Lynlee's Dive Log

This beach is very pretty, however it is a sunning beach at best (that is if the sun ever comes out). Winter is not the best time to come to Kauai I guess. Apparently it is not uncommon to get weeks on end of heavy rain and wind. When the sun finally broke through for 10 minutes, we gave snorkeling a shot. The reef was pretty dead here, only a few straggler fish, no schooling, heavy washing machine currents (I made that word up, but I am sure you know what I mean) and terrible visibility-- I assume in large part from the all the rain and subsequent run off from unchecked condo development in the area.

This is my favorite Big Island spot. Really breathtaking with lots of species of fish, corals and plants due to the several depths you can enter. I like it best early in the AM as you can get good sunlight, and also because it can get crowded later in the day. Visibility is almost always great; I am guessing I could see 100 ft. We enjoyed snorkeling above divers in very deep water and still seeing them below--and the schools of dolphins seemed to be teasing them by swimming above them undetected. Turtles were everywhere as well…but the spinner dolphins were the stars- so many schooling and playing around us one day you just lose count . Very special place. We stayed at the Manago Hotel in Capt Cook as a base camp, and it was a good choice because we wanted to return several times while on the Big Island.

Lots and lots of tangs. There were few people early in the day. We must have exited at low tide, because the exit was not easy. Steep slippery rock stairs covered with urchins (I guess if you have shoes/gloves on you would be fine). The fish were gorgeous and visibility great even in January. You can rent Kayaks if you go through Captain Cook and enter the water and paddle to the right to get to the monument (it would be quite a long swim). We also saw a lot of spinner dolphins. All in all a great spot. We had no problem snorkeling for hours and never seeing the same area twice.