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Dive Blog

Ulua Nov 19, 2022

I’ll be diving here a lot… parking is generally easy, entrance is easy, the dive bench by the shower post is a nice touch as well. Plus it is a nice reef that bottoms out at about 40 feet. Used to be a lot of turtles on the outer reef, but I have not seen […]

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Dive Blog

Makena Landing Nov 12, 2022

Back to Makena Landing, but with the SeaLife Micro 3.0 camera this time. It was a bit murky this day, so did not take a lot of pictures. But always enjoyable just being down there. For the record, these pictures were taken with the SeaLife Micro 3.0 camera with the Sea Dragon 2500F light, perhaps […]

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Dive Blog

Carthaginian and Mala Ramp Nov 5, 2022

This was my first time visiting the Carthaginian since it was moved from its above water spot in Lahaina Harbor, to its underwater graveyard 100 feet deep. I went on the Maui Diamond again, and once again the captain and crew were fantastic. I highly recommend this dive operation. We didn’t get much bottom time […]

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Dive Blog

Coral Gardens Dusk and Night Dive Halloween 2022

This was my second time out on the Maui Diamond for a dusk/night dive. The last time was probably about 25 years ago. The captain and crew were fantastic. And we saw some fantastic critters at a site that I recall was called something with “skull” in it because of the likeness of a skull […]

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Dive Blog

Makena Landing Oct 30, 2022

I went back to Makena Landing for the first time in a long time. It used to be my favorite dive site, and it still is a great site, even though the the center section has really been destroyed by the charter boat industry (anchor drags on the reef and other poor stewardship practices). Had […]

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Dive Blog

Lana’i October 22, 2022

I took a boat charter to Lana’i with Dive Maui in Lahaina for a 2 tank dive aboard their rigid hull inflatable dive boat. It’s always a fun ride in these boats and they get us across the channel in good time. I do want to say that I was very impressed with the staff […]

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Dive Blog

Molokini Sept 24, 2022

A 2 tank Molokini dive with Island Style Diving (formerly Mike Severns Diving). 1st Dive on Enenue side, 2nd dive on Reef’s End. For the record, these pictures were taken with the SeaLifeSportdiver housing for the iPhone 12 Pro Max with the Sea Dragon 2500F light.

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Dive Blog

Ulua Beach Sept 17, 2022

This is my first dive with the Sealife Sportdiver housing for my iPhone 12 Pro Max. So this was a learning dive… tried to pick easy (read “stationary”) subjects. For the record, these pictures were taken with the SeaLife Sportdiver housing for the iPhone 12 Pro Max with the Sea Dragon 2500F light.

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Dive Blog

My Dive Photo Blog

As I have been reinvigorated to dive, and have been diving at least weekly lately, and taking pictures on every dive, I feel the need to share my pictures, even if only to the very few family and friends who may visit this site. I will post even if I only photo the mundane, and […]

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Dive Blog Tahiti Trips

Bungalow Friday

For our last full day on Tahiti, I went on a 1 hour Jet Ski tour (did not bring camera) where we just cruised around and spotted some dolphins and looked for whales (did not find any). Then I finally did something I had been hoping to do for the whole trip and that was […]

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Dive Blog Tahiti Trips

Bora Bora

A day trip to Bora Bora was no small thing. Had to be at the airport for a 7 am hour long flight. The Bora Bora airport is on a separate islet, so you must take a ferry to wherever you want to go on/around Bora Bora. We had to meet a small charter boat […]

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Dive Blog Tahiti Trips

Tahiti Diving

I did 3 days of morning dives with Top Dive, the dive operation on the resort property. They, and the dives, were fantastic. Coral is very similar to Hawaii, no big soft corals, but seems to be in much better shape. There is a greater variety and abundance of fish, however. I had a camera […]

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Tahiti Trips

Tahiti Island

The Island of Tahiti is commonly used for the name of the country, but actually Tahiti is the name of the biggest Island of the country French Polynesia. This vacation was more of a relax-in-a-resort type of vacation, where the main attraction for me was the scuba diving. So that’s what the large majority of […]

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Barkings

The United States of aMENica

Just as the ignorant, mostly racist, certainly misogynist, founding father’s wanted. The one thing, and I think perhaps the only thing, that the founding fathers got right was the ability to change the constitution, which we had been doing and making some good progress as far as the advancement of human and civil rights was […]

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Barkings

GOP: Joe Biden needs to throw a hissy fit!

So the GOP insists that Biden is weak and wants more severe measures taken against Russia but don’t want to send troops! But they make no suggestions about what should be done beyond the sanctions already deployed. Biden agrees with them and has sworn not to send troops. So what, pray tell, do they want? […]

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Barkings

Radical Right and Radical Left: False Equivalency

In a discussion the other day with a friend of mine with whom I often disagree on political matters, they expressed the following: “I am center-right, and I think that most people are center-left or center right. It is the radical left and the radical right that are causing all the problems.” I do have […]

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Barkings

Joe Manchin is an Idiot

Joe Manchin say he wants a compassionate society: “I’ve been very clear when it comes to who we are as a society, who we are as a nation. I don’t believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society. I think we should still be a compassionate, rewarding society.” So I ask you, […]

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Barkings

The Tyranny of the Minority

In the beginning… Arguments were made that a truly representative legislature would expose the states with fewer people to the tyranny of the more populous states. Thus was born the unrepresentative legislative body called the Senate, where each state gets 2 representatives regardless. I almost get the logic of that… not really… but I can […]

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Safari Trips

Safari Gallery

All the pictures and videos in one place Lion Cheetah Leopard Serval Cat Elephant Giraffe Hippo Zebra Hyena and Jackal Wildebeest (Gnu) Cape/African Buffalo Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle Impala Topi, Eland, Klipspringer, Dikdik, and Coke’s Hartebeest Ostrich Hooded, white backed, lappet faced, and Ruppel’s griffon vulture Bataleur, tawny and black chested snake eagle Verreaux’s eagle […]

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Safari Trips

Safari Epilogue

Being home now and looking over what I posted, I realize it was a very forensic overview of the animals I saw and not much on what the experience meant for me or my interactions with the people of Tanzania. To be honest, other than the safari guides and the staff at the lodges and […]

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Dive Blog Safari Trips

Zanzibar

Although it was very sad to end my safari, I know that the many amazing things I saw and experienced are now permanently burned into my memory… assuming I never suffer from some degenerative brain disease in my dotage. Plus I was looking forward to my first dives in the Indian Ocean and just relaxing […]

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Safari Trips

Goodbye Serengeti

As always, all good things must come to an end. Today is my last day in the Serengeti and right after breakfast, Keko took me to the airport for my flight to Zanzibar, allowing a little extra time for the inevitable stops for wildlife. You should be able to identify everything in these pictures by […]

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Safari Trips

Close Encounter of the Herd Kind

After the balloon champagne breakfast, as we started the drive back to camp, we became almost completely surrounded by a huge herd of wildebeest and zebra. But that is not the very special event I referred at the end of my last post. We also saw a bataleur eagle taking flight, a crocodile by the […]

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Safari Trips

Hot Air Balloon Safari

For something different, I opted to do a hot air balloon safari for my 6th day in the Serengeti. This required leaving my camp at 4:00 am as the launch site was a couple of hours away and they like to launch at sunrise. As we were flying alternately low and high over the Serengeti […]

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Safari Trips

Cat’s Cradle

Even before I left for my safari trip, I was told that Namiri Plains in the western Serengeti was one of the best big cat viewing areas, and this certainly proved to be true for me. Although I did not see any new big cats going forward, I saw more cheetah and had closer encounters […]