Thursday 13th February
A welcome lie-in and a late breakfast today as we are back at sea for the start of the latest of our longer sea legs to Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango). Another day under the influence of that long lazy Pacific Ocean swell. Even with the strongest will power it is impossible to stop your eyelids closing after a few moments sitting down, which is a problem when you go to a talk in the theatre unless the speaker is good and the subject interesting which TV Producer Dale Templar’s was. She worked on the BBC’S series Planet Earth, Frozen Earth and Human Planet and she was talking about and showing examples of production secrets and techniques used in capturing some of the stunning images in these series. Later I went to a talk by Aldon Ferguson on the impact on the UK of the American GI during WWII, it was interesting to hear some of the comments in the audience from both the Brits and the Americans. That aspect of WWII obviously still stirs old emotions in people affected. His next talk is on the history of the Eagle Squadrons, volunteer Americans who came over to fight prior to America entering the war.
Wednesday 12th February
We sailed from Honolulu at midnight, too late for me to stay up to see how the captain extricated the ship from its wedged in position, as we wanted to be up early in anticipation of our arrival at Lahaina on the island of Maui a short 104 nautical miles from Honolulu, this is the place where all the whales congregate for the annual whale equivalent of a rut, except the fighting amongst the male whales is for the privilege of a single female, who it turns out makes the final choice in the end anyway. (It’s the same the world over!). It’s also here that the majority of the females’ calf so hopes were high as we got our breakfast. The first shades of grey were just beginning to show behind the mountains as we took a seat next to a window. The sea was flat calm with barely a ripple, ideal for whale watching as your eyes don’t get distracted by a breaking waves. We didn’t have to wait long. As daylight began to exert its influence we started to see spouts right across the bay shooting up like coordinated fountains you sometimes see in town centres. You could almost imagine the scene below as males sharply exhale whilst shadow boxing, ready for the days fighting. Within just a few minutes we began to see the odd long distinctive fin describe a lazy arc before disappearing again followed by that huge distinctive hump. So slowly were these manoeuvres executed that they created hardly a ripple, in fact they seem to leave a mirror surface in their wake. As the sun rose above the peninsular the activity across the bay started to intensify, it seemed that everywhere we looked there were whales. Flukes were now appearing and cracking down hard on the surface and across the Lido we could hear shouts from other tables as they spotted different whales. Some of the more aggressive males were slapping the surface repeatedly, seven, eight and more slaps, one after the other as if in a competition on who could make the biggest splash. Some were breaching in their attempts to impress. It was impossible to tear our eyes away even to eat breakfast in case we missed something. I found myself dipping my fingers in my tea or my egg whilst blindly groping for toast and still not glancing down to find it. Incredibly amongst all the action we spotted dolphins leaping as if caught up in all the excitement. It seemed at times that that we were watching a show put on for us while we had breakfast, rather than nature in the raw. Gradually as the sun climbed higher in the sky the initial frenzy of activity slowed, but despite that, wherever we looked we could still see an odd plume, tail or hump across the bay, we could see why this channel off the coast of Lahaina is considered one of the best places in the world to see Humpback whales. But we needed to go as we were now anchored and due ashore to explore the interior of Maui.
Our destination, The Lao Valley followed by the Maui Tropical Plantation. As we are taken ashore in the tender the approaching island landscape is reminiscent of the north banks of the Clyde, not at all what we were expecting, but then we were to find that the island Maui has many faces. We boarded our coach that would take us up into the Lao Valley and followed the coast road round the bay where our driver seemed more excited by the whales than we were. He yelled out every time he saw one, to such an extent I hoped he was at least keeping one eye on the road, remembering my attempts at finding toast at breakfast. After about an hour we turned inland and before long were approaching the mouth of the Lao Valley. Actually valley is not quite the name I would give it as it’s more of a gorge with near vertical sides towering high above us. Almost immediately the landscape changes from countryside that could be mistaken for somewhere in the UK to lush tropical Rain Forest. The climate is reason that the island has so many different landscapes. There are no extremes of heat, temperature is a steady 24°C (75°F) day and night, varying no more than a degree or so throughout the year and there are no monsoons. Even though we are close to the equator the cooling effect of the trade winds spare it from the extreme heat of the sun. Rainfall is an average of 70 inches a year on the island but in the Lao Valley this rises to over 400 inches as the moist Pacific air is funnelled into the wide mouth at its base, higher & higher and narrower & narrower to over three thousand feet where it meets the cooler air and releases its moisture creating a tropical micro climate for its entire length of the valley. Right at the bottom is a raging torrent of a river that has over the years carved this extremely deep gorge (and provides most of the islands drinking water). We drove as far up the valley as we could and when couldn’t drive any further we parked and got out. At this point we had the option of climbing the final hundred feet or so on foot, or descending down to the source of the river, we decided to climb the staircase. About 120 steps higher and we were as far up the valley as it was possible to get and as we looked up, still the valley sides towered above us thousands of feet shear cliff faces unbelievably covered in lush plants. How they managed to cling to these vertical surfaces let alone manage to thrive was unbelievable. Any way we tracked back down to the coach and as we had time, we decided to descend to the river as well. The temperature at this height was a very pleasant 23°C and as we were under trees which shielded us from the spectacular cliffs above us, we could easily be anywhere. (There will be photo’s if and when we can get them back to Paul). The journey back through the valley was just as spectacular as this time we were staring down through the gorge from above, but as always the trip back was faster. As we then made our way to the Maui tropical plantation we passed along a shallow valley in the lowlands of Lahaina where long horn cattle were grazing and the rolling hills on the other side looked just like the Penines, even down to the dry stone walls (though in this case they were built from chunks of lava). The plantation was a revelation, it seems anything will grow here, with constant temperature day and night, plenty of rainfall and rich volcanic soil providing all the nutrients. We took a tractor train around the plantation passing, pineapple groves (each plant grows, produces one pineapple, then dies) mango trees (a mango can be different things during its ripening process, vegetable early, fruit when riper and medicinal later), coconut (no explanation needed other than that the sterile liquid inside the nut has been used as a substitute for plasma in emergencies). Pecan nuts. Miniature bananas (again, one plant, one bunch & dies). Coffee, herbal teas and rows of every herb under the sun not mention conventional fruits like strawberries that grow all year round. Oh and I forgot to say, because of the fertility of the soil and the climate, crops are bumper and as a bonus everything is organic so their produce command a premium on world markets. We sampled their speciality mango and pecan ice cream, butter not milk based, and then set off back along the coast road and yes the whales were still there battling it out. Our driver pointed out people sitting on folding chairs on the cliffs between us and the sea. Their job? Counting whales! The various whale foundations around the world pay them to count whales! How anyone can realistically count whales is beyond me, but it seemed like a cushy job. We got back to the little town of Lahaina where the tenders landed and had a walk round, Carol shopping, me scrolling for WiFi whilst I waited, until she saw that look which said can we go for a pint. So off we went back towards the quay where we happened to find the oldest pub on the island, The Pioneer Inn built in 1901 and guess what? They sold IPA! OK so it was Keg IPA and served in iced glasses, but it was good. Carol joined the queue opposite for a tender, I stayed to the last tender.
Back on board getting ready for dinner we raised anchor and sailed slowly and gingerly out through the whales still playing/fighting in the bay. We watched cameras ready and we were lucky, the ship sailed straight through a pod and I got a photo of mother and calf right below us, not a very clear one as they were under the surface, what a shame that what you can see clearly through the water, does not translate that well on a photo. Hopefully I will get it downloaded and Paul will post it. That’s it for today folks, tune in again for more news later.
