Diving the Kona Coast: Betty Fackler

Showing posts with label Betty Fackler. Show all posts

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Artist's Reception @ Peaberry & Galette

During the month of June, a sampling of my photos will be on exhibit at Peaberry & Galette coffee shop in the Keauhou Shopping Center. This past Friday (6/6/14), Betty arranged an artist's reception for me. We had a pretty fantastic turnout and had a great time. Plenty of food, wine and talk story about the ocean and photography!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Whale Watching

This past weekend, Betty and I decided to play tourist and go on a whale-watching cruise out of Kawaihai. We've been seeing whales from shore all winter long (even while driving) but we wanted a more up-close experience.

We sailed with Ocean Sports on their big catamaran and had a super time. We saw a bunch of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) at close range including mothers with their calves.

We had a wonderful time and felt fortunate to see so many whales this late in the season. They will soon be migrating to their feeding grounds in Alaska.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

New Restaurant in Town - With Mantas!

Recently, Betty and I dined at one of the newest restaurants in town "Rays on the Bay" in the Sheraton Keauhou Resort and Spa. It was truly a wonderful dining experience with superb food and excellent service.

The restaurant has a nice atmosphere with covered, outdoor seating overlooking Keauhou Bay, where Betty and I have the majority of our manta ray encounters when SCUBA diving.

Betty had the Steak & Lobster...

and I had the Mahi Mahi & Lobster.

Everything was wonderfully seasoned and very tasty. I sampled Betty's steak and found it to be as tender and flavorful as she claimed it to be.

The Mai Tais were nice, too!

After dinner, we lingered by the railing and watched the manta rays that were attracted by the lights shining into the water. I tried to photograph them but it was too dark.

I would highly recommend "Rays on the Bay" to visitors and Kama'aina alike!

Friday, January 13, 2012

New Year's Day Dive

Betty and I arrived at Honaunau Bay bright and early on New Year's Day to be the first SCUBA divers there in 2012. We were in the water by a few minutes past 7AM.

The water was a little cold with an average temperature of about 73 to 74F. At one point, both of our computers read 69F.

Because of a bad fiber-optic cable connection, my strobe wasn't firing so I had to rely on the camera's built-in flash which is pretty weak. But I managed to get some decent shots like this one of a Bandit Angelfish.

Bandit's aren't rare but they are uncommon. I considered this a good start to diving in 2012!

Several cleaning stations were quite busy for so early in the morning. I snapped this Ornate Butterflyfish at one such station. The cleaner wrasse is in the far side of this fish.

This Barred Filefish was also getting cleaned and held up his dorsal "trigger" so the wrasse could clean around it.

We were also lucky enough to catch this Day Octopus out in the open. This is the time of year that I've noticed a lot of mating activity among the octos.

At one point, the octopus blanched. I probably got too close for it to feel comfortable.

I took this picture of a male longfin anthias on the second dive when the cable was re-attached to the strobe.

Photo 2012 by Barry Fackler

This lurid Ringtail Wrasse was comfortable under a deep rock. There was also an Undulated Moray under there with it.

And that's the way it was on New Years Day for us. Hope your year is off to a good start also!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

SCUBA-Themed Christmas Ornaments

It's been a busy Holiday Season and I apologize for the lack of posts recently. One of the many distractions has been holiday decorating and I thought I'd share some images of the SCUBA and marine-themed ornaments Betty & I have collected since we started diving in 1993. Betty LOVES Christmas in a big way, and SCUBA ornaments have become popular in recent years so we have LOTS! Here are a few samples:

SCUBA Santa

by December Diamonds

Nemo and Dory

were purchased at DisneyWorld.

A cool Barracuda

sporting shades.

A Flying Fish,

of course!

The Sea Angel speaks

into her shellphone!

A Mermaid with a

strand of shells.

Personalized clay diver ornaments

purchased years ago at the

Fourth Ave. Street Fair

in Tucson, AZ.

We found this glass diver at an after-Christmas sale

at Neiman-Marcus. Kind of an unusual find!

Joy to You All

Have a great 2012!

Betty and Barry Fackler

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Whitetip Reef Sharks Abounding

Since around March, there has been an uptick in the presence of Whitetip Reef Sharks (Triaenodon obesus) residing just south of the Two-Step at Honaunau Bay. During the daylight hours they have been residing under ledges or in pukas to rest, occasionally venturing out to give snorkeling tourists a possibly unwelcome thrill. There are at least two of them as I saw a pair together. All the ones I have seen have been female.

The shark in the first two photos is small, around 3' in length. Betty found it in a sand-bottomed puka at around 20' depth. This one was quite confident in the security his shelter gave her and sat still for photographs which I greatly appreciated.

A couple weeks later I was in shallow water by myself and decided to check out a ledge where I had seen a turtle resting on an earlier dive. Turtles often stake out sheltered areas to rest in and return to them regularly. On this day, I turned the corner to find the six-foot shark pictured above where I expected the turtle to be. She quickly roused and came in my direction. In the midst of being startled I took this picture which is blurry due to me recoiling in shock as I tripped the shutter.

The big gal swam around me for awhile, clearly displeased at my presence. While I didn't check my gauge, depth had to be around 10-12'. You can see the play of sunlight on the fish as well as the surrounding reef which generally occurs only near the surface.

One last shot. Notice how ragged the tip of her dorsal fin is. She's been around the block a few times!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Kaneohe Bay Air Show 2010

I've haven't posted for awhile because life has been super busy recently. A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to take my Grandson, Jacques, to his very first air show! Since we have no air shows on the Big Island we traveled to Oah'u for the Kaneohe Bay Air Show at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i on the windward side. We stayed a week over there and had a great time. More importantly, Jacques loved the air show. Here are some random shots.