MAUI: Wednesday, January 13

VERY EARLY MORNING

Some of us go on the 6:30 AM small boat tour to look for humpback whales.  This is true devotion to witnessing everything possible, regardless of the suffering entailed.  But Un-Cruise provides us with travel mugs for coffee to have in the skiff so there’s really not much suffering.  

We watch for these big marine mammals in the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.   These are West Coast humpback, traveling from Alaska to Hawaii.  Marguerite and I had seen the East Coast guys off of Bulls Bay, Newfoundland.

 

 

We see a baby whale (which looks plenty big to me), joined by its mother.  Mitch brings a yellow box from which he extracts a microphone on a long cord.   When he lowers this into the water, we hear whale songs!  Only the males sing but the sounds travel about a mile under water so those males may be far from us.  (In a week or so I'll post a video including their songs.)

 

 

 Canoers on outriggers are already out there.  Rowing is a popular P.E. course in Hawaiian high school.  Andrew and Brian (born and raised in Hawaii) also took scuba as a high school course.  

 

 

Our Captain

 When we come back to the boat for breakfast, our Captain greets us with a startling shirt.  It looks like he’s about to be strangled by an octopus.  Other crew have told us what a great guy he is cause when he can, he helps out anywhere, like meeting our skiff and getting us safely on the yacht.

 

 

Deep Water - See Person Down There?

 After breakfast we go snorkeling in deeper water in a different location: Mala Bay.  I still wear my sissy waist belt and fins (which I detest).  I just can’t get the hang of moving myself gracefully through the water with those big floppy yellow foot extensions but everyone says I need them.  I exit the skiff fairly easily and begin exploring.  There are long rectangular shapes of some sort, piled haphazardly on top of each other.  Some sort of wreck?  The bottom is much farther away from me on this trip.

Andrew swims over and gives me a collector sea urchin, which moves ever so gently in my hand; it feels soft in spite of the spiny look. 

Andrew Showing Urchin

 

 

 And here comes a green sea turtle in amongst the sergeant-majors.  

 

 

I see about six turtles all told.

I love the casual way they move.  

 

 

A platoon of goat fish swim far below me.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many yellow tangs brighten the drab ocean floor.  

 I begin to get chilly after 45 minutes; Steven (a real cutie and super nice person) welcomes me on board.   I climb in more gracefully this time.  My underwater camera still has ocean drops on it.

Steven gives me the OK to photograph his tattoo.

Seared tuna (i.e., barely cooked) is on our lunch plate along with hard-boiled eggs and string beans, all flavored beautifully.  From 12-3, we cruise around, whale-watching.  Midway through the meal people near the windows yell out:  “Whale, breaching!”  All the people in front of me race to the windows to look.  I see nothing, not even the window.  I hope we’ll see others later, but we don’t.  I console myself with memories of the humpbacks which came within 10 feet of our boat in Newfoundland waters.  

 On the way up to my room I talk for awhile with a crew member who is learning how to carve on coconut shell.  Two other crew use free time to play guitar.  They sign up for six-week sets, working 12 hours/day.  Hourly wage-earners, mostly, with no sick benefits.  Plenty of adventures, though.  I sure wish I had sought out adventures on the sea when I was young.   But having stable jobs with benefits (especially retirement) make it possible for me to be out here now…

 At 3 PM I’m on a skiff heading for Lahaina, a small touristy area.  I’m hoping there will be an internet cafe so I can send another blog entry up and out.  Two others join me in that search. 

I Got the Tropical Schmopical

  At a coffee place near the dock, we find one where we need to buy $5 worth of some beverage to access the internet.  No problem.  Our yacht had no wi-fi.  Supposedly there’s a way to load AT&T on my laptop.  I’ll look into that for the future.

 At water’s edge is a renovated version of the first ever lighthouse in all of Hawaii.  Originally only  nine 9 feet tall, that was apparently tall enough at the time.  In 1866 they grew it to 26 feet, lit by whale oil.

Nearby is a huge banyan tree, covering one full acre; planted in 1873.

I take the 5:00 PM skiff back to the yacht.  There’s always happy hour before dinner.  Open (free) bar plus appetizers.

I am very interested in Mitch’s talk about Wa’a culture.  He tells us how the original people came to Hawaii.  And how young people are learning old ways, following the stars, using outrigger canoes. 

Original canoes had sails woven from plant material.  The Hokulea, which is now traveling completely around the world using old ways, found canvas sails were needed.

Mitch is proud to have sailed on it awhile back.  Cramped sleeping quarters, he said, but very exciting to see first hand what marvelous sailors the original Polynesians had been.

One of our group bought a flower to wear in her hair; she looks very fetching.  Some folks sort of dressed up for dinner.  For special occasions, I wear my black t-shirt with the white design of a Viking ship.

After dinner we sail for Honomalino Bay on Hawai’i Island (a.k.a. The Big Island).