Day 9: Snorkeling, Whales, Sea Turtles…Oh My!

The sun was up and shining first thing, and we were delighted! The 5-hour snorkeling/whale watching ‘tour’ was everything we’d hoped for and more. First, I carefully chose the tour that best mapped to our personalities – a smaller catamaran that holds just 38 guests, whereas most of the tours hold 100. It also visited Turtle Point instead of Molokai Island, so instead of 10 boats with 100 people (re:1000 snorkeling neighbors), we had our boat, which today only had about 25 people aboard. The boat departed at 8 a.m.

We headed out and saw humpback whales within minutes – about 5-6 of them in this particular group. Throughout the day, there were more and more – some breaching 100% (that’s whale-speak for Shamu-like-up-outta-da-water jumping!). We saw a calf who was just a couple weeks old and still very translucent gray hopping in and out of the water. They are majestic creatures and it was amazing to be so close!

Once we reached Turtle Point, we were in the water within 10 minutes and as soon as our masks hit the water, the show was spectacular! The coral alone was worth the trip, but add in the copious species of fish, and of course, the green sea turtles (who were HUGE!) and we were feeling true bang for our buck. After about an hour, we went in and had a nice buffet lunch, and then jumped back in for one more whirl before heading back. More and more whales on the way home…

The crew was so nice, the food was good, the other passengers (the biggest variable in these things, imho), were really cool people. We had fun, and mostly kept to ourselves because there was plenty of room to do so.

After we hit the pool and enjoyed the sunshine since we seem to never know what tomorrow will bring!

Tomorrow we are debating the ridiculously early rise of 3 a.m. to head out to see the sunrise over Haleakala, a must-see as told by oh, almost everyone I know whose done it. We may save it for next time…or not. Tomorrow night is our last big fancy dinner out to celebrate Jill’s approaching birthday at Mama’s Fish House, lauded as the best seafood restaurant on the island, and by some accounts, in all of Hawaii. Should be a lovely last day!

We ended today with another sushi dinner with Todd & Tanya, great, amazing fish here! YUM!