back in action
Great news - 2 motors purring like kittens! It's a welcome sight and sound after being plagued by 2 nearly identical and hugely frustrating (translate "expensive")break downs. My blogs have been sparse a.k.a. non existent, mostly because I was having a hard time finding my "happy" place. With both motors now fixed and summer divers beginning to book charters I'm a happy camper again. Added bonus, for the moment...Frank is back on the boat!
Today's divers had a great treat before even leaving the harbor mouth. Looking into the water from the helm, capt. Frank spotted what he was sure was a tiger shark swimming below us. We managed to catch up to him as he cruised the shallow ledge in the harbor mouth. Sure enough...a 10 - 12 ft tiger swam directly under us. A quick look revealed he was a shark with a mission. Just ahead lay the carcass of a nice sized ono. Probably about a 4 ft fish laying in about 10 ft of water. Shark passed once and gave a sniff. Second pass and he picked the whole thing up in his mouth and swam toward the mouth of the harbor. We followed right on his tail keeping him next to the boat for about 5 minutes. Our divers with cameras tried to get a photo as we motored along above but that's a daunting task. Moving boat, moving shark.... This was a big big animal. So much girth! It is easy to see that this animal is an apex predator that needs to be respected and protected. Absolutely everyone agreed that we would dive nearby to see if we could catch a glimpse of her again underwater.
Our first dive at Suck-em up was amazingly calm. The lava tubes were full of life and the lack of surge meant that I could stick my head up into cracks and crevasses that usually go unvisited (my very favorite thing to do). The pay off was nudibranchs, cowries, lobsters eels and a great little frog fish hiding in a puka out of the surge. After a surface interval, we headed back to the site we hoped would still give us a glimpse of Mr. Tiger Shark. As we approached the site, Mike and Nikki from Torpedo, said they had seen the tiger 2 times on their dive. We hoped we would be so lucky. Starting with eels and sleepy goat fish we headed into the boat channel. It's always nice to be disturbed while taking a photo of a friendly eel so that you can look up at the squadron 4 beautiful spotted eagle rays. Next, a lion fish danced across the bottom and a small pod of dolphins swam above our heads. No shark but no one was disappointed by the two awesome dives.
Today's divers had a great treat before even leaving the harbor mouth. Looking into the water from the helm, capt. Frank spotted what he was sure was a tiger shark swimming below us. We managed to catch up to him as he cruised the shallow ledge in the harbor mouth. Sure enough...a 10 - 12 ft tiger swam directly under us. A quick look revealed he was a shark with a mission. Just ahead lay the carcass of a nice sized ono. Probably about a 4 ft fish laying in about 10 ft of water. Shark passed once and gave a sniff. Second pass and he picked the whole thing up in his mouth and swam toward the mouth of the harbor. We followed right on his tail keeping him next to the boat for about 5 minutes. Our divers with cameras tried to get a photo as we motored along above but that's a daunting task. Moving boat, moving shark.... This was a big big animal. So much girth! It is easy to see that this animal is an apex predator that needs to be respected and protected. Absolutely everyone agreed that we would dive nearby to see if we could catch a glimpse of her again underwater.
Our first dive at Suck-em up was amazingly calm. The lava tubes were full of life and the lack of surge meant that I could stick my head up into cracks and crevasses that usually go unvisited (my very favorite thing to do). The pay off was nudibranchs, cowries, lobsters eels and a great little frog fish hiding in a puka out of the surge. After a surface interval, we headed back to the site we hoped would still give us a glimpse of Mr. Tiger Shark. As we approached the site, Mike and Nikki from Torpedo, said they had seen the tiger 2 times on their dive. We hoped we would be so lucky. Starting with eels and sleepy goat fish we headed into the boat channel. It's always nice to be disturbed while taking a photo of a friendly eel so that you can look up at the squadron 4 beautiful spotted eagle rays. Next, a lion fish danced across the bottom and a small pod of dolphins swam above our heads. No shark but no one was disappointed by the two awesome dives.
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