A couple of mornings ago, it was teeming down with rain at home. I still headed out for a swim because that spot, a few miles down the coast, is usually warm and dry. This was not one of those days. The sky was solid gray, the precipitation steady.
I have an irrational dislike of it raining when I swim! I mean, I’m getting wet anyway. What’s the difference? The main compensation on this occasion was the presence of this rainbow offshore. This rainbow stayed steady throughout the swim and was still there when I drove home, with the heater cranked up and the fan blowing strong.
I don’t see sharks a lot, but when I do they’re usually Whitetip Reef Sharks, which are fairly common around the island. I’ve seen others, including a few Blacktip Reef Sharks, but haven’t got photos of them before.
A few days ago, snorkeling out of Lapakahi, this Blacktip Reef Shark emerged out of hazy waters, heading my way. When it saw me, it veered off to the side, zipped past, and continued on its way. The shark was no more than four feet long, but there was no mistaking it with those markings.
It was a short encounter, so I only took a few photos and, given the conditions, had no great hopes that the photos would be any good, or that the shark would even be in them! So I was pleased that this one shot turned out halfway decent.
Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Cobalt Blue.’ See more responses here.
I had a post all lined up, until I was called into work yesterday to do some clean up after flash floods swept through several places, including where I work. On the drive down, I came on this scene.
The cobalt blue waters of the Pacific were being overrun by muddy waters swept into the sea by flooding. I’ve never seen such a sharp line before and, as I watched, I could see it moving forward, to the north. On that coast, the current generally runs in that direction, and a swell from the south was probably helping it along too.
The muddy waters entered the sea down by Kawaihae and when I first saw them, they’d almost reached Lapakahi, a distance of around 12 miles. When I returned home, about three hours later, the brown water had moved up off Kapaa Park, another two and a half miles north.
It will take a day or two for the ocean to clear again, as the waters mingle or are eased away by offshore currents. In the meantime, Kawaihae is digging itself out from the copious amounts of mud left behind by the floodwaters.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.
I was driving home yesterday when I noticed some haze blowing out to sea. I thought it was rain at first, but quickly realized that this was smoke, likely another brush fire, and my heart sank. I was halfway home. Up ahead was Lapakahi and beyond that, Mahukona, two places I spend a lot of time at.
As I got closer I saw that the fire was burning at Lapakahi. Traffic was still passing on the highway though the land beside it was black and smoking. But strong trade winds had blown the fire, which apparently started near the park entrance, down towards the ocean.
My guess is the fire had been going less than an hour when I got there, though a considerable area had already burned. Fires were burning along the north edge of the area, not far from the road, but the most smoke and bigger flames could be seen closer to the ocean. It looked like the small visitor center had escaped, surrounded as it is by the looping access road. But other structures might not have been so lucky, and the native plants, birds and insects probably did not fare well.
I saw several wasps flitting around a Milo tree at Lapakahi recently. What I found interesting was that none of them paid attention to the flowers, but they were more interested in the buds about to bloom. Not sure what that was about.
In this view of the coast at Lapakahi State Historical Park, the large rock in the foreground was believed to be the home of Ku’ula, the fishing god. Local fishermen would leave a portion of their catch for him and, in return, would catch many fish next time they went out.
Graham's Island 