Feb.22, 2015---Olowalu:

Again the website said underwater visibility would be poor everywhere but East, but the surf was down and we were anxious to get back in the ocean.   We planned to head to a South beach, but ended up heading West.

 A resident suggested we try Olowalu (or MM 14), so we did.  Visibility was a little poor near shore, but it cleared up quite a bit as we went out.   The coral structure out there is amazingly huge!!  And entry is easy.  The water was even surprisingly "warm"---probably about 77 degrees with spots that were even warmer.

  A view of the huge coral heads that were everywhere.

  Looking back from about 1/2 way into the coral.

  Looking back over a patch of sand between the coral (the lighter blue area).

  Another Whitecheek  surgeonfish.  Never seen one before this trip, now I've seen 2.

  One area also had a bunch of these---Common razor coral (or mushroom coral as they were called by the speakers at the aquarium).  I don't remember seeing them anywhere before, either.

  another one.

 Goldring surgeonfish.  I finally got a picture of one showing it's detailed markings.

  The Hawaiian State fish---Reef Triggerfish

  male Bullethead Parrotfish

  female surge wrasse

 a turtle.  He seemed to be having a bit of a problem swimming.  Hope he's ok.

   I'm pretty sure this is a wrasse, but I don't recall seeing one like that and can't find him on http://www.marinelifephotography.com/fishes/wrasses/wrasses-3.htm

 ringtail wrasse

  one of the many schools of fish out there---black triggerfish.

  Ken in the distance to give some perspective to the size of these coral heads.

  unicorn surgeonfish

  a large squaretail filefish

 male Christmas wrasse and a young Orangespine Surgeonfish

 adult yellow tail coris

  a young yellowtail coris---the juvenile is red with some white marks on it.  This guy has the face of the juvenile and the white mark still on his head.

sunburst butterflyfish (only the 2nd one of these guys I've ever seen, too)

 really tiny sergeant majors.

  Achilles Tang---I haven't seen many of these guys, either.

  Scarface blenny

  long nose butterflyfish checking me out.

  the pretty pink tailed triggerfish.

 An interestingly marked Sailfin Tang

  female Redlip Parrotfish

  another turtle.

  a blue goatfish the color I'm use to seeing them.

 We spent about 4 hours there, mostly snorkeling.  Headed back to our resort and hung out at the pool for about an hour.  By then it was about 6, so we headed back to the room to change and see if we could catch another sunset.  Unfortunately, Ken couldn't get the computer to connect to the internet so he spent the next 30-40 minutes messing with that, so we missed sunset.  I decided to sit on the lanai and read on my book some more.  To my surprise, beautiful singing from nearby was interrupting my reading.  When Ken was finally ready to go to dinner, I suggested we find the restaurant the music was coming from .  Turned out to be Kameole Pool café.  We never would have thought to go there (or even know it existed), but prices were reasonable and my house salad and Ken's Kalua pork quesadillas were very good.  Of course the singer took a break while we were there!  Plus we never did get our drink refills, but otherwise, dinner was good.   That takes us through another great day in paradise.