It was our last day of diving on the boat, something that always leaves me feeling a bit conflicted. On one hand, at this point in the trip, I feel like I’m really getting a handle on what I’m doing, and I’m confident that I’ll get some excellent footage. On the other hand – it’s our last day on the Na Pali Kai! That’s just sad.

Our first dive was a return to Ray Bay, where we once again sought out the schooling goatfish and the leaf scorpionfish. Even better, David Fleetham got our attention and led us out into the blue a bit, where an enormous school of Heller’s barracuda was hovering. Jeff was shooting macro; for most of the dive, I just tried to stay far enough away from him that we could both get the shots we were after!

For our last dive, we decided to go in search of a pair of harlequin shrimp rumored to be living in a coral head at a dive site called Disneyland. According to the divemasters, there wasn’t necessarily much else to see at that site, so I wasn’t really expecting a great dive. Luckily, I was wrong. I found cleaning stations all over the place, and finally got some halfway decent footage now that I’d learned to sit still for long periods of time. A turtle cruised by twice, and Dave apparently saw a hammerhead shark!

After everyone got sick of trying to photograph the harlequins hiding way down in the coral, David Fleetham carried a red spotted starfish over in front of their home to coax them out (apparently it’s their favorite snack). The photos/video of that event aren’t admissable into the Kona Classic (it’s manipulating the wildlife), but they were still fun to shoot.

Harlequin Shrimp comes out to munch on a starfish:

We finished off the day with a trip to the Kona Brewery for the World’s Best Pizza: