Scuba Shack divemasters visit Maui

Travel Report from the Cinciripino Family

Scuba Shack divemasters Donna and Jeff Cinciripino along with their son Matthew (Rescue Diver) returned to Maui January 6 – 20 for some sun, warmth, relaxation and AWESOME diving.

Maui offers some outstanding shore and boat diving. We took advantage of both. We did three days of two-tank boat diving with Ed Robinson Dive Adventures out of Kehei and one, two-tank boat dive with Lahaina Divers out of Lahaina.

Kehei is in South Maui and is about a 50 minute drive from where we stay on Kaanapali Beach in West Maui and the boat leaves early (check in time is 6:30 a.m.). The big benefit is much shorter boat rides to some very cool dive sites including Molokini Crater. We were able to do two nice drift dives starting inside the crater and ending on the outer wall.

Our first dive with Lahaina Divers was on the Catheginian, a sunken two-masted schooner. For 30+ years the Cartheginian was a tourist attraction in Lahaina. When it got too old and expensive to maintain, Atlantis Submarine Tours purchased the ship as an underwater attraction for their submarine tour. Lahaina Divers times the dive to coincide with the subs visit. It is very exciting to see the sub circling the ship and watch the passengers wave.

Although we didn’t get to see a humpback whale (many were close by and you could hear their singing), there were many endemic species, lots of green sea turtle encounters, and a number of white tip and grey reef sharks. With visability many times 100 feet or better there is so much to see and discover.

Photos from the trip – at a lower Web-friendly resolution – courtesy of Jeff Cinciripino.

Longnose Butterfly Fish – Molokini Crater

Matt and Trumpetfish – St. Anthony’s Wreck – Kehei

Turtle Encounter – Black Rock, Kaanapali Beach

Frogfish on the Catheginian

Moorish Idol – Molokini Crater

Scuptured Slipper Lobster off Kehei

More pictures can be found in the Scuba Shack Photo Gallery.