We had signed up for a sunset cruise and a whale watching excursion through the Pacific Whale Foundation on our first evening in Maui. We went one for two. There was no sunset that evening. There was a nice cloud-set, as it had been unusually overcast that day, but the sun was nowhere to be found. There were, however, whales to be watched – two adult humpback whales and one of their young’uns. One adult swam directly beneath our boat, and another did back flips 30 yards port side. That gets your attention. These leviathans were 45-feet-long.
Over the years, whales have created a bad boy image for themselves. A couple thousand years ago, one of them swallowed a Hebrew Prophet named Jonah. After about three days, the whale decided he wasn’t fond of Semite Tartare and barfed old Jonah up on the shoreline. That was Jonah’s last whale watching trip, by the way. Then, a couple thousand years later, a fictional whale bit off part of Gregory Peck’s leg in Melville’s account, Moby Dick. After that, whales had to go incognito while harpoon wielding zealots sought them for their oil.
When oil lamps gave way to electricity, the whales finally could breathe a sigh of relief. They are now semi-worshiped, like bald eagles and N95 face masks. People pay mega-bucks for a chance to see them blow water sky high and roll and twist in the water.
Maui is a whale watching hot spot. The big humpbacks begin cruising these inky waters in November seeking a mate and to give birth. The prime months are January and February when all the Whale Hiltons are booked solid, and whale hanky-panky runs rampant.
I feel sorry for these interesting beasts as they get no peace and quiet.
“Oh no, here come the tourists with their cell phone cameras and margaritas. Maybe if we bit off a leg or two, they’d leave us alone.”
After two hours of dancing with the whales, our boat turned and headed home, and we 30 tourists armed with margaritas and cell phone cameras walked safely on shore with all legs in-tact.