Kona Life – Sea and Terra Firma

Typically, Kona weather is fairly constant; The forecast is for temperatures in the mid-80s, for the skies to be partly cloudy, and for a small chance of passing showers. However, occasionally, as was the case this weekend, it changes:

That was the forecast as of Friday. Now, I was anxious to see this thing. Stupid perhaps, but when someone says 60mph winds I don’t panic. I lived on the Palmer divide. 45-60mph winds are not all that unusual and neither is the occasional gust well past that. 

“Ah,” you say, “but  there’s also torrential rains and flash flooding.“

You’re kidding, right? If you want to talk about flash flooding, I give you Colorado Springs, the burn scars of Waldo Canyon and Black Forest, and the area in general. 

Now, I get it. Were this a hurricane, we’re talking serious liquid excrement. Roofs blown off, homes demolished, enough rain to drown a duck. But this was not it, despite the news wanting oh-so-bad for it to be so. None of the predicted winds and rain came true for this area. I’ve not heard of anything major happening in Hilo or the Southern part of the island, but I suppose they might have had it worse. 

However, this very much reminded me of Colorado’s frequent forecasts of 12″-24″ snowstorms that turn out to have something like 2″ to 4″ of snow. 

By the way, I’m getting back to my longer posts. It do feel nice. 

On Saturday morning, we went to Kona proper for a quilting show. Melisa went to the show and I walked along the seaboard snapping photos. I passed businesses that were closed “due to the weather”. Here’s the weather.

As usual, you can see a larger version of these by clicking on them. You can see the full-size version by visiting the SmugMug gallery HERE.  By the way, if you have a fast Internet connection and want to see the full-size version of the panorama, click HERE (15MB).

I like walking the seawall as one can see things on the rocks below . . . 

. . . and below the waterline. 

By the way, the rock above is actually pink, and not because the White Balance is out of wack. Those purple things sticking on the rocks are Shingles Urchins or Helmet Urchins. Their Hawai’ian name is ha’uke’uke kaupali which roughly translates to “summabirch! this thing be stuck on there!” Once anchored, they are impossible to remove by hand, or so they say. 

After the last shot, I remembered something that I seldom recall . . . I have a Circular Polarizer filter. The dock photo and the panorama were both shot with the filter in place as was this next shot . . . 

The filter cuts a lot of the glare from the water’s surface. Of course, when the water recedes you do get a better shot of the critters below. 

The rocks below the seawall swarm with crabs running around and feasting on the ocean’s bounty. Usually, these suckers are on lava rocks and are difficult to shoot. Here, they happened to be on lighter rocks and in full sun. I thought they were black. Go figure.

The low tide, for it was low tide, exposed other interesting sights . . . 

Here’s a sea slug. It looks as if it’s expoosed to the air, but it’s actually underwater. 

This golf ball and some seaweed combine to form a simulation of an icecream cone . . . 

. . . I wouldn’t eat that; woudn’t want to catch crabs. 

Now, I mentioned that the crabs normally appear black. The previous photos show them as mostly black . . . but these next photos make them look like silver crabs. I don’t rightly know if it was just the lighting or if these were mutations or different species of crabs, but they looked neat as they scurried along. 

So, those are ‘A’ama crabs. Few will click on the link, so I will tell you they have some camouflage ability. Their whole name is . . . are you ready? . . . 

They also can levitate and are used to predict swings in the stock market. What do you mean, you don’t believe me? How the heck would you know? Have you clicked on the link? 

Anyway, that’s probably why those were closer to a silver color . . . they were on lighter/gray rocks. Neat, huh?

The lava rocks themselves are interesting. I think this next rock was likely used by ancient Hawai’ians to poach eggs. Probably, turtle eggs. I’m only guessing, but I could be right, right?

Now, I’d not seen this before . . . 

That’s an interesting business model. It looks like a floating rental store for See-Doos. . . wouldn’t you need a See-Doo to get out there? Then again, renting them out there maximizes the customer’s time spent running around with no particular destination in mind. 

Anyway, back to Darby . . . my one hope for the storm was for some decent waves . . .

I was not impressed.

This guy . . . 

. . . is a Moorish Idol, a fish popular with reef divers and snorkeler. Its Hawai’ian name is KahiKahi. From the Waikiki aquarium:
The Hawaiian name, kihikihi, meaning “curves”, “corners,” angular”, and “zigzag”, may refer to shape as well as color pattern. 

It’s interesting, to me, the inclusion of the word “may” in that definition; don’t they know? On the other hand, it could be one of those words that have different meanings to different people, like honesty, fairness, honor, democrats, republicans, justice, and responsibility.

I’m assuming many of these pink bottom rocks are bits and pieces of coral . . . 

. . . but that other pink rock, the one with the helmet urchins on it, certainly was not a piece of coral. Probably some ferrite component in the rocks. Again, don’t quote me. Seriously; don’t quote me. Stand on the shoulders of your own ignorance instead of hitching a ride on mine. 

Most of the stuff I saw under the surface was mundane, but there was this thing rolling in the surf that I could not identify. It swirled and turned and did acrobatic moves as the water advanced and receded. It was agile and kept to bottom. I patiently waited for it to come near the surface and after a good few minutes with my camera at the ready, I got my chance!

. . . a leaf . . . I watched a leaf. Still, I got to tell you that it put on quite the show.

By the time I snapped that photo, the hour was approaching 11:30am. The heat suddenly went into overdrive (probably because the wind died down a bit) and I was silently cursing Darby for promising cooling relief in both the form of rain and wind but offering neither. 

I was literally dripping sweat. We, Melisa had by then joined me, headed back toward the car. Before leaving the shore I snapped a few more photos of a different and smaller Moorish Idol. This one hid whenever I made even the smallest motion, like raising the camera.

The Moors believed these fish brought good luck . . . I don’t believe in luck, but I do hope Chance favors us with a pass on a major one of these:

The condo we are renting is at the “11” on the map above. We had, of course, researched earthquakes in Hawaii. They are pretty common. They are also frequent (hence why they are common). 

However, we had read about small and frequent quakes that most people don’t even feel. This was a 4.1 quake (or 4.3 quake, depending on where you read).  I titled this post “Sea and Terra Firma”. Terra firma stands for “solid ground”. Few people realize just how not solid it is.

For those who have not been in earthquakes, let me give you a description. Things you think are solid around you, the floor, walls, suddenly take on the characteristics of an inflatable playground. That is, they do not feel solid at all. 

It was a bit as if someone grabbed the room I was in and treated it like a salt-shaker. Everything felt “loose”. I remember once in Michigan where the concrete slab I was standing on moved as if it were a springy mattress. This was more dynamic. 

The shaking was strong enough to knock down a couple of the figurines I brought with me. I don’t have a real-time video of the event, so I did a recreation for illustrative purposes. 

So, bugs, heat, humidity, lizards, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes. 

I suppose you need to compromise on some things to enjoy others. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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