FROM CRABS TO ABS

Our beloved little Village of  Kailua Kona 

Today was a potpourri. You never know.

It was one of those oh, it's so grey today. "Look, I think it must be raining down at the pier, another 5 minutes of sleep". Those five minutes lead to never getting out there. So off we went as usual.

There was no one there today when we arrived other than our friend Ken (who we told you about yesterday). 

We did the customary let's go have "COFFEE!!!" thing and the customary u-turn in the sand thing, then we got serious and started out on our otherwise uneventful swim out to the Coast Guard Buoy.

I'm showing a picture of the the buoy so you can 'go there with us' when you read.

Swam back in and didn't hear even a peep from the Dolphins today. "Oh no, nothing to see today"? Never!

Coast Guard Buoy off Kailua Kona Village

As we swam back in, Linda saw a big crab trailing along the bottom.  He was the size of a small dinner plate. Ah ha! Picture opportunity!

I snorkeled down to him , got him in my sights and POOF! he was gone. Once he saw me he disappeared under the sand. Now how did he bury himself so fast? I am talking a second and he was buried. The photos shows him as he  did his deep dive in the sand. We cracked up!

Our camera shy crab. He was 8-10" across in size.

We got several photos of eels on the way back, several were so close, you can not even see what they are, but I put one up just so you can see if you can find the eel in the picture!

Curious spotted eel

Then comes the really good good part of the swim. The Fire Department was out doing their entry drills. Baywatch here we come!

 

Note the picture of Linda swimming after them? Can you believe she feigned a heart attack right there? Kidding of course, but I bet the thought crossed her mind.   Ever wonder how they find all those cute hard bodies?

I also have enclosed a few photos of the pier so you can see the leaving spot and as well as our Coast Guard Buoy turn around spot.

......yeah baby!

The U-Turn, it's not too late, lets go have COFFEE!!! spot. 

Just another day in paradise! 

A Hui Hou!

The Pacific Mermaid

BARRACUDA AND DOLPHINS

AH, it's Monday. One of those dreaded Mondays. Well, not here! It is blue sky and gentle breezes and the place I call my backyard beckons.

It was quiet down at the pier this morning.  Just Ken. Ken is a local Veteran who swims quite often. He is in a motorized wheelchair and can not walk.He makes it down to the pier, gets himself into the water, floats awhile and crawls back up the stairs back to his wheelchair. If the ladies are pretty he will let them "help him", otherwise he would rather do it himself. Talk about challenges. We sure have none.

Ken always a has a joke tucked away in his shirt pocket. The jokes are cut out of magazines and taped carefully to a piece of card stock. A collection I'm sure.He always asks everybody who happens to be there or walk by if they "want to read a joke"?  Most the locals who know Ken just go up to him and say, "Ok, give it here". He points to his pocket, we read them and laugh whether they are funny or not, thank him and put them back in his pocket. OK, honesty, sometimes we give him a hard time because the joke was pretty stupid.

I would guess Ken had a severe stroke because he can not speak clearly. People that do not know him have no idea what he is saying when he says" want to read my joke". They politely smile and keep walking. I often interpret for him. He is an icon and I thank God for him. We worry when we do not see him for a time.

After out customary laugh with Ken, we geared up and just kept swimming,  swimming swimming... to get out of the cold spot. Today it was about a quarter mile out before we hit warmer water. The water was clear and it's never boring.  We did or normal Coast Guard Buoy swim hoping we would be visited by our friends the Dolphins. No where to be seen though. Oh well, can't have them everyday we joked.

On the way back, I could hear them. I could not see them anywhere but I could tell they were out there taunting us. We kept swimming. At about the half mile buoy, they graced us with a swim by. They were not in a very social mood. They kept just outside our distance (you do not swim with the dolphins, they swim with you). I see people chasing them all the time. People actually think they can catch a dolphin?  Quite the contrary, they swim with you if they feel like it PERIOD! As a matter of fact, the quieter and stiller you remain, the much high chance you will have of seeing them for a long period of time because they will stay with you. Start kicking after them, and they are gone GUARANTEED!!

A clicked a few photos. Then a  3-4' barracuda came by as well. I tried to grab a picture of him, but he did not stick around either.

I guess they all had the Monday morning blahs!

A Hui Hou

SOMETIMES IT'S NOT ABOUT THE WATER

Today was like every other day. Grateful to be alive, blessed and grateful for my friends  and the ability to live here in Hawaii.

On the way to the pier this morning we encountered one of our homeless residents walking his 7 dogs. He was sitting down and complaining how  his back hurt due to the  dogs dragging him on the walk. 

We see this guy and his dogs almost everyday on the way to the pier. We always stop and play with the puppies. I quite often give him money for the dogs care and bring extra dog beds and blankets down. I bring him hot meals at times as well.

 I finished walking the dogs to the pier as he followed. He insisted on keeping  Princess, who is not only very old but very overweight, tied up to the pack while they  were all running as if in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. They were dragging Princess. I commented about this to the master. He said, well "she just needs to keep up too". She is old and overweight! How can this sweetheart possibly keep up with puppies?

When we got to the pier this guy decided he would let the dogs go run. And run they did. They were so excited to get off those 6 inch leashes and be free playing in the water. It was so special to watch.

Three of the dogs, who are related, had a bent up  wild hair and ran all over the pier. Their master went crazy screaming at them and chasing them.

