45 Minutes Under the Sea
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Day 18: April 9, 2017 45 Minutes Under the Sea Comment via blog |
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While passing time strolling around Kailua Bay, I took some photos of the
partial reconstruction of the compound King Kamehameha I built on the
shore. The text of the descriptive sign can be seen
here.
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Several friends have supplied suggestions and advise on things to see and
do in Hawaii. Alex B, who was stationed here and also visited as a
tourist, has sent a few emails sharing some of his memories. Many were
things I had already done or had already planned. An exception was a 1995
ride on a submersible that had impressed him. It sounded cool but I didn't
dig into it at the time. On Friday, on the way to pick up the rental, I
chatted with the Uber driver and mentioned I was headed to Kona. He'd been
there recently, he told me, and had really enjoyed a submersible ride. On
my first walkabout from my Kona hotel, I discovered that I was almost next
to the outfit that operates the vehicle that both Alex and the driver
described. No use fighting it I decided. Besides, what better way to
balance my first helicopter ride than with my first submarine ride?
The Kona submersible is one of three that Atlantis Adventures operates in Hawaii. The others are in Waikiki and Lahaina. The adventure begins with a shuttle ride to the submarine out in the bay. Ladders fore and aft allow fairly quick boarding and every passenger gets their own porthole. There are 26 of them on the 65 foot long craft. The hatches are quickly sealed, the ladders raised, and the dive begins. As narrator Yasmina explained, we were completely submerged at 6 feet. |
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The view started to get interesting and the coral reef visible at around
60 feet. Almost all of the actual cruising was done at that depth or
below. Yasmina did a wonderful job identifying fish and everything else we
saw but I stopped trying to remember after about two species. There are
exceptions but the general rule is that nothing is removed from the bay
once it has been there two weeks. In that time it has become part of the
environment. This WWII landing craft has been here eighteen years. It sank
during a huge storm.
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We continued onward and downward to reach the wreck of a 60 foot sailboat.
Known today as the Naked Lady, it was brought down by fire twenty-five
years ago. Its lone occupant made it to safety leaving behind the ship,
what remained of her wine (which may not have been much), and her clothes.
Additional and different details can be found but I suspect all should be
taken with a dram of saltwater.
Not far from the Naked Lady, the captain briefly parked our own vessel on the sea bottom where we registered our maximum depth. From there we cruised directly to our departure point and were soon surfacing as compressed air forced out ballast water. |
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We were soon back on the shuttle and waving goodbye to sub and crew. Back
at the pier, I got a walking-away picture to match the walking-toward
picture that started this whole thing.
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The first picture is just a tiny bit out of sequence. It was taken from
the shuttle boat during the return from the submarine. Some of the tents
for the Sunday afternoon street fair were already in place before our
departure and there were even more now. Lots of craft and food items were
available including an option for those who've become bored with Hawaiian
Shave Ice. I didn't make it to the end of the row before I had to leave
for my next appointment.
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In addition to the submarine ride, I had signed up for a tour of the
Kona Brewery.
Brewery tours are all rather similar and usually consist of a guide
pointing to somewhat nearby equipment and explaining what it is. This tour
was pretty much like that with a fellow named Nate doing the pointing and
explaining. Nate also provided quite a bit of information on the company
and its beers including one bit that surprised me. The pub connected with
the brewery has a 4-star rating from the
Green Restaurant
Association The rating is based on levels of recycling and resource
conservation. The 4-star rating is the highest. The Kona Pub is the only
restaurant in Hawaii to achieve that rating and one of only twenty-five
in the nation.
Of course the best part of a brewery tour is the tasting and we were given four once pours of four different beers. I followed the tour with a visit to the pub where this time I found a seat at the bar and tried full pours of a couple more Kona Brewing products. |
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A few days ago, it occurred to me that, while I've seen several Hawaii
license plates on the mainland, I'd seen nothing but Hawaiian plates in
Hawaii. But, before I could get a great witty comment worked out, I saw
this.
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I returned to the street festival and this time made it to the far end of
what I believe was an approximately mile long row of tents. The festival
description mentioned music and I did see a couple of ukulele players
hawking CDs from tents but there was only one place where I saw anything
resembling a performance with an audience. I turned around when the
canopies ran out. Across from the pair of wall musicians, I recognized a
name from some best-of list and headed in.
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From the Fish
Hopper bar I had a good view of what I'm pretty sure was a mermaid
relaxing by the bay. I'm basically a beer guy but in a tropical
environment will sometimes go for rum and pineapple or maybe grapefruit.
I was about to order one or the other when I scanned the list of happy
hour specials. Zombies were on it. A couple of hours earlier a friend had
posted comments about a Zombies concert he was attending in Nashville, TN.
I decided that drinking a Zombie (Hey, it's got rum and pineapple in it!)
was appropriate. When I saw the bartender pull out the mildly garish
parrot glass I hoped it was for someone else but it wasn't. You can't
really tell in the photo but that 151 doused sugar cube is on fire. Mr.
Ball, this bird's for you. And Messrs. Argent & Blunstone, too.
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