Aug. 27, 2016  snorkel Kapalua Bay---

Figured we'd try to find a calm place to snorkel today.  Kapalua came to mind.  So that's where we went.  It was really calm, somewhat rainy, but we were getting wet anyway so who cares.  I was anxious to give the Fuji another try.  So off to the West shore we headed again.
Couple more pictures of the drive West.

With calm water and pretty clear water, I was still disappointed with the camera.  Seems like if I was shooting in deep water, it did fine.  But if I tried to get close to the subject in shallow water like I like to do, it would turn out to be a really dark picture. Some lightened up in photoshop pretty well, but with them being so dark in the review, I had to take a ton of pictures hoping to get 1 good one.
I don't think we ever arrive there when parking is available by the beach, but the walk from the tennis court parking lot isn't far.  I love all the pine trees they have here in Kapalua.

 Heading in-----------

 Was a little surprised to see a bunch of needle fish.  I don't remember seeing them here before.

 a bluelined butterflyfish-endemic to Hawaii

 fantail filefish

 squaretail filefish

lei triggerfish

 some of the coral heads a ways out.

 pebbled butterflyfish--also endemic

 yellow trumpetfish

moorish idol

 another lei triggerfish

 school of fish in deeper water.

 I assume these are lei triggerfish, too.

 moray eel

 pebbled butterflyfish again.

a dark trumpetfish.  I understand they can change their color to yellow.  i've also seen blue ones in the Caribbean.

I was surprised to see a catamaran of snorkelers pull into the bay.  I would have really been ticked if I paid a lot of money for a snorkel cruise and we were taken here where it's so easy to get to by foot.  Especially since we did drive over to honolua later and it was calm and had snorkelers there.  At least it's quite a bit more difficult to get to by foot.   We did take advantage of the boat being there, though, so we could snorkel out towards it and see what was out there.  Usually we stay pretty close to the shoreline.

 On our way back to the shoreline, this turtle was floating along getting a cleaning.

ornate butterflyfish

 an adult rock mover wrasse.  They are interesting to watch.  They really do move rocks.

another white mouth moray eel---or perhaps the one I saw swimming earlier.  He was quite large.

 This was a large triggerfish like none I've seen before.  According to http://www.marinelifephotography.com , it's a bridled triggerfish.

part of a school of teardrop butterflyfish.

a black triggerfish

 blackside hawkfish

another endemic Hawaiian fish---the cute little Hawaiian Dascyllus.  These guys can change from mostly black to mostly white.  They also make a chattering sound when they're trying to chase something away---like us.

another one---they certainly have a lot of courage.

 The little yellow head wrasse is a cleaner wrasse. 

 We snorkeled for about 3 hours, then drove around the West side a bit.   When we got hungry, we went to Maui Brewing Co.  in Kahana.

Ken's chicken sandwich.  He didn't care for it, and $14 for a sandwich sure seems like a lot.

 I had a $9 nacho and a $5 happy hour beer---both were so so. 

 It does have an interesting ambience.  love the Kegger lights.

 LOVE these flowering trees.  Don't know what they are, but I've never seen anything like them.  They weren't blooming when we were here in Feb. 

With the disappointment with the camera, we went from there back into Kahului.   I remembered Walmart and Target did have a Nikon Coolpix underwater camera.  Thought maybe I'd give them another chance since I did like the underwater close ups better with it then the Fuji.  Target was out of stock, but Walmart had it.  Their policy is 15 days for returns if I'm not happy with it.  On our way back, this very brilliant rainbow was leading our way.  It was actually a double rainbow, but the main rainbow was the show stopper.

After running our stuff into our condo, I hot footed it down to the beach to try and catch sunset.  It was so cloudy most of the day, that I'm surprised there was as much color in the sky.  Unfortunately I didn't get  to the beach before most of the color left the sky.  This was from half way down the hill from our condo.

 But since I walked down there, I had to take a picture of something!

 Another great day.  The weather has really been spectacular!  A tropical storm is predicted to arrive on Wed.  Figures!  That's the day we're suppose to fly to Kauai.  Hope it doesn't affect air travel.