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1    Introduction & at-sea days
2    Lahaina
3    Nawiliwili
4    Honolulu
5    Kona
6    Hilo
7    Dining
8    Entertainment, days at-sea, Ensenada, & home
 
 

Lahaina

We pulled into the harbor in Lahaina, Maui at about 9 AM and dropped anchor.  This was our first stop, and the first of two which required us to be shuttled between the ship and the dock using the tenders.  In looking at the lifeboats, I noticed that 6 of them were dual hull and the balance were single hull boats.  I wondered about this until I saw them launch the tenders.  The 6 twin hull boats are the tenders, which also serve as lifeboats.  They are launched whenever the ship must anchor offshore due to limited dock facilities or inadequate depth of the harbor.  We had pre-booked a number of shore tours and were on a "waitlist" for 3 of them.  One of the waitlists was changed to "confirmed" prior to leaving Los Angeles.  A second one was cleared early in the cruise.  The remaining one was a whale watching tour on our first day of Hawaii in Lahaina.  Rosemarie said she was not too enthusiastic about this one, and if I could get just one place on the tour, that was OK.  I think they actually allowed me on as an overbook position, but I got my confirmation.
 

	The crew is in the process of launching one of the tenders.
A tender full of passengers is enroute to the dock at Lahaina.

I boarded the whale watching boat directly from the ship, just as others boarded the tenders, and we headed out to look for whales.  It was an easy assignment.  Whales were everywhere!  This is the peak time for the Humpback Whales who migrate between Alaska and Hawaii.  They come here to bear their young, and to raise them to the point where the calves are capable of swimming the thousands of miles back to Alsaka,  These are also the mating grounds.  Typically the whales feed heavily in Alaska, swim to Hawaii, and fast while in Hawaii.  A number of months later, they swim back to Alaska to repeat the cycle after losing about a third of their body weight.

The tour was spectacular!  We saw many whales breeching (jumping out of the water, then splashing down on the surface) and blowing mist upwards at about 300 mph.  This is the act of breathing out after surfacing.  We saw several mother and calf pairs, many of whom had an escort of a male whale, not necessarily the father of the calf.  Some of them came within 20 or 30 feet of the boat.  The mothers used to always keep themselves between their calfs and the boats, but lately have come to trust the boats completely and allow the calfs to approach the boats without them, although they are always nearby.  It was a wonderful couple of hours.  The boat then took us to the dock to let us off.
 

	A mother Humpback whale and her calf swim near the boat.
A whale breeching.
	Another spectacular breeching whale.  There are various theories why they do this.  Some say it is to knock off any parasites, others say it is to scratch their bellies, others say it is just for fun.  I believe the latter.
This is a tail shot, and usually indicates the animal is about to dive deep, and will not be seen again for 7 or 8 minutes, when they need to take another breath.  Whales are mammals, and need to breath air just like we do.  All the time underwater, they are holding their breath..
	We got a wonderful view of our ship from the whale watching boat.
The whale watching boat let us off at the end of the dock.  On the dock are stands for just about any type of tour or activity you might want.  This is where we went to board the boat for our submarine ride.
	The park across the street from the dock was beautiful and had some amazing trees.

While I was whale watching, Rosemarie took a city bus for $1 each way and had a 2 hour tour of the Lahina area.  We met on the dock in time to get something to eat, look into many of the shops along the dock, then make our time for our afternoon tour, "Atlantis Submarine Adventure".  We boarded a typical sightseeing boat which took us out to the bay where the submarine was operating.  There was a small tender which looked somewhat like "Tugboat Willy" which always stays in the area of the submarine, is in constant contact with it, and makes sure there is no surface traffic in the way when the submarine surfaces.  We watched the previous tour surface, then tie up to the tender.  We approached and tied up to the other side of the submarine.  The captain quipped that this was now the worlds largest "submarine sandwich".  We all moved to the front of the boat as passengers from the submarine climbed onto the stern.  As they unloaded, we stepped across onto the submarine and climbed down through a hatch to a ladder into the sub.  Inside were back to back seats down the center of the sub so we all were facing the outside walls whcih had many large round windows.  The windows were 3 inch thick plexiglas covered by safety glass to prevent scratching.

We gradually submerged to a depth of about 100 feet.  The sub is all electric with a positive bouyancy.  There are thrusters which drive it downward.  If anything were to happen to the drive system, the sub would float to the surface on its own.  The maximum speed is about 3 mph, which is why they use a transport boat and leave the sub in the harbor during the day.  We saw a lot of beautiful coral and the associated swarms of fish around the reefs.  At one point we saw a sunken ship which was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and a scuba diving destination (as well as an interesting view for the submarine.)  There were two scuba divers exploring the ship as we went by.  We submerged to a maximum depth of 130 feet.  The sub is designed for 300 feet and is certified to operate up to 150 feet below the surface.  It was a spectacular trip.
 

As we approached the submarine after it had surfaced from the previous tour, it was already tied to the tender.
	Inside the sub, you can see the captain and our tour director and a few of the passengers.  The red display over the tour director's head shows the depth.  Here we have just started submerging.
The coral reefs all had large amounts of fish.
	Here we see a Moray eel poking his head out of the coral.
When we got to the "shipwreck", we saw a couple of scuba divers also investigating it.
	I held my camera up and took a self portrait of us in the sub.  Do you like the Muai surfboard hat I bought on the ship.  I decided I needed one for when I was out in the sun.
After our sub ride, this is the line we found of people trying to get back to the ship.  We waited about an hour and a quarter.  Some people waited over 2 hours!

As we were returning to the dock on the transport boat we saw a very long line of people and were told that was the line waiting for tenders back to the ship!  We waited in line for about an hour and a quarter.  Some people waited two hours.  The problem was twofold:  First, the dock space is open to the public and the tenders had to share it with many whale watching boats and water taxies.  The second problem was what seemed like far more security measures than the situation required (my opinion and many others').  When we boarded the ship, after the required security measures, we were given a shipboard card.  This was used to identify us and was used for all on ship purchases.  Security required us to show this card along with a government issued picture identification.  This was reasonable.  They then had us turn over all our packages and pocket contents for search while we stood spread eagle and were wanded on the front, the turned around and repeated the process for a backside scan.  They again checked our credentials and allowed us to go to the tenders.  Every time we entered or left the ship, we scanned our card in a special machine which took our picture and allowed the operators to compare us with the original pictures.  This worked very well and allowed them an easy inventory of who had returned and who was still off board.  The ship's departure was delayed over an hour while the end of the line eventually made it back to the ship.

The cruise line apoligized for the long delay in re-boarding and stated that they had never run into that problem in the past, and would make sure it did not happen again.  Later at our only other stop where we were tendered, there was no delay reboarding.

We were aboard in plenty of time to relax a while before dinner.  We then went to dinner followed by the theater show.  I will talk more about these later.