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The whale watch trip on Ocean Intrigue on Wednesday morning started off very rough, the easterly winds were blowing about 20-25 knots, but we headed south and the wind speed started to drop as we were getting close to kihei area. Haleakala protects south Maui from eastern wind, creating perfect conditions with no wind and glassy waters.

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Ma’alaea is known as one of the windiest boat harbors in the world and the past few days it’s been living up to its reputation. We’ve had winds of about 30 knots with gusts at higher speeds. But despite the weather, the whale watch trips have been very exciting (and I don’t just mean like riding a roller coaster). We’ve had breaching and pec-slapping and tail extensions and yesterday we even had one of the best whale watches of the season.

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Aloha Kakou!

On our ROB whale watching trips, we have been noticing that humpback whale peak season has passed, but we've still seen a lots of whale and lots of great activities out there. This past work week we sighted many great activities, but the most interesting one was the two males that joined a mom, calf, and escort to form a competition pod. It was awesome to watch!

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While whale sightings out of Lahaina continue to slowly and steadily decrease with each passing day, competition pods are still at an all time high. For months now we've watched adult Humpbacks duking it out over females, trying their very best to pass on their own genetic material before heading back up to the feeding grounds for several months of gorging.

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Over the past week or so, we’ve been spotting a very unusual whale that the research department is affectionately calling “ ‘Ahinahina.” ‘Ahinahina means gray or silver (and is also the name of Hawaiian Silversword) and this whale definitely lives up to its name. ‘Ahinahina the whale is a very pale gray color instead of the dark gray to black of most humpback whales and looks particularly light when next to a whale with normal coloration.

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It has been an absolutely eventful few weeks out of Lahaina Harbor as whales continue to \"surprise\" both our captains and passengers with some extremely close encounters.

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The trade winds have been picking up and even though it’s windy, the sky is beautiful and clear.  In the past few days we’ve been seeing quite a bit of surface activity while out on the boats, particularly a lot of tail slapping. Cows and calves, single adults, adults in competition pods. It seems like everyone is doing it!

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On Wednesday morning, I departed from Ma’alaea Harbor on board of Ocean Intrigue 8 am whale watching. It was a pretty windy morning, as usual, trades were blowing about 7-10 knots, Ma’alaea harbor is known to be the second windiest harbor in the world! Even though it was windy, the whale watching was great and interesting; we encountered a sub adult whale that displayed an unusual behavior in breeding grounds.

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The ultimate whale behavior that everyone wants to see on a whale watching trip is the breach, where a whale throws two-thirds to its entire body out of the water, landing with a massive splash. It’s very common for us to see these huge splashes out in the distance during our whale watches, but only the very lucky get to see it right next to the boat. Today we were very lucky.

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It was a perfect day in Maui Nui today! Clear skies, no wind, calm waters, and false killer whales encounter... this time I got to see them! Awesome!!!!!!

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