After awhile Linda and I decided we had better help him catch these  three siblings,recognizing they only needed some exercise and were having a ball.

Then this guy starts screaming at all his dogs most of all Princess. Four letter words flowed. She was cowering. If we had not been there I am sure he would have hit her. He had lost control.

He kept screaming and screaming that they needed to settle down. I finally had enough and  told him that he needed to settle down. Well, that set him off. I was called every name in the book, including names you never want to hear and threatened that he was going to "mess with me now".

It was time to call the cops, but we decided just to go swim.

It was heartbreaking to see these animals abused this way. I know in his own demented way he loves them (they are all he has) but to see them just want to play and to each be stuck on literally 6 inches of rope was more than heartbreaking.

I am going to mail a copy of this to the SPCA. I would almost rather see some of these dogs put down than to have to live everyday like this.

My father killed every pet we ever had when I was growing up, so I have this "thing" to protect animals.

The swim was rather nice and clear and uneventful other than having to replace the buoy line that had detached itself and was free floating in the ocean.

Just another day in paradise.

For lack of good photos today, I have attached another of a Crown of Thorns, that got "whacked" today and some Honu photo's I had recently taken.

A Hui Hou

IT'S STILL BETTER THAN BEING IN THE MIDWEST OR FAR NORTH.....

When I took my customary "peek" down to the ocean, I knew it was not going to be one of those gin crystal clear experiences. I saw the big waves hitting the old airport shore...not a good sign. 

I was right. The visibility was very poor and the water WAS really cold today. I thought for sure I had taken a wrong turn somewhere and thought I saw iceberg floating by. Either that, or I was in someone's icy cocktail glass by mistake.  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming and eventually you will warm up Of course, it finally did, or I did not sure which. There were allot of jellyfish today in the water, which was expected like clockwork. 

The jellyfish are any planktonic group of invertebrate animals composed of about 200 different species of the class Scyphozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The term, jellyfish, is also often used in referring to certain other cnidarians that have a medusoid (saucer- or bell-shaped) body form, such as hydromedusae, the siphonophores (including even the Portuguese man-of-war which technically is not a jellyfish but a pelagic colonial hydroid or hydrozoan), as well as unrelated forms such as salps and comb jellies. Ok, that's way to technical for me.

Seventy of the 200 species of jellyfish are known to sting - causing a range of reactions in humans: from mild skin irritation to death. The sting of the sea wasp, Chironex fleckeri, is so toxic that it can cause death. Some even call this creature the "deadliest animal on earth." Thank goodness the Chironex fleckeri is not found in Hawai`i.

The Box Jellyfish  sting is very painful and can even cause anaphylactic shock in some individuals. We have seen swimmers go into shock and have to be ambulanced away when the larger box types are in the water. Last month was a bad month for  Box Jellyfish. Many swimmers would not go in the water We sort of shrug it off and go in anyway. Maybe because I have never been seriously stung yet, although Linda got stung fairly bad the month prior. Box Jellyfish , regularly "swarm" to Hawaii's Leeward shores 9 to 10 days after the full moon. And yes, they show up right on call.

There are basically two types of Scyphozoan jellyfish. Those that are free-swimming medusae and those that are sessile (stem animals that attach to seaweed and other objects by a stalk). The order Stauromedusae constitute the sessile polyplike forms. The free-swimming medusoid types, especially the Portuguese man-of-war, are the common, dangerous ones in Hawaiian waters.

 As we swam along, I normally listen for two things, boats and dolphins. I did not hear any dolphins, but today I sensed them next to us. As I looked up there they were. It was a very large pod covering several hundred yards scattered about. Lots of babies today. It is always so amazing to watch them interact with one another. The games they play with each other and with us is always such a thrill and never gets old. 

Today they were not their usual  playful selves, and were probably sleeping for the most part . I will talk more about that in a future blog.

We swam with them for 10-15 minutes, then here came the boats dumping snorkelers in the water like crates of tea into the sea. We hung around for a few more minutes and decided this was not fun and came back with another swimmer who had caught us.

Forgive the clarity of the pictures. I like to post actual photos of the day and with the visibility, this it it today!

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The scientific information herein is courtesy of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. If you would like photos or more information on this subject visit 

A Hui Hou

THE DAILY SWIM IN HAWAII

E Komo Mai (welcome) and Aloha from Paradise

I am blessed to live in Kailua Kona Hawaii, located on the Leeward side of the Big Island of Hawaii. The Islands of Hawaii are comprised of about 6000 square miles. The Big Island is 4000 of that. So yes, it is truly the Big Island. One never gets bored here.

I get to enjoy it every day and I never take it for granted.

I start each day (well almost each day) with a swim in the crystal clear blue waters of the Kailua Kona Bay.

Having done this for years now, it sill amazes me what's out there. It never gets old or boring.

I would love the opportunity to share this day to day adventure with you. Whether you live in New York, Chicago, Washington, Minnesota, Alaska, or anywhere the temperatures get below 70 in the winter, welcome to the virtual world of the Islands, particularly the remaining 2/3rds of the world most people do not get to see.

I also will be sharing daily photos and other stories from all over the world where my husband and I travel for the express purpose of swimming with "big things" in the oceans.

Keep posted.

If there is anything you would like to see on this blog, let me know and I will certainly add it if possible. So watch for the daily swim and the photos taken that day and information about it's creatures .

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