Maui #7 - Captain John, Give Me a Hamburger Now!

This morning we were scheduled for a cruise to snorkel at Molokini, a submerged caldera with fabulous snorkelling. We had to be at the slip for the Four Winds II at 6:30 to check in. It's only a 20-minute drive, so we didn't have to get up too, too early. As we drove along, Hilary repeated for me the entire recipe for the Parmesan Chicken and Homemade Pasta that Chef Tracy had cooked with us yesterday. She remembered the entire thing!

When we reached the harbour, we had no trouble finding the slip and checked in. It was cold and windy, but the sun wasn't up yet. The crew was very friendly and lots of fun. Once we boarded, we lined up for breakfast - bagels and fresh fruit, juice and coffee. And soon the boat headed out into the bay.

Once we had quickly downed our breakfast, Hilary and I headed for the upper deck to watch for whales. The Four Winds II is a large catamaran style vessel. The lower deck is mostly indoors; the upper deck has a small central area with a sun shelter, and a larger open area. We sat right in front of the captain at the bow area. The seating is all bench seating, so sometimes you kind of slide around as the boat heaves and the wind blows. And, let me tell you, the wind did blow!

Ma'alaea Harbor, the home base of this ship, is the second windiest harbour in the world. As we headed south toward Molokini, the wind was whipping the entire bay into white caps. Even so, we almost immediately saw whales blowing and breaching not too far from us. This went on during the whole trip. None of them were extremely close, but they were close enough that we could see what they were doing. It was hard to get pictures of them because of the way the boat was bouncing around and because of the uneven sea, but we tried!

About five miles into our journey (took us about 40 minutes, I think), the captain announced that he'd been talking to other boat captains on the radio. The general consensus was that it was too rough for snorkelling at Molokini. How disappointing! Instead, the captain slowly turned the back toward the coast of Maui and headed for Coral Gardens, a coastal snorkelling area that would be sheltered from the wind.

As the ship turned, the crew warned us all to hang on to something. Hilary and I hung onto each other and stayed that way for the next half hour as we rode a roller coaster to the coast. The bouncing of the boat was amazing. We also were hit frequently with spray - so much for our dry clothes! It was exhilarating. I wondered if Hilary would be nervous. Nope. She just laughed into the teeth of the gale! The ship's rigging was wailing in the wind and the noise of the wind was so loud that, to talk to each other, we had to put our lips up to the other person's ear and yell. My biggest surprise was that I didn't get seasick. Bonus!

Coral Gardens is not too far from Ma'alaea Harbor and is in a small cove. It's difficult to reach except by boat, so the only snorkellers were from our boat and one other. Although it was sheltered, it wasn't unaffected by the wind. There was a strong current created by the wind and, once in the water, we had to keep an eye on where we were being blown by it.

In the water, we didn't have any trouble snorkelling. We wore bright yellow flotation belts that allowed us to just hang in the water without worrying or struggling to tread water. The water wasn't that warm and the wind cooled us quite a bit whenever we came out of the water, but the views under the water were spectacular. Coral Gardens is a large area with a huge variety of coral undulating across the sandy bottom. It's hard to tell how deep it was, but I would guess that it ranged between 10 and 20 feet.

There didn't seem to be a huge number of fish, but the ones there were gorgeous! We saw bright yellow fish, polka-dotted fish, striped fish, mottled fish, red fish, green fish, skinny fish, plump fish, everything you can imagine. The ship's videographer filmed us feeding the fish and he also got footage of a nearby sea turtle (which we missed seeing). It was a wonderful experience.

After about half an hour in the water, Hilary was cold so we headed back into the boat for some mid-morning lunch. Snorkelling makes you hungry! The captain was serving the burgers and, when Hilary reached the front of the line, he said, "Well, what would you like, Blue Eyes?"

Hilary very politely answered, "A hamburger, please."

"Now, is that any way to ask?" he said. Hilary just looked confused. What did this strange man want from her. (He rather looked like the 'Aaaghr, Jim' captain.)

The captain then instructed her, "When you ask me for food, I want you to say: 'Captain John. I want a hamburger. And I want a hamburger now!'"

Hilary grinned and - still politely - followed his instructions. Later, when she asked for a piece of grilled chicken, he still wanted her to ask for it his way, but she just couldn't.

We spent time in the water twice, but it was a little tiring to keep fighting the current. Hilary was pretty cold, too. So, we finally came back on board and had our great grilled chicken, just eating it with our fingers. It was so windy, even in the downstairs cabin (with the doors open), that there was serious risk of being hit by flying potato chips and paper plates. The food just didn't want to stay on the plates or the plates in the hand.

Eventually, the boat headed back toward the harbour. As we approached Ma'alaea, the captain slowly sailed around in the water outside the harbour. There we watched large sea turtles swimming by. They were amazing.

Although it was very disappointing not to make it to Molokini, we had a great morning. Hilary especially loved the wild boat ride.

As we headed home for some quality time in the hot tub, we listened to the Hawaiian music station we've had on in the car. Hilary's starting to sing along! As we reflected on the sounds of Hawaiian, she said, "If they speak Hawaiian here, why don't they have Hawaiian printed on things like cereal boxes? We have French on ours." A good question!

The rest of day we spent - of course! - shopping. We even went to Costco where we bought two gallon jugs of the juice we've been drinking ... a combination of orange, pineapple and guava. Delicious! We'd already drunk our way through two gallon jugs of the stuff.

I don't think there are any more highlights from today. I'm pretty tired from the wind, the sun and the water, but with a good night's sleep, I think we'll be ready for more snorkelling in the morning!

Aloha!