Kawaihae with the Cat Wrangler

Tom Brady, Patron Saint of Old Guys

    Last Sunday was the Super Bowl.  A relatively older guy turned out to be the dominant player.  At some point in the third quarter, one of the announcers said, "For all you kids out there, Tom Brady is old enough to be your father."  Well, I am old enough to be Tom Brady's father.  In fact, he could have a significantly older brother and this could still be the case.  So, hurray for old guys.  

      Yesterday Sandra and I went snorkeling with Jon and Susan Menton at Kawaihae Harbor.  They are

Susan looking for a victim beneath the second platform.

accomplished swimmers and snorkelers but had never gone looking for the little stuff.  As part of my due diligence, I asked one of their fellow reef teachers about their swimming ability.  Vincent gave them high marks, saying that they swim around the point at Keahou Bay to look at mantas in the ocean.  He also noted that Susan takes some good pictures of fish.  I thought I would check this out by perusing her Facebook page.  In addition to finding lots of good fish pictures, I discovered that she is the self styled Cat Wrangler.  Prominently placed on her Facebook page is a picture of Susan on the outside of a slider with five cats adoring her, through the glass, from the living room.

Cup Corals  photo Susan Menton

    We met Jon and Susan at Kawaihae at 9:30.  The four of us enjoyed a chat with Hai and Lottie, while whales surfaced half a mile offshore.  Nai'a is walking now and Sandra took a short stroll, bestowing a Baby Luau gift at the same time.  Such a precocious young lady, Lottie held the ABC book while Nai'a opened it and turned the pages! 

   Just as we were about to enter the water, Peter and Marla showed up.  Peter explained that Marla couldn't swim that day, but that he would catch up with us out among the platforms.  Soon all four of us were in the cold, turbid water.  Although it was very cloudy there was hardly any plankton.  No wonder the whales were remaining outside the harbor. 

    We worked the first platform for a few minutes.  There were no nudibranchs and very few fish.  This would turn out to be the first time that I have snorkeled at Kawaihae, and not seen a single juvenile Hawaiian Damsel. Things weren't looking good at the second platform until deep inside I found one minuscule nudibranch.  I identified it as a painted, although at less than a centimeter in length and about 2 cms in width, it was so small that only a photograph would determine its true identity.  I nabbed a quick photo and then cleared the way for Susan and Jon to enjoy this tiny mollusc. 

Trembling Nudibranch, Kawaihae February 2021 S. Menton

    Out beside the third platform Peter caught up with us.  After introductions he noted that we were all members of the red TG 6 club, that being the camera that all three of us were using.   Then, having seen nothing earth shaking, we headed across the harbor to the breakwater where Sandra and I located the cup corals, a life species for the Mentons. Peter once again caught up with us, this time telling us that he had to go back soon as this was his anniversary.  

   Having hit the sure things as hard as we could, we headed back.  Sandra went to the beach while the remaining freezing three of us looked for nudibranchs.  Finally on the second platform I found a large Trembling Nudibranch and stepped aside so Susan could apply her skills.  Here is her best photo of this trembling.  At the time she said that she was shivering so badly that she couldn't hold the camera still.  I think she did pretty well.  I was darn glad at having found one that was big enough to enjoy. 

    John wasn't wearing a stitch of neoprene and said that he hadn't been so cold since he swam off Monterey five years ago (where the water was in the mid 60s!), but I wasn't done torturing them.  We had to stop at the first platform to dive for Banded Coral Shrimp.  I remember the first time Hai

Banded coral Shrimp, Kawaihae 2021

instructed me to dive down five feet or so, hold on and then look up into a crevice to see the shrimp.  At the time I felt this fell just short of water boarding.  Nevertheless, Jon and Susan had paid the full price for the tour and this was included.  I worked my way around the platform, diving likely spots and found one on my third attempt.  It was four feet down and back in a crevice, the hand hold being another foot or so deeper.  I dove a second time,  got the picture you see, and pointed into the crevice.  This isn't a very good picture but it gave them an idea of what they were looking for. Neither of my friends were wearing weights, so they were at a remarkable disadvantage.  But it was good that they got a chance to try out this new skill....modified waterboarding. 

    We all enjoyed being back on shore, warming up.  As we drove away we shouted, "Happy anniversary!" to Peter and Marla and Happy Birthday to Nai'a.  

Tiny Trembling Nudibranch, Susan Menton

    It wasn't until later that I looked at my picture of that tiny nudibranch at the second platform.  My picture, albeit a poor one, showed that it was clearly a trembling nudibranch. Considering that she
hasn't had a lot of experience taking pictures of tiny animals underwater, Susan got a pretty good shot of this trembling that was just a little bigger than a self respecting grain of rice. I had never seen one anywhere near this small.  Note that there is no evidence of larval variation; it is a very small replica of the adult,.  

    I hope you enjoyed Susan's pictures and I leave you with one thought:  Next time you need to employ a guide, don't discount the old guy.  With any luck you'll get Tom Brady!

jeff

On Friday the surf was so high that Kahalu'u Beach Park was closed.  We had hoped to find Jon and Susan there at lunch time, but instead ended up dining al fresco at our favorite picnic spot which is near the Sheraton.  After lunch, Sandra captured this video of the surf crashing onto the far point and erupting into the nearby blowhole.