Maui Whales and Hilo Sunrise

On Wednesday, December 26 we anchored at the island of Maui in the harbour off the coast of Lahaina. Our mission, to see some whales. Six of the tenders, otherwise known as ship’s survival craft or life boats, were lowered into the sea as the ship came to its anchorage. They begin by transporting to shore the shelters and supplies to be used ashore, with that complete, passengers become the  cargo. Passengers on ship’s tours congregate at designated locations on the ship and are moved to the tenders in groups. Those passengers without tour reservations are expected to collect numbered tickets and board the tenders as they become available. This practice often gets unthinking passengers somewhat angry. Apparently they would prefer the chaos of a few thousand people fighting for queue space.

Since over one hundred of us were booked on the whale watching tour, two tenders were used. Those of us on the first tender waited ashore under the very warm Maui sun while the remainder came ashore. The tenders were operating on about a 10  minute interval which doesn’t seem like a long time, however, the sun made it feel much longer. Once everyone was ashore, boarding the tour boat was very swift and there was shelter from the heat.

It took about 20 minutes to travel to the area near Molokai where there always seem to be plenty of whales and this year was no exception. Waiting for the first whale to show itself seemed like forever. Suddenly, they were all around. We did not get as close to them as we sometimes have but there was plenty of activity and I managed to get a few photos worth posting. You should be able to find them in the collection displayed in the right hand sidebar near the bottom of this web page.

The return trip was quick and Gail used the afternoon to do some laundry. There are some tasks that are difficult to avoid even on vacation. A second batch of laundry was sent to the ship’s laundry service but that won’t return for a day or so.

On Thursday, December 27 we visit our last Hawaiian port, Hilo on the island of Hawaii in the state of Hawaii. Confusing? I’m sure that’s why it is more often referred to as simply “The Big Island”. While this is true at this point in history, the island of Maui was once much bigger. The islands now known as Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe were once a single island much larger than today’s “Big Island”. Over the millennia Maui has sunk and its valleys filled by the ocean. These valleys are now between 100 and 300 feet deep and very warm, probably the reason the humpbacks find it such an attractive birthing centre; that and perhaps the absence of predators.

As we sailed into Hilo I was up very early and managed to get a sequence of photos of the most spectacular sunrise so far. They too are posted for you to see. 

Assuming the ship’s internet shows no improvement on the return trip this may be the last of the photos I post until returning. I will likely be able to do a couple more text only posts. As I finish writing this we are getting ready to go ashore to find macadamia nuts and some free WiFi to upload the photos and post this to the journal. 

Our next stop will be in Ensenada on January 2 so we will wish you a Happy New Year in advance.

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