Our Affordable Hawaiian Vacation - 2nd day in Maui

Mark prepares to dive
(M. Leung)

This was our 2nd day on our affordable Hawaiian Vacation, and our 2nd day in Maui. We were doing three dives with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures.

We chose Ed Robinson's because they cater to advanced divers. I really wanted to do the outer rim of the Molokini Crater, which is considered to be a "must-do" dive in Hawaii, and an "advanced" dive. I thought that if we dove with Ed Robinson's, we would have a better chance of diving it. I wasn't disappointed.

Divers hovering over the
bottomless blue -
Back wall of Molokini
(M. Leung)

Ed Robinson (of Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures), himself, came to say hello to us, even though he wasn't diving that day. I told him about my prospective dive related business, and he directed me to speak to his wife, the proprietor of Turtle Town gift shop, to see if she was interested in selling my offerings. I loved how supportive Ed was of his wife's new business venture!

Divemaster Joe
wrestling an octopus --
Back wall of
Molokini (M. Leung)

Diving with Ed Robinson
Our first dive was on the Molokini Back Wall. Molokini is a partially submerged volcanic "crater". The back wall is outside of the crater, where depths can plummet to more than 200 feet deep.

I immediately got a minor crush on our divemaster, Joe. He was sweet, charming, and dove with such elegance. He also went out of his way to entertain us divers, and even wrestled an octopus out of its cave (see right).  No harm was done to the octopus, or to its cave, so I feel OK about advertising that.

Mark holding Tiger Cowry --
Back wall of Molokini (M. Leung)

The fact that this was an advanced dive made itself abundantly clear. At one point, I was carried by the surge 20 feet up in the water column.  If we were at shallower depths, this could have been cause for a lung expansion injury or the "bends". As we were 130 feet deep, no harm was done but I was a little rattled over scraping the coral reef on my elevator ride up.

On our second dive, we dove "Hawaiian Reef", which is jam-packed with schools of grunts and goat fish. Mark took some great shots and video of a red frog fish (below). 

Commerson Frog Fish --
Hawaiian Reef (M. Goodnow)

On our third dive, we dove "Reef's End" at Molokini Crater (see below). This dive site has schools and schools of butterflyfish (I'm used to seeing individuals). We also saw a white tip reef shark and silver jacks hunting, which was behavior the divemasters alerted us to.

Reef's End supports
schools of butterfly fish--
Reef's End, Molokini (M. Leung)

Afternoon

Cliff diver lighting torches
at Black Rock (M. Leung)

In the afternoon, I conducted "business" in Lahaina.  Basically, I scoped out dive shops, and got names of the stores' retail buyers. Hawaii could potentially provide a lot of customers for my prospective business, considering the army of snorkelers, in addition to divers who frequent Maui. Everyone I spoke with seemed positive about the idea I had.

We also scoped out our next dive - a shore dive at Black Rock near Lahaina. It was here, we accidentally witnessed the daily sunset cliff dive at the Black Rock sponsored by the Maui Sheraton (see above). For dinner, we had a typical Hawaiian "plate".  The Kalua pork wasn't great, but it was cheap and plentiful. Besides, ketchup makes everything taste better (see below).

Plate dinner of Ono and Kalua pork
(M. Leung)

Diving Details

Dive #194: Molokini Crater Back Wall

Dive buddy: Mark

Depth/Time/Temp: 134'/0:43 min/74 deg. F

Weight: Mina-8 lbs, Mark-14 lbs. We both wore 5 mm wetsuit

Sightings:

-octopus wrestled out of its cave

-tiger cowry

-moray eels

-2 frog fish

-crab with decorative sponge "afro"

Dive #195: Hawaiian Reef

Dive buddy: Mark

Depth/Time/Temp: 84'/0:32 min/74 deg. F

Sightings:

-dense schools of grunts

-white tip reef shark

-red frog fish

Dive #196: Reef's end at Molokini crater

Depth/Time/Temp: 72'/0:59 min/76 deg. F

-Silver jacks scaring schools of pyramid butterflyfish

-surgeonfish

-big moray eel