Ben Oostdam's |
 page 59 |
 Hawaii I I I - oh! Maui, La Perouse Bay March, 1963 |
Monday, March 11, 1963: After fine deep dive we make first exploratory run along flow and dove at Kalaeloa (which nowadays - 2003- is named "Turtle Town" and on the tourist schedule). This time no turtles, but boxfish, plenty echinoids and some lobster which Ricky catches. Astounded by magnitude of my undertaking....
March 12: set sediment trap at beacon AXE, clearly marked by USCGS, hurrah! Do several 30 ft transects, then set another trap at Ka Lae Mamane.
13:00 have trailer welded, off to Lahaina (past airport: no compressor yet...) to charge up 6 bottles.
March 13 :Search for pumps for Marine Advisors project. P.M first boattrip and deep dive at spectacular Molokini, blown out crater, plenty black coral, and humpback whales, too: astonishing resemblance to fields of moo-ing cows! Black shades around us. Atmosphere altogether primeval. Met USCG coxswain Anderson and , in Paia, friend of Rick's nicknamed "Sparrow", aka "Mr. Maui".
March 14: too rough to launch boat, make 40 ft dive from shore; test jetting, which uses up full tank of air in a few minutes...
 [NOTE: pictures from memory/imagination] |
Ricky picked us up two girls: one Nani Terang Moo from Tahiti for himself, a Margaret from Bora Bora for me; |
 they had been dining with some rich tourists and M. had been so insulted that she asked me to drop her off at airport, which I did without much dispute. |
March 15, Friday: Rain and rough. Jason treats Ricky, Nani and me to steak before I take her to airport to join Margaret; rather inefficiently, we find message that one Eva is due in tomorrow at 09:00 to visit Ricky: a Norwegian girl who sails as shipboard nurse..