Chuck & Nancy

Today we went on the Blue Water Rafting trip and we really had a blast. We met at the Kihei boat ramp at 6:45 AM and climbed abord the pontoon boat with about 20 people. The skies and water were blue but weather was on the way from the North .. a little unusual for Maui. So we zoomed on down to the Southern tip of Maui. On the way we saw some whales breaching .. a baby practicing. They are really adorable. The south side of the island is where the most recent lava flows are with the youngest being about 220 years ago. This are is not accessable by car so going by boat is the only way to get there. Some of the lava has formed neat caves.

We were lucky enough to encounter a very large pod of spinner dolpins - there must have been 50 of them altogether. They came around our boat and swam underneath and especially under the front of the boat .. catching a ride? Escorting us? It was just breathtaking. The was was so clear you felt like you could just reach out and touch them. They are much smaller than our Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and supposedly not as friendly. They were a wonderful delight to watch. They would impulsively jump out of the water and spin around. It would just excite you to see.

Along with the dolpins we saw a whole school of flying fish. I’ve never seen anything like it. These silver fish all jumped out of the water in unison - a whole school of them. They did it several times in a row. It was fascinating. All this entertainment was on the way down to the lava flows. The ride through and around the caves area was quite exciting. The captain zoomed toward the lava at full throttle and then skimmed through 2 large lava rocks .. got my heart racing. I must admit I loved it but if you are at all nervous on a boat you would not want to go on this boat ride.