Maui - Day 6 of the cruise

Our port of call on Tuesday was Lahaina, Maui. We have been to Maui 3 times over previous years so feel we have pretty much covered the island. One thing we had not done was to go snorkeling at Molokini, a crescent shaped island off Maui's shore. It is the very top of an extinct volcano and is known for is great coral reef and tropical fish.

Lahaina is a tender port, which means we anchored off shore and had to take little boats from the ship to the dock. Since we arranged this excursion through the ship, our group was one of the first to tender into shore, where we then met the boat that would take us over to Molokini. It was about a 45 minute boat ride to reach our snorkeling spot. The water was clear and the coral was pretty but the fish were quite sparse. I did get a fairly good picture of a nice yellow fish. A couple we met said that they have noticed over the last 20 years that the ocean fish have really dwindled in numbers.

Molokini

Terry ready to snorkel

After the snorkeling at Molokini, we headed over to an area where endangered sea turtles are apt to be found. In the water we went again and immediately spotted turtles! There were about a dozen of them that took to the bottom of the ocean as all the snorkelers floated above. Since the camera battery was running low, we opted not to take the camera in the water with us; too bad, as we were positioned just above the turtles and could have taken some good photos. The turtles would ascend every once in awhile for a breath of air and at times, we were within 5 feet of the turtle. Once we were back on the boat, we got a photo of a turtle that surfaced near us.

After the snorkeling trip, we walked around the town of Lahaina for a bit before tendering back to the ship. Lahaina is a quaint, New England-style town that was once the whaling capital of the Yankee Pacific fleet.

Oh, we did see a whale breach while on the snorkel boat, in addition to lots of flying fish that would jump out of the water and 'fly' for 10-15 yards at a time as the boat sailed by.

The 2 days in Hawaii were busy ones and very enjoyable. We stocked up on more sunblock as our supply was already dwindling and we have a lot of sunny South Pacific ahead of us. We now have 4 days at sea as we head south easterly to our next ports in French Polynesia.