Oh. My. GOD.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Our snorking day started early, but when all was said and done we hit the water three hours late. This time it was engine trouble. The skipper took everyone to Starbucks (their treat), which killed some time, and Keri and I beachcombed a little. It was becoming obvious that this trip was not under our control! Robert (Moss) is fond of saying, "When things start to go off course the trickster is at work, so pay attention!" We'd already been rescheduled, and now this...? So, at 10:00 when we were finally in the boat, my radar was cranked and ready.

We were in a little hard-hulled pontoon boat like this one, 28' or so. Some people left the group before we took off, so our number was down to 8. Talk about individual attention! Chad and Debbie of Maui Oceanriders were our skippers, and quite possibly two of the nicest people on the planet. Keri and I found seats on a pontoon, grabbed the rope and off we went!

Due to our late start, the AuAu channel (between Maui and Lana'i) was choppier than it would have been early in the morning. The front of the boat came out of the water and smacked back down, making sitting on that pontoon a little like bull riding; part of me wanted to throw one hand up in the air and yell, "Eight seconds!"

During the crossing, I wouldn't doubt that I was broadcasting my desire to see a humpback to every cetacean in a 100-mile radius. I was a bit frantic and I knew it. Trying to focus, I cast about for any thought that might bring the whales. A song from dreamwork came to me, "Healer of all...come blessed one..." I changed it in my head to "Great humpback whale...come blessed one..." and sang it to myself.

About halfway across, Keri, bless her heart forever, called out, "Whale!" and pointed forward. Debbie confirmed, "About 11:00?" Yep, that was right. So she turned the boat in that direction and went in for a look, idling the motor when we reached the legal distance. Sure enough, a big spout (they blow at 300 mph) shot into the air a few hundred yards away and we all cheered. Then the whale's shiny hump glinted in the sunlight as it swam diagonally, in roughly our direction.

For a few seconds there was nothing. If you see a whale's tail, they've more than likely dived and won't surface again for 10-20 minutes or more. But when there's no tail it can be hard to tell where they've gone and where they'll surface. I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until I tried to gasp and couldn't—because there, right THERE was the whale, maybe 20 yards in front of us, close enough to see its eyes, breeching almost fully out of the water! For a split second, nobody moved. No cameras. No sound but the enormous SPLASH of water. Then everyone burst into exclamations and cheers of amazement. Then suddenly up came the whale, breeching again! BAM! Down into the water with a huge splash. Stunning. And just when we thought it must be over, UP came the shiny, barnacled body again and WHAM! a joyous sideways splash. The whale breeched a total of five times, then dived away. (note: the picture here isn't mine; I was paralyzed, remember? ;-> ) Words can't really describe it, so here's a link to a reasonable facsimile of what we saw. Picture it with a brilliantly blue sky and lots of happy people on deck...

We continued on and made our first snorking stop at Manele Bay, near where the Lana'i ferry drops you if you come across. I was only in the water for a couple of minutes before I got scared and came out. It was about 20' deep and the water was perfectly clear, but being in the actual ocean was overwhelming. Chad tried (very nicely) to coax me into going back, but I didn't. Keri saw a bunch of sleeping goatfish and a honu (sea turtle), so was very happy.

On our way to place #2 (no idea of the name, sorry), we ran into a pod of spinner dolphins, Chad and Debbie estimated about 150 of them. They were a little sleepy, but played around the boat and even jumped and spun a little. Debbie did donuts with the boat and they surfed in our wake, obviously loving it. Great fun to watch! And they were so close I could have put my hand in the water and touched them.

When we reached place #2, Chad coaxed me into the water, promising to hold onto the floaty thing (a life jacket, I think) and stay right with me. So, with him as a security blanket, I snorked! Saw parrotfish, Moorish Idols (kihikihi), humus (humuhumunukunukuapua'a...yes, really!) and milletseed fish. Chad pointed out an eel hidden in the coral, then dove to get a sea urchin to bring back to the boat. He later brought up another kind of sea urchin and a big multi-pointed starfish for us to hold. All were safely deposited back onto the reef before we left.

On our way back we stopped at Shark Fin Rock (on the right side of the picture). Debbie wisely didn't tell us the name until we got back into the boat! She laughed and promised that it was named "for the feature, not the creature!" Water was about 20' on the west side, then dropped off to 70'+ in front. Keri went with me this time. We saw more Idols, tons of triggerfish, and bright yellow tangs. (parrotfish, tang, and 2 triggerfish [dark blue/black] in the picture; don't know what that white guy in the middle is!) I came in after one trip to the end of the rock and back. Keri went out again and went to the deep part and saw what Chad called the "creamsicle" fish. I don't remember the real name, but they're orange and white and are usually found in 300' water except for here around Shark Fin, so it was quite a find to see them.

On the ride back, a pod of dolphins (very possibly the same pod we'd seen on the way out) came out of nowhere and surrounded us as we sped along. Great fun and lots of spinning!

Crossing the channel back to Maui we had to put raincoats on; it was so choppy that the boat was really getting tossed around and the spray was drenching. (But no, not as wet as Monsoon Monday.) We saw probably half a dozen whales, but all at a distance and no breeching. There were rainbows over Moloka'i and western Maui.

No one came away from this trip disappointed, least of all me! I'm glad Chad talked me into snorking, and thanks to that whale I can pretty much die happy.