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| A school of yellowtail swarm the hull of the Naked Lady on the bottom of Kailua Bay. |
Naked Lady is not your typical wreck dive. In fact, it's not even the real name of this 60-foot sailboat lying on the bottom of Kona's Kailua Bay.
Located on a white sand patch at 110 feet, the boat is upright, intact and swarming with marine life--from fairy basslets to whitetip sharks--after almost 10 years on the bottom. Visibility is usually 100 feet or more and there is virtually no current. "It's so pretty and kind of ghostly sitting there in the sand," says Teri Leicher of Jack's Diving Locker.
So where did the mystery boat come from and how did she acquire such an intriguing name? The vessel was at mooring inside the bay when, legend has it, the woman who lived on board decided to rid her boat of "little green men." The eradication process apparently involved a fire, which soon burned out of control, sinking the boat and forcing the woman to row a dinghy to shore--sans clothing. The fate of the woman, her identity and the boat's real name have all been lost to history, but the wreck remains as a little-known gem of Kona diving and a favorite of underwater photographers.
Dive It: Operators take divers to the Naked Lady as part of advanced charters or by special request. Contact Jack's Diving Locker, (800) 345-4807, www.jacksdivinglocker.com; Aloha Dive Company, (800) 708-5662, www.alohadive.com; or Kona Coast Divers, (800) 562-3483, www.konacoastdivers.com.
