My best friend Dan, on his first Hawaii trip, and I joined Aloha Scuba for their annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving event, hoping there wouldn't be another tsunami like last year. We arrived late, and ended up diving by ourselves at twilight. After we murdered our pumpkins, we leapt into the sandy, silty water and swam out to the "Second Bubblers" to do our carving. Pumpkins carved, we left them on display with the others and swam back toward the shore.

Or so we thought. While we carved, the surge swirled us around and around the bubbler. Neither of us noticed getting turned around, and neither of us knuckleheads thought to take a compass heading. We started following the pipe in the wrong direction. "This doesn't look right," I thought, but by then Dan had almost swum into the outflow.

Suitably chastened, we swam back to enjoy yummy BBQ. Further hijinks ensued as 13 of us got back in for the Haunted Night Dive. Last week's torrential rains had obliterated all the familiar landmarks with mud. Dave, the leader, led us safely out on a heading and back, but confessed he had no idea where we had been! None of us knew you could even get to 40' at Electric Beach!

• Gorgeous white anemone, 6" across
• Biiiiiiig trumpetfish
• 3" Hawaiian lionfish (rare)
• 7-, 8- and 9-arm starfish on sand