Dive Review of Molokai Fish and Dive/WaveCrest Condos in
Hawaii/Molokai

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Molokai Fish and Dive/WaveCrest Condos: "Outsiders", Sep, 2019, by Mark Miller, TX, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 11185 has 2 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My wife and I started our Hawaiian vacation on Oahu. Our son was celebrating his 40th birthday by taking his wife and kids to Disney’s Aulani resort. So we stayed 3 days at the resort to spend time with kids and grandkids. The resort is very nice but crowded and expensive. But it is a great place if you are having to entertain children. Oahu is a busy island with lots of traffic and congestion. We could have just as well been in LA. All of us did go to the Pearl Harbor Museum. It is well worth your time and effort to visit this historic site. Leaving the kids at the resort, we took a flight from Oahu to Molokai on Mokulele Airlines. The flight is about 30 minutes on a small prop plane. At the airport, Molokai rental car left our car in the airport parking lot with the keys under the mat. You will need/want a rental car to tour the island. My choice of Molokai for a dive trip started with a review in Undercurrents. The reviewer said that Molokai was “old” Hawaii and very laid back. The tallest structure is 3 stories, no taller than the palm trees, thus there are not any massive high rise condos. This keeps Molokai undeveloped: this is good and bad. There is a very strong anti-tourist sentiment among some (most) of the locals. They are not in-your-face but you can certainly feel their “coolness” to tourist. There are signs like; “come, spend money, go home”. Those businesses that cater to the tourist trade are very friendly and do not have the ‘tude. Paddlers and the restaurant in Hotel Molokai have good food and the staff is very cordial. Molokai Fish and Dive operate out of the main town of Kaunakakai. Hotel Molokai, only motel on the island, and Molokai shores condos are within a few miles of town. We rented a unit at WaveCrest which is about 10 miles from the harbor. There are two small grocery stores in town that also have beer, wine and liquor. These, as well as most stores, keep island time. So plan to arrive before the town shuts down. Visit Molokai’s very informative website for more info: www.visitmolokai.com Molokai Fish and Dive has two dive boats; a 31’ power cat and a 38’ delta. My dives were on the latter. There were only 4 divers so we had plenty of room on this boat. The boat has a cuddy with a head, shade, flying bridge and all the necessary emergency equipment. After all this is the U.S. so Capt. Tim’s whole operation is coast guard approved. September is low season for Hawaii so there were not many tourist on Molokai. Some of my dives had to be rescheduled or cancelled simply because there were not any other divers signed up. But this was okay because the wind was blowing 25-30mph everyday but our last one (of course). The boat leaves the dock at 6:45AM in order to get two dives in before the wind/waves get up; didn’t work. The ride out to the dives sites was about 30-40 minutes but even at 7:00AM it was getting really rough with seas 3-4. The dive sites were all pretty similar with lots of hard coral heads among white sand. There was a gradual slope out to deeper water but our max depth was 78’. The coral appeared to be in good shape and home to a variety of eels. The wind and waves limited visibility to about 40’ and even that made the water murky. I did not see the variety of fish life that I expected in Hawaii but it could have been due to the limited visibility. The star attraction was the green sea turtles. On one large area of coral we counted 8-10 of the 300+lb turtles. It was amazing and made the trip worthwhile. My only criticism of the dive operation was the boarding ladder. It was very narrow (14”-18”) and not permanently mounted to the boat. There are not any rails so the only way to ascend is to climb the rungs. At the boat, the diver boarding hands his/her fins up and then tries to tame the bucking ladder. The ladder is made of PVC so it floats. One has to get their feet on the ladder, in full gear, while the boat is rocking in the high seas. One lady was having so much difficulty that the captain finally grabbed her by the yoke and set her on the swim platform. Even the young, very fit guys, commented on how hard it was to get up the ladder. With the rough seas more the rule than the exception, Capt. Tim needs to improve his boarding ladder. Overall, my wife and I enjoyed Molokai. The island is beautiful. The topography varies from almost desert on the West end, <12 inches of rain p/yr., to mountain peaks rising to 5000 ft. on the East end (>200 inches of rain p/yr.). Do not be disillusioned if the plane approaches from the west. The island is not as barren as it looks. The water and scenery is what makes Hawaii, Hawaii. Molokai has a lot of history, beaches and natural formations. But due to the anti-tourist sentiment these are not promoted or even marked.
Websites	Molokai Fish and Dive
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	All over the Caribbean, Mexico, Socorro islands, Gulf of Mexico, Florida
Closest Airport	Molokai	Getting There	Fly into either Oahu or Maui and take a flight over on Mokulele airlines. It is about a 30 minute flight on a 10 seater plane.
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-50 Ft/ 12-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Dives were guided with two dive guides. Dives lasted about an hour. I am guessing that we had two guides for a group of 4 so if one of us ran low on air the other guide could take that person to the surface and the rest of the group continue.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Ms Lynda Durfee in VA, US at Oct 18, 2019 21:30 EST

FYI, if you want to dive off Molokai, you're better off staying on Maui near Lahaina and taking Lahaina Divers Tues or Fri trips to see the hammerheads off Molokai. Challenging trip for advanced divers, but a MUCH bigger boat, and you can book other days to Lanai, which is best diving in the Maui area.

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Dive Review of Molokai Fish and Dive/WaveCrest Condos in Hawaii/Molokai

Molokai Fish and Dive/WaveCrest Condos: "Outsiders", Sep, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Molokai Fish and Dive/WaveCrest Condos in
Hawaii/Molokai