Journey to Lanai

Today we took a trip via
catamaran to the island of Lanai. We didn’t actually do much sailing (since
it wasn’t windy) but it was still a fun ride. Once there we started with
some snorkeling (pics to come) and laying around on the beach. Then we took
a tour of the island — there isn’t much to see. Lanai was once the pineapple
capital of the world and now they grow nothing at all — Dole bailed out a
few decades ago. Lanai is the polar opposite of Maui: no high-rises, no fancy
restaurants, few paved roads, etc.

The highlight of the trip was on the way back. We saw whales, and plenty of
them. At one point a humpback whale came out of the water right next to our
boat, and it was awe-inspiring. In fact, I was so caught up in the moment that
I didn’t actually get any photos of it. We had plenty of other humpback sightings,
plus there were pilot whales around as well.

Click the link below for pictures from the day. I’ll save the underwater shots
for a separate entry.

Captain Owen explains the rules and tells us about our trip to Lanai

And off we go…

Lahaina starts to disappear

Whale spout!

Blurry whale tail! You can see what the camera focused on here. These are humpbacks,
by the way.

The Island of Lanai

Caves

Big cliffs

Hulopoe beach with the Four Seasons at Manele Bay in the background

Lanai is old Hawaii. No stoplights, no fast food, nothing.

They have plenty of cool plants, of course

Our ride

Hoisting the sails… though we ended up only sailing for 5 minutes or so

Artsy shot

A pilot whale!

Humpback tail

Sunset over Lanai

The sun fades away into the clouds