Gina and I had a great trip to Kauai. We left the kids at home with a summer sausage hanging on their bedposts and the TV remote (not really) for 9 days while we relaxed in Kauai. It was my second time and Gina's first. Our first day, we stayed at a hotel not far from the airport in Kapaa - the Hale Plantation. It was nice and we really did not have much time to do much as we arrived in the afternoon. (Fortunately I remembered my driver's license this time so no last minute rush - thanks Jake.)
The next day we spent the time kayaking and hiking on the Wailua River. We rented kayaks at the Hawaiian Village and paddled up stream in a downpour to the trail head of Secret Falls. It was like hiking in the Amazon - muddy, thick vegetation, Tarzan vines and even a cute frog. I must warn you though, the secret is no longer a secret. When we arrived at noon, there were about 50 people (and twice as many of the ever present chickens) at this photogenic site.
After a short lunch of papaya, pineapple and other fruit, we swam out to the fall to get under its head beating current. After taking a few pictures, we turned around and everyone was gone. I guess it's only a secret after noon. When we got back to the kayaks, we paddled a little further up the river to "the swimming hole" near Fern Grotto. The soaring of the tropicbirds reminded me of little angels flying overhead.
For the rest of our trip, we stayed at a timeshare in Princeville. On our first day there I won one of the door prizes: a free luau at the Grand Hyatt. I was asked to go on stage with three other amateurs to learn several of the dances. Needless to say, they asked me if I would consider staying on Kauai and becoming a regular dancer there but I explained that if I did that I would endanger my amateur status.
One day, Gina and I found the "lost" beach near the end of the road at Kee Beach. We had the entire beach to ourselves. He payed homage to Hurley and Said, after which we flew my kite surfing trainer kite. It was a blast as the wind was raging. Gina's first try resulted in her getting slammed into the beach. After removing the embedded sand, she insisted on getting back on the horse and she did an awesome job of flying a tricky kite in tough conditions. We were just lucky we didn't get hauled out to sea. We would spend another day at this nice secluded beach. On one of those days, we walked around the corner to Kee Beach and had a great time snorkeling. Gina was a little unnerved though when she would swim over cave-like holes in the reef but the brave wahini hung in there and and enjoyed seeing all of the fish - especially the many humuhumunukunukuapuaa (a type of cute trigger fish).
On another day, we went to Anini Beach (near Kilauea Lighthouse) where I met my windsurfing instructor. When I first began, I felt like a clutz, but after an hour (the lesson was 3 hours long) I was comfortable enough to sail away and I cruised within inches of a large basking sea turtle. (I think I caused him to leave some skidmarks in his underwear.)
We also spent a day driving up Waimea Canyon - great vistas with deep canyons and tall, thin waterfalls. The shaved ice in Kekaha was a great treat near the end of the day. We even had time to see Spouting Horn where the waves rush into a small opening in the lava and cause sea spray to shoot high into the air with a loud Whuuuump!
One of our favorite days was taking an all day catamaran cruise to the Na Pali Coast and its sheer cliffs. For lunch, we boated off shore of Niihau - the Forbidden Island. Just offshore from Niihau is a small island called Nhua. It is an old volcano and looks like the back of a giant turtle. There are no plants on this small island. We ate a lunch of sandwiches and fruit and then I geared up for one of the best SCUBA dives ever. The divemaster took us under a huge undersea arch that must have been about 20 feet tall and was about 40 feet down. We saw lots of fish and a very small (about 1 inch long) colorful nudibranch (sea slug). On this day trip we saw monk seals, several species of dolphins and many turtles. The trip back was not very pleasant for over half of those on board as the seas became a little rough. (Lots of chumming.)
We also spent a few days on the north shore, near Princeville, to visit Kilauea Lighthouse and see all of the many birds: shearwaters, tropicbirds, red-footed boobies and the huge Great Frigate Birds with their bright red throat bags. Gina wanted me to get a t-shirt that said "I love to look at boobies" with a drawing of a red-footed boobie on the front, but of course I thought it would be in poor taste for someone of my sophistication.
All in all, the trip was great. I got back just in time to sleep a few hours and then head off to the Bahamas to do some IVF cases.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Trolling for Shark in the Bahamas
I just got back from a business trip in the Bahamas. This is the first attempt at in vitro fertilization (IVF) there. The treatments were set up by an old friend of mine Juergen Eisermann from South Florida. He and I worked together at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach about 15 years ago. With the unexpected death of his laboratory director a few months ago, he called and asked if I would fill in for her. So with little notice I went to the Bahamas and did some IVF work there. Now lest you believe these trips are fun, I should state that they are a lot of work in a very stressful situation, using equipment and methods that I usually don't use. But there is always a little fun.
After we completed the several cases in several days, Tony, the Bahamian infertility specialist whom I was working for, asked me if I would like to go spear fishing with him and his buddies. I said sure, but I had left my equipment at home. He said not to worry he could get me some I could use. Tony and I met his brother and two friends at one of their homes that is on a canal near the sea. There we boarded the large twin engine boat and we sped off for the reefs nearby where we would spear fish. Little did I know that these guys were fanatics about spearfishing. And that Tony and his brother were mermen
We jet out to the water just East of Providence Island. The day is perfect - a flat sea, no wind and no swells. THe day is probably around 90 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. After about a 45 minute cruise going as fast as the twin 225 hp engines would go, we get to the spearfising site just off of some tiny, plantless islands. The guys tie two long ropes on the back of the transom with two loops in them - one about half way from the end and the other at the end. Cool, I thought, maybe we are going to troll for fish.
