Maui Travel Journal-Wednesday

June 14, 2006

Up ay too early again, what is up with that. Will probably adjust to island time around the time to head home. Quick continental breakfast and off to Lahaina Harbor for our trip to Lana’i with Paragon. The boat arrived on time at 8:15am and we left the dock by 8:30am. The crew, Fritz, Bobby and Annabelle, all looked like they were Jeremy’s age. After motoring out into the channel, the crew raised the sails and we sailed for quite a bit. They even let a little boy steer the boat. We had beautiful weather and water conditions. I took about an hour and a half to get over to Lana’i. The coast of Lana’i is very rugged. We got to the snorkel sport right outside Manele Harbor but the water was brown and murkey due to runoff from all the wet weather they had over the winter. This gave us extra beach time at Hulopoe Beach. Capt. Fritz rounded the point and showed us the beach, he gave everyone water safety advice and explained where to swim and snorkel. There was a large beach break that the captain wanted to warn us about. The Manele Bay Hotel overlooks this beach. There was a large pod of spinner dolphins playing in the bay and they came right up to the boat to check us out. We headed back to the harbor to disembark with out picnic lunches. We walked over the hill to the beach passing a couple of wild turkeys along the way. We found a nice shady spot in the park to eat, and then headed to the beach. The water is beautiful there. We walked to some tide pools along the left side of the beach. It was neat to see smaller versions of the fish that we had seen while snorkeling. The island itself looks really desolate although we heard that Lana’i City is completely different than the area we were at. While the heat on Maui had been ‘oppressively hot’ the heat on Lana’i would have to be described as ‘hellish’ or ‘f-ing hot!’. Back on the boat by 1:40pm. Again we got out into the channel and the sails were raised. We hit some large swells on the way back and almost everyone was soaked. It was like being on a large version of Grizzly River Run at California Adventure, but of course way better. We were amazed at how warm the water was since it was deep. We thought the temperature would be cooler that the water at the beach. It was also a gorgeous shade of blue and very clear. Not like California water at all. Back in Lahaina by 3:45pm. Woo hoo, made it back to the parking lot before time ran out. This was a great way to spend the day. The crew was great, very funny and helpful. We would definitely go on a trip with them again but probably not to Lana’i. Did I mention how hot it was there? Got back to the hotel, showered and picked up our 50% off voucher for attending the TS presentation from the concierge. Went to Safeway for beer and grub. We ate dinner on the balcony and watched the clouds roll in over the mountains. I could get used to this. We were so tired after our long day that I think we fell asleep by 8.