Lahaina (on Maui) is such a fun spot! We have been enjoying it so much, we are going to try to come back while Gladys and Dan are with us - will totally depend on the weather. We got here on Friday (1-22) afternoon and hooked up to a free mooring offered by the Lahaina Yacht Club. We are amazed at how few marinas and anchorages there are in Hawaii. The marinas they have only hold 30-50 boats at the most, and they do not leave any spots for transient boats. The Lahaina yacht club, however, has a few moorings they put out in the bay and welcome cruisers to use them. They even gave us a free membership for the week - very nice! It is a short dinghy ride into the harbor and other than dodging all the cruise ship tenders and tour boats, its pretty easy to tie up to the dinghy dock to get ashore. The town is a fun mix of historic sites, restaurants, tourists shops, and art galleries. It was fun looking for spots mentioned by Dennis & Cathy who were just here, and also by Jenn & Jason and Ralph & Teresa who had honeymooned here on Maui. We've enjoyed wandering through as much as we could on foot - Glen's ankle is still a bit sore, so we have to pace ourselves! We look forward to seeing the rest of the island of Maui when we come back and rent a car.

The picture with this entry is of a huge banyan tree in "Banyan Tree Square." It is, in fact, the largest banyan tree in the USA! It was planted on April 24, 1873 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission built in Lahaina - at the request of Queen Keopuolani, sacred wife and widow of King Kamehameha the Great. The royal couple made Lahaina their home and "base" after he unified all of the islands. Anyhow, the tree has 16 trunks that have started from its aerial roots in addition to the original. It shades the entire park - almost an acre! Over the weekend we were there, a wonderful arts and craft sale was being held under its beautiful branches. The coral and lava blocks Glen is standing by are remnants from a fort that used to stand in this area. Lahaina was a dominant port for whalers from the 1820's through the 1860's. The whalers were apparently a bit rowdy, so a fort was built in 1832 to keep them in line. Each day at dusk a Hawaiian sentinel would beat a drum alerting the sailors to return to their ships. Those who didn't, were imprisoned in the fort! It was interesting learning so much about the history of the town and Hawaii while visiting. We also saw the flag that was flying here until 1898 - the year Hawaii was annexed and became an official US territory. The proclamation was signed in the courthouse in this same square (you can just see the corner of it in the picture!) Okay, okay, enough of the history... sorry!

The best thing about Lahaina for me was all the whales and turtles we saw. Glen says I became obsessed with watching them, but it was hard not to! You could just look out at any time and see a blow or splash. It's birthing and mating season for the gentle humpbacks, so they have made their way from Alaska to the warm waters here. The babies are so cute (although not so tiny!), and very frisky. They will breach over and over and over - the highest I counted was 8 times in a row! They also seem to enjoy smacking their tails over and over making big splashes. One morning, we were awakened by a big whhhh, whhhhh, whhhh. We ran topside to see 3 whales gliding right by the side of our boat. Another morning, while I was brushing my teeth, I glanced up out of the porthole to see a big tail slide into the water not far away. While exploring the coast a bit in Little Dot, we went out a ways to get a little closer look at these beauties. We know to stay a hundred yards away - proper whale watching etiquette, but someone forgot to tell the whales! We kept trying to turn farther out from their track, but they kept turning to come right at us. When I get pictures in the gallery, I have a great one of this humongous back just yards away from us! Right after that picture, we high tailed it out of there - they were getting a little too close for comfort. The turtles have been fun to watch also. They are a little more difficult to spot, but we have seen quite few while going in and out of the harbor. One was the biggest we've seen so far anywhere - he was being a bit of a poop though and wouldn't surface all the way for a picture!

Glen got his surfboard wet just outside the harbor in the "kiddie" waves. Lahaina has the perfect little spot for beginning surfers and there are several surf schools here - it was fun hearing this was the same spot Jenn and Jason took their lessons while on their honeymoon! It wasn't exactly what Glen wanted for waves, but was a good first time back out since hurting his ankle. He is really looking forward to something a little more exciting for "next time," though!

The water in the bay was almost glassy the first few days we were on the mooring, but on Monday night, the winds started howling and by Tuesday morning, the seas were stirred up as well. We were bouncing around pretty good and decided we shouldn't leave the boat under those conditions - there is a boat still laying up on the reef right outside the harbor that had broken loose from its mooring a few years ago. Although it wasn't a Lahaina Yacht Club mooring, we didn't want to take any chances. Besides, we would have been drenched trying to get the dinghy to the harbor anyway! While sitting topside playing out daily games of gin rummy and cribbage, we saw a little boat trying to make its way through the rough seas and get to a mooring ball. It wasn't doing so well and when they lost their boat hook trying to grab the mooring line, Glen went to yet another rescue! He took one of our spare lines and went over in the dinghy - he tied our line to the mooring line they were trying to pick up, then took the other end to them and threw it to them on their boat. They were then able to pull themselves up and get tied off. Their boat was a little McGregor (maybe 25 feet) and it was being tossed about like crazy. They left it on their private mooring and battled the seas in their dinghy to go home. We kept watch and were noticing their mast was really bowing to one side then the other as it was being whipped around. It didn't take much of that and the whole mast just snapped in two. What a horrible sight! We called the yacht club hoping maybe they were members and could be contacted, but no one there knew the owners. The harbor master wasn't in his office, so there was nothing else we could do. We rocked and rolled all night, but Wednesday morning was a little better and by the afternoon we were a bit stir crazy and made our way ashore for a bit of walking around. The winds kept switching directions and speed, but finally calmed enough for the seas to lay down. Thursday, we filled all of our jerry cans with diesel and did grocery shopping at the local "Sack N Save." We have gotten totally hooked on their Poke bar - kind of like a fish counter, but its all sorts of sashime / ceviche. We especially love the kim chee tako (octopus)-that Jerry had turned us on to in Hilo - makes a great dinner! :)

After checking the weather gribs, we left Lahaina on Friday morning to cross the Kalohi Channel to Moloka'i. We again hit it just right and had to motor the first couple of hours, then had a very nice sail the rest of the way to Kaunakakai. You can't believe all the whales along the way - we were along side a mama and baby for quite some time and mama showed Jr. how to do a breach that sounded like a giant belly flop! We hadn't heard one smack that hard before - we usually just hear the splash. It was really something and Jr. kept leaping and leaping just like mom - without the sound!

We are now anchored just inside the harbor at Kaunakakai. Everyone kept telling us Moloka'i is very different from the other islands - much more laid back and less touristy. While ashore yesterday (1-30) a man even told us Moloka'i is like a third world country! We've just begun to explore, but we can see that it's true - definitely not a tourist spot, but very pretty. More later after we've checked it out a little more!

Yikes! I keep blowing it! In our last entry, I meant to mention the great name for our new outboard came from Ray & Jean - with the proper spelling coming from his sister-in-law, Joyce, who lives on Oahu. Thank you so much - we totally love the meaning behind Ho'omali mali Kai! :)