Next thing I know, Tony and his brother have on their rash guards, they jump over the side with 5 foot Hawaiian slings, grab onto the loops and the boat begins to pull them slowly through the water. Their style of spearfishing is cover the greatest area of water by being slowly trolled through the water. If you see a fish, one of you peels off and the other follows. If there are two others on the other side of the boat, you are left in the ocean to spearfish until the second group drops off. To me, it looked like we were the bait being trolled through the water.
It also seemed like Navy SEAL tactics, but boy did it work. And boy did we see a lot of ocean and coral and sealife in those first four hours. We speared a huge Hogfish - orange with big eyes and large fan-like dorsals, a few trigger fish and later a barracuda. (Tony ambushed it and his brother followed silently behind to give the coup de grace.)
Now I thought you spearfished for fish, but I soon learned there were more valuable creatures as lobster season had begun just two days earlier. So as you are being trolled behind the boat (and trying to avoid being shark bait or having your mask ripped off) you look for little caves or shelves and the tell tell signs of "whips", or as we know them antennae. Then you would point your spear at the creature, pull back and let it fly.
Usually we would do our cruising in about 20 or 30 feet of water, but several times we saw lobster in about 30 to 40 feet of water. No way could I dive down, peer under a ledge, shoot and then retrieve the spear with the sea roach attached. Tony and his brother were different creatures. They were in their element. Sometimes I would wonder as they roamed around on the bottom if they were having a convention. Two and three minutes under water is par for them.
After about 4 hours of this tactic, we decided to go to "The Banks", a relatively shallow area about another 45 minutes away. When we got to the banks, you could see the white sandy bottom through the clear water. There was no sign of land anywhere. We could just have well been in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as just an hour or so from Nassau and the hedonistic Atlantis Resort. The water was about 70 feet deep, but appeared shallow due to its clarity. We were searching for coral heads - small, maybe 1/2 acre reefs about 15 to 20 feet below the surface. This was the prettiest and most colorful place we had been two. A wide variety of tropical fish, sponges, sea fans, corals and - lobsters!
By about 5 pm we were sea logged (but Tony and his brother wanted to stay another few hours) and the captain (an anesthesiologist in Nassau) needed to get back, so we all jumped in the boat and sped off back to Nassau. What a day! It was probably the best day I have ever spent diving (except for maybe the night manta ray dive off of Kona). The damage? We got 4 large conchs, about 6 fish and 42 lobster (a few the size of my thigh.)!! Unfortunately, this was my last day in the Bahamas and they would be enjoyed by others.
After we completed the several cases in several days, Tony, the Bahamian infertility specialist whom I was working for, asked me if I would like to go spear fishing with him and his buddies. I said sure, but I had left my equipment at home. He said not to worry he could get me some I could use. Tony and I met his brother and two friends at one of their homes that is on a canal near the sea. There we boarded the large twin engine boat and we sped off for the reefs nearby where we would spear fish. Little did I know that these guys were fanatics about spearfishing. And that Tony and his brother were mermen
We jet out to the water just East of Providence Island. The day is perfect - a flat sea, no wind and no swells. THe day is probably around 90 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. After about a 45 minute cruise going as fast as the twin 225 hp engines would go, we get to the spearfising site just off of some tiny, plantless islands. The guys tie two long ropes on the back of the transom with two loops in them - one about half way from the end and the other at the end. Cool, I thought, maybe we are going to troll for fish.
Next thing I know, Tony and his brother have on their rash guards, they jump over the side with 5 foot Hawaiian slings, grab onto the loops and the boat begins to pull them slowly through the water. Their style of spearfishing is cover the greatest area of water by being slowly trolled through the water. If you see a fish, one of you peels off and the other follows. If there are two others on the other side of the boat, you are left in the ocean to spearfish until the second group drops off. To me, it looked like we were the bait being trolled through the water.
It also seemed like Navy SEAL tactics, but boy did it work. And boy did we see a lot of ocean and coral and sealife in those first four hours. We speared a huge Hogfish - orange with big eyes and large fan-like dorsals, a few trigger fish and later a barracuda. (Tony ambushed it and his brother followed silently behind to give the coup de grace.)
Now I thought you spearfished for fish, but I soon learned there were more valuable creatures as lobster season had begun just two days earlier. So as you are being trolled behind the boat (and trying to avoid being shark bait or having your mask ripped off) you look for little caves or shelves and the tell tell signs of "whips", or as we know them antennae. Then you would point your spear at the creature, pull back and let it fly.
Usually we would do our cruising in about 20 or 30 feet of water, but several times we saw lobster in about 30 to 40 feet of water. No way could I dive down, peer under a ledge, shoot and then retrieve the spear with the sea roach attached. Tony and his brother were different creatures. They were in their element. Sometimes I would wonder as they roamed around on the bottom if they were having a convention. Two and three minutes under water is par for them.
After about 4 hours of this tactic, we decided to go to "The Banks", a relatively shallow area about another 45 minutes away. When we got to the banks, you could see the white sandy bottom through the clear water. There was no sign of land anywhere. We could just have well been in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as just an hour or so from Nassau and the hedonistic Atlantis Resort. The water was about 70 feet deep, but appeared shallow due to its clarity. We were searching for coral heads - small, maybe 1/2 acre reefs about 15 to 20 feet below the surface. This was the prettiest and most colorful place we had been two. A wide variety of tropical fish, sponges, sea fans, corals and - lobsters!
By about 5 pm we were sea logged (but Tony and his brother wanted to stay another few hours) and the captain (an anesthesiologist in Nassau) needed to get back, so we all jumped in the boat and sped off back to Nassau. What a day! It was probably the best day I have ever spent diving (except for maybe the night manta ray dive off of Kona). The damage? We got 4 large conchs, about 6 fish and 42 lobster (a few the size of my thigh.)!! Unfortunately, this was my last day in the Bahamas and they would be enjoyed by others.
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