Sally Andrew
Maui has a reputation as one of the most beautiful islands in the world - brilliant green cane fields sprouting out of the red earth, Haleakala crater rising high above the clouds. Each winter on the leeward side of Maui, hundreds of humpback whales make their phenomenal reappearance in the calm warm waters off Lahaina. I was really looking forward to returning. FellowShip arrived back in Maui on a warm blue Hawaiian day after a smooth and lazy sail from Molokai and anchored in the roadstead off Lahaina. Lahaina used to be a major whaling port - today the whaling ships and the old seadogs who sailed them have disappeared. Instead, it has become a whale-watching tourist mecca. Like everyone else, we hope to catch close sight of a whale or two lazing off the Lahaina waterfront. We often get up at dawn and find the world breathless, not a ripple on the water, not a movement in the air. On a morning such as this, as we are quietly sipping our coffee on deck, a local live-aboard sounds the alarm. "Thar she blows!" Sure enough, off to starboard and less than fifty feet away, three humpback whales are lazily swimming through the anchorage in front of the old Mala Wharf. They pass between FellowShip and another boat at anchor in only forty feet of clear water. Foster dons his snorkel, mask and fins to get a peek at the leviathans underwater. I am momentarily mesmerized and paralyzed - poetically awestruck - and grab a view from the deck instead. I can't believe it! I suppose I should be scared to death - humpbacks are much larger than FellowShip's 33 feet, averaging 40 to 46 feet in length and weighing up to 40 tons. And they are much stronger than our fibreglass hull - a mere flick of their tail on the water produces a slap that can be heard at once on the shores of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. But they are graceful animals with an other-worldly voice and a strange appeal. Humpback whales are migratory animals, spending their summers in the high latitudes (Alaska, New Zealand
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