Oh Whale!

I stole that title from a friend of Rick's. He lives on Maui and makes videos that he posts on youtube, then links them to facebook. Thanks Steve!

Per Sarah's request I'm getting my whale watching adventure blogged - thanks for the kick in the pants, Sarah!

I went on the Blue Dolphin tour located at Port Arthur, along with most of the other Na Pali, Niihau, snorkeling and other whale watching tours. In '04 we went on a Holo Holo tour to the Na Pali coast. Then, like this trip, the sea was particularly calm, making for a very enjoyable cruise on one of their large catamarans.

It was a cloudy day, just warm enough for shorts but I brought my sweatshirt along just in case it got cooler on the boat.  Having been on a "barefoot cruise" before I knew that we'd be surrendering our shoes on the dock so I bedecked my common flip-flops with yarn bows so I could identify them upon our return. I planned it all perfectly! First I sat on my sweatshirt because the boat had been rained on, then, as soon as we picked up a little speed I put it on and was the perfect temperature!

As we were leaving the port the captain told us to start looking, the whales were visible from there. So we started and didn't see much until we finally spotted a pod. After watching the pod for a while we determined that there were probably at least 6 or 7 whales in it. 


We headed southward toward Poipu and saw more and more whales and groups of whales. We would sit quietly in the ocean, watching and listening to their spouting. For a few minutes the captain activated a mic of some sort and we listened to their songs. He said if you're snorkeling you can hear them.  A great deal of the time we were surrounded, although, for the most part, not closely. I know at least twice there was jumping going on but both times I was fixed on the wrong group of whales! I tended to stick to the larger groups.

As we watched we learned their routine: first they spout, then you see their "hump", then, if they're going to dive, you can see their tail. And usually when they dove they arched their back very tightly.  I have one here that I caught through the whole thing, from just after he (or she?) spouted, then brought his nose out, you can see his whole back, he arches, then dives and his tail emerges:




So our 3 hour tour (gasp! I didn't bring my trunk full of evening gowns!) was done and over with quickly. We all had a great time. At one point, during sunset, when the crew was passing out the champagne, I remember soaking the whole thing in and totally enjoying it all - the sunset, the temperature, the boat softly rocking, the whales spouting and Jack Johnson playing on the intercom! It was perfect!

For a cloudy day the sunset was spectacular, just enough open sky!