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!"