Hawaii Day 6 - Maui

This was our busiest day, 4 dives and a Luau. We opted for Nitrox today. In theory it is supposed to make you less tired, but we definitely needed the extra no decompression time. The first two dives of the day where the Cathedrals. The first one just had a small swim though. The second was Second Cathedrals. 

I find caves terrifying. They are dark and confining, and while they are cool looking they are not usually worth being in for me. I also find diving to be a little claustrophobia inducing. I mostly got over that, because diving is worth it. This dive had a swim through. Which is basically a small cave with openings on both sides. However, from my perspective this was an never ending tunnel. This is a picture of me coming out of it looking absolutely terrified. I'm very glad I had my fancy new light. It was very dark in there. 

Frog fish

Parrot fish eating coral

This is as close as I will likely ever get to cave diving. The Cathedrals are amazing underwater caves. They happen to have lots of openings to let in light and multiple escape routes. They are still dark and scary. This was a great dive, but I think that the boats need to be more careful of who they take in there. There are some fragile things in there. This was not listed as an advanced dive, so that means any certified diver can go in. Our dive had some very inexperienced divers, who clearly didn't listen to the briefing. There is a piece of rare Black Albino Coral hanging from the ceiling. It is know as the Chandelier. We were told very specifically not to swim directly under it, because our bubbles can damage it. Some really annoying lady not only swam under it but stayed there looking at it. The dive leaders did nothing about this. It really lowered my previously good opinion of them.

Fish in the cave

Me in the very very dark cave. It's completely black!

Black Albino Coral

Our third dive was the wreck dive, the Carthaginian. This dive was nice because unlike the other dives we didn't have to follow a guide. If we had a dive computer and a dive buddy we could go in whenever we wanted. I translated this as finally not having to wait. Normally we got a 10 min warning. Which we ignored, because everyone is so incredibly slow. It takes us about a minute to put on our gear. We can't figure out why but everyone else seems to take about 20 minutes. It's fin, fin, strap, strap, mask. Not that hard... The boat crew would nag us to hurry up, and then we'd end up waiting for a long time in the sun.  Or they would tell us to head down and then we'd waste 10 min of air. For this dive the boat stopped and 2 min later we were on our way down. 

Steven with the submarine tour in the background.

Shark under the boat. 

Starfish Cookie!

Boat with coral on it.

Rays swimming by the boat

Our 4th dive was annoying. I did not overly enjoy it, for various reasons that aren't worth remembering. Here is one picture from it. It is some type of nudibranch. 

When we booked the dives this day we specifically asked how often they arrived late. They answered almost never, usually they are 15 min early. So since Monday was the only day we could do the Luau, we figured it would work. However the boat didn't back until 5:25. Almost a half hour late. We managed to change on the boat, and grabbed our gear and ran as much as one could loaded down with scuba gear to the car. We got to the Luau, just as they were letting people in. 

We went to the Old Lahaina Luau. The food was delicious, we ate far too much of it. The show was themed on the history of the Luau. I didn't take many picture of it, because I was busy watching it. But I highly recommend it.