawaihae.

    Soon our friends Peter and Marla arrived.   If you are gainfully employed and have not been told to stay home until further notice, you may not be as hungry for human companionship as us retired folks.  Suffice it to say, it was a delight to see our friends.

    Both Sandra and Marla opted out of swimming in the wind, so Peter and I put on our neoprene and headed in to the harbor.  The wind was moving the surface water at a fine clip, so it took only a few strokes to make it out to the first platform.   On my first time around the platform  I spotted a small decorated nudibranch.  For some reason I recalled my youth, ever so long ago,  when I would go fishing with friends.  Back then a wave of relief always accompanied the landing of the first fish.  Never mind if it was a three inch chub. That was OK.  "At least we didn't get skunked!"   This solitary decorated would be the only nudibranch we found on this day.

Trembling Nudibranch, Kawaihae February 2020.  25 feet.  photo Bob Hillis

   The last time we were at Kawaihae, Kim and Bob Hillis and yours truly swam with Peter.  That time out, we saw three species of nudibranchs:  several decorateds and painteds and a single trembling nudibranch that Bob found by diving to the bottom near the third platform.  He got a couple wonderful pictures of this small animal 25 feet below the surface.  Peter was able to dive down and see it, as well.  My limit is about 15 feet on my best day so I was SON.  I hope you enjoy Bob's photo, taken with his Canon D30.

   On the second platform  I found a curious little fish harboring near a small cauliflower coral.  As you can see, he was mostly clear, possibly evolving from a larval stage with his sights set on becoming a mature fish.  This is an odd little fellow and we will need to do some research before we put a name on him.

   The wind wasn't abating.  Every now and then I would surface, only to be hit in the face with spray blowing off the whitecaps.  This was remarkably like having someone spray you in the face with a garden hose. Forcefully. Of course, when you have a mask to protect your eyes, and the right attitude,  it can be a bit of fun... in a wet, off beat sort of way.

Every good snorkel needs a mystery fish.

    The third platform didn't reveal much and so Peter and I made the swim across the harbor to the shoreline mauka to the landing platform.  On my last visit I saw a Philippine mantis shrimp in this area.  Like some sort of aquatic centipede, it crawled out from under and then over the coral for a few seconds before disappearing.  This was only my second mantis shrimp in Hawaii.  On this day the best thing in the coral was a juvenile Paletail Unicornfish.  Well, you can't see a mantis shrimp every time.

   Soon, Peter and I had crawled out of the black lagoon and made our way up to the car park.  Curiously, Sandra and Marla were nowhere to be seen.  I took this moment to reach back to 1974 and whip out a quote from Blazing Saddles.  This quote was appropriate to the absence of our femmes blanche, but, as it came from Blazing Saddles, was not appropriate in any other sense.  I'm not sure Peter, who usually keeps up handsomely with my warped dialogue, recognized the source. As such, he evinced a mild embarrassment as he provided me with a gallon of warm water and

For my next impression : Jesse Ownens

pointed out that the ladies were in conclave with Hai, Lottie and Naia on the ocean side of the
parking lot.

    We enjoyed a quick visit with the young familia On and made eyes at baby Naia, all the time maintaining our six feet of social distancing.  I promise to get another blog in less than three weeks, but it ain't gonna be easy.

jeff

Decorated Nudibranch March 2020  At least we didn't get skunked!

The Day Bob Went Back to Utah

    The day Bob Hillis flew back to Utah we took an aloha dip at Kahalu'u.  That venerable fish pond is always worth a visit and the Hillises had been so busy on their whirlwind adventure that old K Bay had been overlooked.  We would remedy that even if they had to pack a duffel full of wet swim wear.

    The first thing we noticed was that the bay was really, really cold.  If anyone has taught me to

The red Veiled Drupe from Santa's workshop

estimate with discretion, Sr. Hillis would be the hombre.  And Bob guessed that the water was 70 bone chilling degrees.  Fahrenheit.   For an unprecedented period, daily high temperatures had been remarkably benevolent on the leeward side of the Big Island.  Not only were we wearing real clothes all day, but, apparently the temperature of the earth itself had cooled.  With the possible exception of the Inner Harbour in front of the King Kam Hotel, the water temperature at Kahalu'u is affected more by the temperature of the springs  that percolate fresh water into the bay than any other place I swim.  We had gone through a period of rainy weather just before Bob and Kim arrived and this was the result.

   Being men of steel we swam bravely into the bay, accompanied by a batch of tourists from places like Minnesota, where cold water means something dramatically different than it does in these very Sandwich Islands.

   Aside from the cold water, there was not a heck of a lot to report from K Bay.  Early on I found an unusual shell, at least to my eye, attached to a dead hunk of  Evermann's coral.  As you can see it was a beautiful crimson with flamboyant white tips.  Almost as if it had been made by Santa's elves at the North Pole.  Which, I suppose, might explain the cold water.  After looking at my photo, I decided that it was probably a veiled drupe heavily encrusted with bright red coralline algae that somehow

Fourline Wrasse Kahalu'u 2016

spared the flaring tips. I checked it out with my long time correspondent, Marta de Maintenon and she agreed.  At the end of the day, it was just a red herring.

   I'm including a picture of a blue spine unicorn tang because that was about as good a fish as I was able to photograph.  Later in the swim, I saw a fourline wrasse hiding in a coral.  This fish does his best to define the word furtive.  I got two good looks of about two seconds each.  There once was a certain cauliflower coral in K Bay tht I could count on for this species.  It is good a nd dead now, but I recognize its remains as I swim by and recall this handsome little fish hiding in its branches.  I'm including a picture I took four years ago so you can remember him, too.

    Well, we got the our friends to the airport with sea water dripping out of their bags. Two days later I fell deathly ill.  Fortunately Sandra has managed to avoid the plague and after a full week of coughing sneezing sore throat I am feeling better.  I hope you all survive the Corona virus, especially those among our blog family that live in the greater Seattle area.  Ahh, for the good old days, when Kirkland was associated with an acceptable brand of bathroom tissue.

Stay well,
jeff

The Bluespine Unicornfish says, "Institute social distancing!"