Day 10 - Lahaina, Maui

Today we are anchored off the coast at Lahaina, Maui.  Lahaina is a old whaling port that has been restored and is very much a tourist town.  We had tickets for the second Whale Watching trip starting at 11:00am so we had a leisurely morning.

Our Whale watching tour was on one of the Triology catamarans so familiar in Hawaii.  We just walked from the tender landing around the corner and boarded.  We had already seen whales around the ship in the morning and one very close to the tender as we rode into the dock so we were hopeful for a good trip.

We stayed in the immediate vicinity of the ship between Maui and Lanai.  Early in the trip we saw a group of humpback whales that consisted of a large female with café and a male escort.  However, there was another boat there that kept getting between the whales and our boat.   One interesting thing about this group was that there were several Bottlenose Dolphins with them, including a baby dolphin.  After a little while, one of the passengers spotted another blow from a whale a little way off and the boat turned that way.

It was getting late in the trip (only 1.5 hours) when we really had a great sighting.  Again, it was a female, a calf and a male escort.  The female was huge; the crew estimated she was at least 50 feet long!  Boats are not allowed to approach closer than 150 feet but if the whales come towards you, you can stay.  And this group did just that.  They came right at the back of the boat where we had a great viewing of all three.  The female came right next to the boat right underneath were Fred was standing.  So we finished up our whale watching trip with a great viewing.

We stayed on shore and walked around Lahaina.   For some reason, Jan didn’t get the lens cap for the new camera (or she lost it), and we wanted to find one.   This time the Google Maps worked and located a camera store one block off on the main street.  We had a nice lunch at Lahaina Prime Rib and Fish Restaurant.

In the park right at the waterfront where the tenders were coming and going, there was a huge Banyan Tree that covered more than 2 acres.  Banyan trees put down new roots from their branches so what looked like a grove of trees were actually the one tree.  It shaded the entire park where a local art/crafts show was displayed.