Maui

Maui Sunrise

 We arrived at the island of Molokini, off the coast of Maui, just before dawn. Molokini is a premiere snorkeling spot and I wanted to visit it. The wind gods had other ideas and they made it clear that we should anchor off of Maui. We dropped anchor off of McGregor Point. The Coral gardens were supposed to rival Molokini so we headed there next (I've been told since by a frequent visitor that isn't the case). Anchoring was very difficult. We tried to find a large sand patch to avoid damaging coral. We weren't successful. I went snorkeling in the Coral Gardens while Greg stood watch above in the dink. The coral formations were astonishing! Coral 20 feet high created canyons. The colors varied from white thru green to yellow and pink. Unfortunately for me, there weren't any fish.

We left the Coral Gardens the next day and headed to the old whaling town of Lahaina.



Rainbow over Lahaina



Canyon near Lahaina

The anchorage at Lahaina.

Banyan Tree Park, downtown Lahaina

One of the most outstanding features of
Lahaina is Banyan Tree Park. This popular park is covered by a banyan tree that covers a city block.

Children were climbing all over the low-slung branches. The arieal roots of the banyan tree root and essentially form a new tree when they touch ground. This one was 18 trees.

 The air in Lahaina as in other cities we visited are perfumed by the flowers that grow abundantly on the islands. The most common seemed to be plumeria.

 Lahaina is one of the top tourist destinations in Hawai'i. There wasn't a lot there to interest us because it is so similar to Cabo San Lucas in Baja. We got a heads up to this as we passed the submarine "Atlantis" moored outside Lahaina. For $100 it takes tourists who don't want to get wet 140 feet under water to see fish. The entire shore off the old section of town is lined with kiosks hustling tours of various sorts.

We stayed a few days and headed for Moloka'i.

Maui Sunset.