It was Friday. My last day on Maui. My last chance for that elusive photo. I’ve had a lot of fun on my whirlwind visit but I still don’t have that Breaching whale photo.
Photo By Anna Smith
I’ve got one more chance. My plane isn’t leaving until 6:30 pm so I have time for 1 more whale watch.
This time I switched my approach. The 3 previous whale watches were on good sized catamarans. Maybe the boats were intimidating the whales. We can’t chase or encroach on the animals. The boats can’t approach closer than 100 yards. Now that doesn’t prevent the huge mammals from coming close to the boats but that means we are leaving it up to the animals.
On one of the previous whale watching trips I’d spotted a tiny little boat that seemed to be attracting lots of attention from the whales. They were blowing and flipper slapping all around it. It was a pontoon raft style boat.
I found a flyer for Ocean Rafting and made sure I tracked them down in Lahaina Harbor. I got a spot on the 10 am trip.
I had a death grip on the captain as I stepped onto the pontoon to the boat. We had bench seats to start out. Once out of the harbor we could move to the pontoons if we so choose. Standing up was also ok.
Right away we saw action and the whales did come closer to the boat. Mostly we were looking at the wide backs as they cruised along with us.
It was a hazy day. Not the bright , sunny days we’d been having but the seas weren’t too rough. We did get splashed a few times as we flew over the water .
At one point a whale dove right in front of us. The captain brought us up to a stop and killed the engine. We all held our breaths and listened. We could hear the whale song without any magnification! The captain said we were right above the whale that was doing the singing. They tossed in a hydrophone which brought in the whale song loud and clear. It was much cleaner than the one from yesterday, probably because we were so close we were just picking up the one whale.
As we passed the Queen Elizabeth, a cruise ship in Lahaina Harbor, we saw a mom and calf. The Mom dove giving us a nice shot of her flukes.
It was another successful whale search but still no breaches. The Captain said the whales breach every day but as I mentioned in the beginning, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Unlike trained whales at Sea World, they don’t jump on command.
Pectoral fin glows emerald through the water as this whale swims beside our raft
I guess that means I’ll have to go back next season!
Very nice pictures even though you didn’t get the one that you wanted. They are just beautiful animals.
The trip was good even if I didn’t get teh iconic shot I was hoping for but I’m not going to give up. I’ll be back on Stellwagon Bank this summer and will try for another Jan-Feb trip to Hawaii next winter. I know there is a breaching whale photo somewhere in my future!
It’s so much fun to get out and up close to these amazing creatures. We haven’t managed to get a breaching photo yet either, although we did see one breaching over and over across Honolua Bay. But it was too far out to get a good photo… still amazing to watch though. I can only imagine what something like that would be like from a smaller boat like this one from your trip. Better luck next time, I’m sure you fill capture one some day.
We saw them breaching on every trip but all so far away. I intend to keep trying. No matter what it’s always a good day when you can get out on the water and see these wonderful animals.