Scotch Mist Sailing Adventure, Lahaina

     We have gone on a number of whale watching boat trips and can see the whales most of the time from our lanai.  Today we went on a sailing trip which also promised that we would see whales.  It's still windy and there were big rollers coming in on our beach.  We are both good on fairly choppy waters so I wasn't worried about sea sickness, just wonderied if it was too windy.

    We went to the Lahaina Harbor and found it to be less windy so we got our sunscreen, camera and sunglasses ready for an afternoon under sail.  The Scotch Mist is a 50' Santa Cruz yacht.   Captain Gene has been taking tourists out for sails since 1988.  We motored out of the harbor and then put up the two sails.  Suddenly it was quiet except for the sound of the water against the hull and the wind in the sails.   There were only about 20 folks on the boat so we found a comfortable spot and started to look for whales.  

    At first we saw whales everywhere except near us.  We enjoyed some cold drinks in the hot sun.  The captain started to play some Mozart, telling us that the whales like the music.  Suddenly one of the crew asked me if I could hear whale sounds, and I COULD!  We could hear the eerie singing of the whales.  The crew turned off the Mozart and we drifted along listening to the whale singing.  This is mating behavior and this is mating season.  It was amazing.  The singing stopped so we started moving again and I settled down to relax when I saw a HUGE whale leap out of the water just yards from the boat.  Anyone who spots a whale is supposed to say where so everyone can see it.  The captain said that i just sat there with my mouth hanging open and shouting but no real words came out.   Ah ah ah ahhhhh.

    Most of the folks only saw the last of the whale and were disappointed, but then another whale swam on the surface just in front of the bow.  Then it hung around flapping its tail for a bit.  It was just great.  We sailed more and saw more whales, although none as close.  We got back to the pier totally tired, hot and thrilled.  

    As we cooled down and ate dinner on our lanai we saw lots of whales.  We noticed one that stayed in the same spot in the relatively shallow water out from our beach.  It was in the same spot for almost an hour.  With binoculars we could see it was two whales, one large and one small.  They kept coming up and spouting and then going under a little ways. The Pacific Whale Foundation website describes this behavior as that of a mother and her young calf who needs to come up every 2 - 6 minutes.  It was so great.

    We finshed the day with a gorgeous sunset and some pineapple gelato.  A day to remember!