Day 6 of 2023 Trip to Hawaii, Snorkeling off Maui

Sixth day of my January 2023 trip to Hawaii. We would spend the day with a commercial boat tour snorkeling around some coral reefs off the coast of Maui, while admiring the sights of some humpback whales along the way.

Whale Breaching

Today we checked out another popular activity in Hawaii, snorkeling. In particular, Molokini Crater just off the coast of western Maui was a popular snorkeling site with its bountiful coral reefs, that was only accessible by boat. As a result, we booked with a commercial tour company.

The winter months were migration season for humpback whales through the islands of Hawaii, so whale sights were frequent off Hawaiian coast. As a result, the tour today also featured whale-watching activities on our way to and from and between the snorkeling sites. For this very reason, I packed my 150-600mm lens for this trip. Despite its limited focusing capabilities, I still got a few gorgeous shots.

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Whale Breaching

The best sights of the day came in the morning, shortly after we left port for our first snorkeling site of Olowalu Reef, where we ran into a group of humpback whales breaching, not too far from our ship.

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Whale Breaching

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

There’s a marine biologist aboard our ship. While all I could tell was “wow, there were some spectacular whale breaching sights”, she somehow managed to interpret the following scene as “a mother teaching her child breaching”. (I assumed the mother was the one on the right.)

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Whale

In addition to breaching, there were a few whales that swam close enough to our ship that I got a clear sight of their fins and backs.

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Whale

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Whale

In addition, the following slideshow were some of the other pictures of whales I captured throughout the day. In a nutshell, it wasn’t as fruitful later in the day. It could be that the whales were more active in the morning, we just had more luck in the morning, or our captain was eager to make up time for the remainder of the day.

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Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale Breaching

Whale

Whale

And here were some other photos from the boat, of the surrounding landscape.

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Maalaea Harbor
A few hotels in this not-too-developed area.

Windfarms along Kaheawa Ridge

West Maui Mountains

West Maui Mountains

Haleakala
The highest mountain of the island, which we would visit the next morning.

Molokini Crater
Molokini Crater
The second snorkeling site of the day. It’s hard to appreciate its crater shape from this angle.

In addition to whales, I found my lens handy capturing other things from afar, like military and civilian airplanes.

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Delta Airlines B767

Delta Airlines B767

Delta Airlines B767

Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

Sail Boat

For the snorkeling part, I was very surprised that the tour company offered snorkeling goggles with prescription! (As a result, I lost my bet on dinner bills tonight.🤑) The two sites today were Olowalu Reef and Molokini Crater. The boat stopped at each site for about 80 minutes. Given that it took time for the crew to properly anchor the ship (in a way that does not damage the coral reef) before, and perform a headcount after, there was about 50 minutes of snorkeling in either site.

It felt to me that between these two sites, Molokini Crater was certainly the better one. The water at Olowalu Reef was too murky (with bubbles, not dust) that impaired visibility. The water was also deeper so that the coral reefs were farther in sight. In comparison, the sea bed at Molokini Crater was on a gentle incline, so one could choose to stay near the boat in deep water with tropical fish, or venture further off to check on the coral reefs.

I used my GoPro to record some footage in the water. Unfortunately, adjusting the white balance underwater wasn’t that easy, and visibility was not ideal, so their quality wasn’t that great.

Below, Olowalu Reef:

12 minutes and 2 seconds, 2160p30fps, 12Mbps/1.11GB for H265, 13Mbps/1.2GB for H264.

Below, Molokini Crater:

Or if one doesn’t like ads on YouTube, here’s the same video from Molokini Crater hosted on my server:

12 minutes and 48 seconds, 2160p30fps, 13Mbps/1.24GB for H265, 14Mbps/1.33GB for H264.

The tour ended just past 1:30pm. After that, we headed back to the hotel.

 
Hawaii Route 30 in Wailuku
Beautifully lined by a canopy of trees, on our way back from Maalaea Harbor.

Once at the hotel, I felt too tired and immediately retired to bed for an afternoon nap, while my friends felt energetic enough to check out some “turtle beach” nearby. Tomorrow we needed to get up early to watch the sunrise on Haleakala, so there’s not much to talk about for the remainder of the day.
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