Dec 7: Whale Watching!

This morning we drove south to Lahaina again to board the Maui Princess


for a 2 hour whale watching tour, with "guaranteed whales" (not sure how they sealed that deal with the whales).  The humpback whale sighting season here is Dec-Apr, with the peak Jan-Mar.  The whales come down from the northern Alaskan waters to warmer waters around Hawaii, Baja, even the Sea of Japan, for mating purposes only.  There is little nutrient value in the water (which is why the water is so blue), whereas the green waters around Alaska are full of the plankton that the whales eat tons of every day.  Supposedly about 1,000 whales are in the waters between Lanai, Molokai, and Maui during peak season.

Anyway, we saw whales, probably about 10 of them, mostly just spouts (breathing out when they come to the surface), their backs, and their tails as they went back down...no spectacular "breaches" when they come clear out of the water.  Here are some assorted photos, the whales do not come to the surface at predictable locations or times, so didn't get a lot of good ones.  The crew said these were probably young males.  The humpbacks can grow up to about 80 feet long.





The view looking back at the Maui coast was beautiful








We drove back to the condo, picking up some takeout at the Times Supermarket (the Friday Steak Plate Special was amazing!), rested a bit, then headed for Kaanapali Beach and since the waves were a lot less dangerous today, we did some snorkeling (the new snorkeling gear worked well), seeing probably a dozen different types of fish plus a couple of sea turtles about 3 feet long.






We saw an outrigger canoe club take their canoes out for some practice rowing (looked like too much work to me)






We returned to the condo to observe the sunset...seems like that's a ritual for about half the condo occupants











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