Yesterday evening B, Murray and I go out on a night dive. Now I am not a big fan of night dives – dark, cold, scary, dark, more dark, but Murray convinced us to do this one because the dive folks kept saying the night dives in Kona were great. Yeah, I’ve heard THAT before and been sorely disappointed.
Not this time.
There are just four guest divers and Luke, our dive Jedi. The fourth diver, R, is from St. Albert, a 20 minute drive from our house. Four Canucks, how lucky is that! At least we all talked the same language, eh.
Kona Dive Company ensures it is full dark before entering the water, which other dive shops around the world do not do. The creatures that come out at night are slow moving and it takes them time to come out, so we get a leisurely dive briefing, giving them plenty of time to come out of there daytime hiding holes.
After we descend, we start to see lobsters and crabs and shrimp and eels. I realize that, although it is dark down there, with the five dive lights and an extra red light that Luke carries, it is not as scary as I imagined. I was enjoying myself looking at the unusual creatures. Murray and I spy a small octopus moving along the bottom and wave the others over. The octopus has very long legs and a small body and is gorgeous. He gets nervous and moves under a overhang, evicting the fish that is there already.
Many of the fish are still out and I silently entreat them to go hide as they are fodder for eels and larger prey. Run! Hide! Go to bed!
It is a dive that every diver coming to Kona should experience. The night reef is amazing.