Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay is a Wildlife Refuge on Oahu, in a deeply sheltered bay. The waters are deep, with the sheer sides of the cliffs rising straight out of the water. At the head (foot) of the bay lies a beautiful, bright sandy beach, with palms and shade and abundant plant life. The waters are tropical blue, creating a picture-perfect image of an island getaway.

The park is also closed on Tuesdays. We usually dock in Honolulu on Tuesdays. However, one of the idiosyncrasies of this itinerary is that we change the order of ports at random intervals. Our first Hawaiian cruise had Nawiliwili before Honolulu, then four cruises later, we again had Nawiliwili on Tuesday and Honolulu on Wednesday. A group of us took full advantage of this occurrence and paid a visit to this remote site.

We took a long cab ride out, paid our entrance fee, waiting in the hot sun to watch a video on the importance of preservation (don’t touch the reef, folks), hiked our way down the cliffs (they were nicely paved, it wasn’t much of a hike, just a walk down a very steep incline) and arrived at one of the best snorkeling sites in the Hawaiian Islands.

There are black-tipped reef sharks in the deeper reaches of the bay, and all of us were gunning for a shark sighting. The shallow water was clogged with sand and tourists, so we all bolted for the breakwater. We made it out past the sheltering reef to find fewer people but still poor visibility. I headed straight out toward the mouth of the bay, hoping for a shark encounter. Thirty feet beyond the breakwater, the water cleared to leave me floating in 20-plus feet of crystal-clear caribbean-blue water, above picturesque reef sculptures, amid a smattering of vibrant tropical fish. The sheer vastness of the display was striking.

I didn’t see a single other snorkeler out in the clear water. I went to the opening of the bay and back, taking my time and exploring. The reef was far below me, but the water was clear, and the fish were interesting. I saw a few sea turtles (one adult, who led me to three babies), but no sharks. Slightly disappointing, but what can you do.

After about half an hour of battling the roughening waves, I headed back into shore. As soon as I hit the breakwater, I couldn’t see more than 3 feet around me, and people started bumping into me. It’s crazy what some people will settle for.

We met back up on the beach, since we had all snorkeled in different parts of the bay, then began the long journey back to the ship. What a nice way to spend the day.

Whale Watching in Maui

As a crew member, I can sign up to escort shore excursions. It’s hit or miss on which tours you get to go on, since there are a very limited number of escorts, but if you’re selected, you go on the tour for free. Escorting requires very little, usually a couple of head counts and sitting in the back of the bus.

This time in Lahaina, I went on the whale watching excursion. As I was waiting for the boat to get back from the previous whale watching tour, surrounded by older passengers with mobility issues, with the hot sun beating down on me, I had serious doubts about this excursion. I was second-guessing my decision to spend two hours on the open water with nothing but flat, glassy ocean to look at. A friend of mine had gone on the tour a few weeks earlier and seen only one whale.

But it was too late, so away I go. It blew me away.

We saw whales pretty constantly, some closer than others. The captain was great in terms of predicting behaviors and anticipating sightings. We followed a pair of adults for the better part of an hour, to be rewarded by them coming up and investigating our boat.

They spy-hopped us from a hundred yards, jumping above the surface to check us out, then swam over. They tooled around underneath our boat. We could see them through the crystal-clear water, especially the white patches under their pectoral fins. The light reflecting off their white patches was turned brilliant turquoise by the water. We could see the entire body of the whales as they investigated our boat. They surfaced about 50 feet from us.

It definitely surpassed my expectations, last-minute doubts and all.

Life Aboard: The Jones Act

Alright, listen up. This is your education for the day. A long time ago, America passed a law that no non-American sailing company could operate in exclusively American ports. They passed this law because Canadian ferry companies were drifting down to Seattle and putting good ole’ Americans out of business. Now these Canadian companies would have to ferry people from Seattle to Vancouver to the other side of the sound. Slightly inconvenient. So, the Jones Act.

So this law stays on the books, and the cruise industry comes about. Not many vessels are American-flagged (taxes, red tape, unions, ick), so not many cruises operate exclusively between American ports. Hence, every cruise itinerary will have a non-US port. Hence why our Hawaiian cruise sails out of LA and stops in Ensenada, Mexico.

Enter lovely Ensenada, Mexico, on the Baja California peninsula. It’s a little out of place on the LA-Hawaiian itinerary, since it’s not tropical and not very sophisticated.

But it’s our Jones Act port, and there’s plenty of cheap stuff for sale. And they take US dollars.

Another Day in Kauai

This time around, in Nawiliwili, a group of us rented a car to explore farther reaches of the island. Rental cars, unlike rental scooters, do not have distance limitations. With the ship’s naturalist in our number, we bee-lined for the bird refuge at Kilauea Lighthouse.

There were albatross, frigate birds, tropic birds and boobies. And the Hawaiian goose, the ne-ne.

After the lighthouse, we continued along the north shore to the town of Hanalei. We stopped for burgers at the famous Bubba’s Burgers, a fond memory from my childhood visits to the island. We continued down the road (the one and only on the island; directions are easy) to Tunnels Beach.

Tunnels is one of the most isolated, roughest and best snorkeling beaches on the island. A few years ago, the now-famous, now-professional young surfer was on an early morning surfing jaunt at Tunnels when she had her arm bitten off by a shark. She’s surfing strong, and the beach is a little less visited.

The surf was quite rough, but we trekked to where the reef met the beach. The waves calmed down significantly, and it was easy to walk right in. The water was rather cloudy, and the clouds kept covering the sun. Despite the poor visibility, there were plenty of fish, with some nice sized schools, making for some good snorkeling. There were a few sea turtles, but they completely paled in comparison to the giant seal lounging on the surface. Wait, what?

There was a 7-foot-long, 400-plus-pound Hawaiian Monk Seal coming up for air. It was staring some snorkelers in the face, watching them as they watched it. It took a few breaths and dove. We waited. Nine minutes later, it came back up. No one saw it come up. As we were hovering over the 20-foot-deep crevice it disappeared into, we look around and there it was, chilling out on the surface, getting some air. A minute or two later, it went back down into the crevice. Wow. It came up one more time before we had to head back to the ship. We were close enough to touch it. It yawned, looked around, took a few breaths, blinked its huge black eyes, and dove. It seemed so gentle.

Hawaiian monk seals are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands; they’re found nowhere else in the world. They’re an endangered species, travel alone and are rarely seen. Again, wow.

Then it was back to the ship in a nerve-wracking race against the clock. We were late back to the ship by 5 minutes, and luckily found it still at the dock. Everyone who works on a cruise ship hears the horror stories of crew left in port. If you miss the boat, you’re responsible for the cost of rejoining the ship. The ship waits for no one. In addition to a stressful day of (potentially expensive) travel, there are disciplinary consequences for missing the boat. All we could think of was how to get ourselves to Maui. We made it on the ship, on the last gangway (the others had already been stowed), as everything was being packed up and shoved onboard. Lesson learned.

But even the frantic scramble back to the ship didn’t turn my opinion of the day. A Hawaiian Monk Seal…