The Hawaii Cruise, Part II

Anchored off the coast of Lahaina, Maui, with tender operations underway.

[Note: If you didn't read Part I yet, you can read it here.]

We arrived in Lahaina, Maui the next morning. Helga was still recovering and I was feeling a bit tired. Still, Maui was going to be the best chance to get in the water and swim with the fishes, just about my favorite thing to do. Helga decided she wouldn't be getting in the water, but she was happy to sit on the beach while I was swimming. We decided to take a walk about a mile up the coast from the center of Lahaina to Mala boat ramp and pier. It is supposed to be a great place to see turtles.

A tender from Grand Princess arriving in Lahaina

We had a nice walk up the coast and arrived at a stretch of beach near where I wanted to go snorkeling.  Mala Pier isn't that big anymore, but it used to extend about a quarter mile out into the water. The abandoned portion that exists only underwater has become a cleaning station for sea turtles. The turtles being cleaned are settled on the bottom, but there are always lots of turtles coming and going.

Mala Pier

The round trip swim out to the turtle turtle cleaning site is about a half mile, so I decided to do a warm up swim in the very shallow water  right by the beach. The visibility wasn't that good , but there was lots to see even in the very shallow water.

After getting a feel for the water movement in the area and the surface chop (it was windy), I was comfortable making the half mile swim out to the turtle cleaning area. I swam out through a pretty strong sideways current but made it out to the cleaning area. There I was rewarded by some great turtle company. They have to come up from the bottom, periodically, to breath.

Just after taking a couple of breaths at the surface

Headed back to the bottom, presumably to continue with the cleaning.

 Except for the turtles at the surface, the photo opportunities weren't so good since my abilities to swim down from the surface holding my breath and having decent bottom time aren't what they used to be. I envied the groups of scuba divers there swimming around on the bottom. Eventually I got pretty tired swimming hard to stay over the cleaning station due to the current, and headed back in.

I was beyond tired by the time I dragged myself back up on the beach. I felt more than just tired, I felt a little sick. How was it I was catching Helga's sinus infection? We walked back in to town, caught a tender back to the ship, I took a long hot shower and we skipped dinner. We just didn't have it in us to walk there. Visiting the turtles was physically challenging, but it was worth it.

The magic of cruise ships is that you go to bed anchored off Maui, and the next morning you wake up and have breakfast in Hilo, on the island of Hawaii. When someone else is driving, you don't even have to stand watches.

Hilo itself didn't make a great impression on us, but it's OK. The dock there is in a commercial/industrial area, but just a short walk away was Liliuokalani Gardens. It was nice for a short walk.

Helga and I were both underwhelmed by our visit to Hilo. It's a nice spot but they haven't done much with it. We had that feeling, really, on all three of the islands we spent any time on. From a cruise ship it's difficult to get out to the unspoiled areas in the limited time available at each stop. That's the biggest drawback to cruising. If we go back to Hawaii, it will be with specific plans to immerse ourselves in some particular natural setting. There really have to be some stunning areas in there that haven't been touristed to death yet.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Just a few days crossing the Pacific for a quick stop in Ensenada, Mexico to comply with the Jones Act, then one more day back to San Francisco, and back to our regular lives. Continued...