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Hawai'i O'HanaCome dive the exotic Island waters of our 50th state. Kaua'i: The Garden Isle;
O'ahu: The Gathering Place;
Mau'i: The Valley Isle (Mau'i, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Kaho'olawe & Molokini);
Hawai'i: The Big Island.
Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 3 month(s) ago.
Just thought I'd post about the wonderful charter Extended Horizons took to Moloka'i last week (4/24). Thanks to the adventurous spirit of the passengers & the favorable conditions, we were able to dive Mokuho'oniki Rock, just off the island of Moloka'i.
For those of you familiar with diving on Maui, I don't have to tell you what a rare treat this was... conditions are rarely calm enough to warrant the crossing from Maui (Lahaina/Kaanapali area)... and boy did it pay off!
Our first dive was at The Pinnacle, which sits in 90 feet of water and levels off in 30 feet. We had flat, calm & clear conditions (150+ ft. visibility) and a fantastic array of marine life on this dive, including bandit angelfish, long nose hawkfish in huge black coral branches, gigantic sponge crabs, lobster, eels, nudibranchs, flat worms... and the list goes on. (did I mention everything seems to get bigger out here?)
After our hour surface interval, we jumped back in at Fish Rain, which is probably the best known dive site at Mokuho'oniki, famous for big critter sightings. Upon entry, we attracted the attention of three amberjacks, who delighted in taunting the divers with cameras. These three individuals zoomed back and forth in front of our lenses for a good 15 minutes, allowing each diver to experience the interaction. Of course we stumbled upon a few large yellow margin morays, a staple on this site... but the volume on the dive was turned way up when we caught sight of our first hammerhead in the distance!!! The dive group was limited to a 90 foot depth range, based on our first dive profile, but we all swam into the blue water for a chance to see more! And our neutral buoyancy efforts were rewarded! Approximately 20 hammerheads in all were sighted in the distance, average size was 8 feet, and most were in roughly 120 feet of water (below us)... the highlight of the dive was a swim-by by a large, 12 foot adult!!!
Not every day at Mokuho'oniki is as calm & rewarding as this one... this dive location deserves and demands large amounts of respect, as wind and swell conditions can be beyond challenging, coupled at times with strong current. Often you honestly don't know what you're going to get, until you're there... But on this day, this dive guide was again grateful to have experienced another of those magical days diving Hawaii's wild side!
Thanks again to our passengers, who had faith & opted to go for the unknown adventure!
I tried to get to that site last week with some friends who had a boat. It started out nice but as soon as we got out west of Kapalua the conditions got real nasty real quick. We ended up heading over to Lanai instead. I really had my hopes up that we could make that dive. I've heard many stories about the hammerheads. Thanks for sharing the story with us! Sounds like a fantastic day of diving!!
As one of the dive guides from Extended Horizons... I have to agree with Victoria. Moloka'i was simply spectacular that day. We were fortunate to have a wonderful group of divers who were game for an unknown adventure.
I have to admit it was my best day ever diving Mokuho'oniki. As Victoria mentioned, this dive site deserves a great amount of respect. We were rewarded with beautiful water, amazing marine life and truly nice human beings. It was a rare day and I'm still smiling from that charter. Many mahalos to our divers, the ocean and the brave captain who took us there.
Just thought I'd check back in with the ScubaBoard O'Hana and share some pics from our latest trip to Mokuho'oniki Rock on Moloka'i...
Last week was a long stretch of light southerly winds, which gave us two more opportunities to dive off Moloka'i (5/14 & 5/16). Again we were diving The Pinnacle & Fish Rain...
and again...
Hammerheads!
(As well as a few of Hawaii's endemic reef fish:
Shortnose Wrasse, Potter's Angelfish & Blue Lined Butterfly!)
And to top off a fantastic day on the water... we encountered Bottlenose Dolphins on our crossing back to Maui!
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