Dave and Jada's Maui Honeymoon Travellogue:
Day 3 - Sunday August 6, 2000
Congratulate us! It is our 1 week anniversary, and we are still happy. Hooray!
Of course, I challenged that happiness this morning with one of my typical boneheaded moves. Today was the day that we were to get up early to go on a cruise from Lahaina to the submerged crater of Molokini...or so we thought. Oh, we made it to Lahaina in plenty of time. We were to start boarding the Trilogy V at 6.15am from the Ma'alaea Harbor in, what we thought, was Lahaina. However, After driving almost all the way through town, I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions only to find out that we had actually passed the harbor 30 minutes ago in the darkness. It was now 5.35am. After jumping back in the car and getting underway, and many words of encouragement from my lovely wife, I headed back the way we had come on highway 30 only exceeding the speed limit a little bit. We managed to hit the harbor at 6.00am almost exactly.
Boarding the Trilogy V, a nice catamaran, occurred right around 6.15am under the guidance of our captain, Captain Freddie. I never asked him, but he looked more than a little bit like a younger version of Jimmy Buffett, and he was from Alabama. I'm bettin' he's a Parrothead. He and the crew were extremely nice and friendly.
After checking in, we had to leave our shoes at the dock. I'm not sure why exactly, other than the fact that we didn't need them on the boat, and that is just one more thing to clutter the deck. All told there were 55 people on board. The boat didn't seem too full though. Underway, it took approx. 1 hour to reach the crater of Molokini. In the process we got to watch the sun rise over Haleakala. We went out under power so we could reach the crater more quickly, and the tradewinds were a little too calm.
Upon arriving, I got a quick refresher on snorkeling since I haven't done it since high school. Then it was into the water. I was a bit worried at first because of my asthma, but I made a conscious effort to not force my breathing and be a calm, and I was fine. When I got out into the water, it was nice and warm. I turned to wave at Jada for a picture like a 12 year old kid trying to get his mom's attention. Then I went about investigating the coral and fish in the area. The boat was anchored out where the water was about 25 feet deep and got more shallow as it got closer to the crater. It was incredible just floating in the water watching the fish just come right up to you to see what was up. They didn't have any fear of humans unless you thrashed too much or swam too fast. The sudden movements scared them, and moving too fast made them think that you were a predator. One of guides had seen a shark on a scuba dive near there recently, and she was still psyched about it.
Black Triggerfish were the ones that came closest to me. They seemed to stay right up near the surface. I was swimming next to a school of them. They are really neat up close with their scales. There were fish that looked just like a Nike running shoe that I had seen before. I'm not sure what kind of fish it was, but I think it may have been a saddle wrasse. I also saw schools of Pennant butterfly fish, longnose butterfly fish, ornate butterfly fish, raccoon butterfly fish, milletseed butterfly fish, a spotted boxfish, potter's angelfish, and a few chubs.
I only stayed out for about 30 minutes because my nose started to pinch too much in the mask, and it was giving me a headache. But it was enough. Shortly we collected the rest of the people and headed around the crater and to our next dive spot near Wailea beach to see the sea turtles. Luckily there was one right near the boat, but due to the strong current there, we moved a little farther up. However, we found another one there and just watched it until it came up for air and to sun itself. You aren't allowed to get too close to sea turtles in Hawaii. There is a $25k fine for harassing sea turtles, and that includes getting too close. It was really cool to see one swim up to the top to grab some air, and then pull itself back down. I stayed around there for a little longer, but then lunch was served on the boat. BBQ chicken with corn on the cob and salad. It was good. They grilled it right there on the boat on a small grill at the stern.
Then it was back to dock under the power of the wind. Being on a sail boat is really cool when the wind hits that sail for the first time, and it just opens full. The winds weren't all that strong, but we were still moving at a pretty good clip. The winds died down though, so we went the rest of the way to the dock under power.
I kept re-applying sun-block all day, but I still got burned. Not as bad as Jada did though. Because she didn't go into the water at all (it feels claustrophobic to her with the mask and tube which I totally understand because I've panicked under water before) she didn't feel she had to re-apply her sunscreen all that often. Wrong. We both learned a lesson today. Re-apply sunscreen constantly, and always pack aloe-vera.
After the boat ride, we stopped in Kahului for groceries on the way home. We paid reasonable prices compared to the other "convenience" stores located closer to our place. Then we came home and showered. I fell asleep almost immediately. It was only 2pm too. I woke up just before 5pm. We had a frozen pizza for dinner, did some laundry, and sat outside for our second sunset of the trip. We still haven't turned on the TV yet. Every night at 7pm we just watch the sun go down. We write in our logs, and/or read, and then go to bed.
Tomorrow's agenda consists of some hiking on Haleakala and maybe in the Iao valley. No set time to wake up tomorrow.