Exploring the Wild Coast of Lana’i, Hawaii

The turtle and his two butterflyfish friends made for a beautiful underwater scene.

I am in the middle of a weeklong expedition cruise trip through the Hawaiian Islands. Today was a bit of a 'Captain's Choice' kind of day because of some wild incoming weather. In fact, the ferry to Lana'i canceled its operations for the day, a big Cruise Ship canceled their scheduled stop at Kona, and all the Maui day boats canceled their snorkel and whale watches. But not us. We were in it to win it. This is what true expedition cruising is all about.

The normal trade winds come in from the NE, but today those winds switched the the south. So, our boat just went and explored the north of Lana'i Island, which provided the most protection. Not only did we still have adventures, but we absolutely seized the day. We started off before breakfast, with a sunrise whale watch on the zodiacs. We had a breaching whale, 100 yards away, with a flat calm ocean, reflecting a thousand hues of orange from the rising sun. Then we snorkeled after breakfast on what seemed like an endless reef at a spot called Club Lana'i. After lunch we went for a wild skiff ride to this massive shipwreck. It was an old WWII navy fuel barge made out of cement, which has been wrecked up on the shallow reef of Lanai's north shore for decades.

It was fun seeing some places that are usually too windy and wavy to visit...until the winds shift, like they did today. It pays to have guides with local knowledge and the confidence to make days like this happen. Way to go crew of the Safari Explorer. We salute you!

We watched the sun come up over Maui from our early morning whale watch.

Beautiful reef scene at the club lanai this morning.

Two oval butterflyfish swim over the reef at a spot called the Club Lanai, off the southern coast of the island.

A young green sea turtle keeps an eye on me as I try to photograph it off the coast of Lana'i.

Sea turtle fly by.

The massive reef structures along the South shore of Lana'i must have taken hundreds of years to grow. I can just see a turtle swimming off in the distance in the upper right hand corner.

An achilles tang lights up the reef.

Two kinds of butterflyfish can be seen here.

We got buzzed by several military aircraft while we were exploring the shipwreck off the Northern coast of Lana'i.

The morning started with calm conditions, so we set out at 6:30am for a sunrise whale watch. The early bird definitely got the worm today!

As you can see, the conditions got windier and wavier throughout the day. However we still managed to get multiple skiff tours, and a snorkel in. Woohoo! Many other operators canceled their entire days.

Our guests had the best morning ever, with this nearby breaching humpback whale on our early morning skiff tour.

This old ghost ship lies grounded on the shallow reef off the north coast of Lana'i. With the winds switching direction today, we were able to get in our skiffs and go for a closer look. Pretty haunting.

Its never a bad idea to wake up early and take advantage of some nice ocean conditions.

Hold on to your hats! We had some windy conditions for our shipwreck skiff tour in the afternoon.

This side of the shipwreck has much more damage thanks to the sun.

Skiffing around the stern of the shipwreck.

Our other skiff looks tiny next to the stern of the shipwreck.

The rebar showing as the sun bakes away the concrete that the ship was made out of.

As always, keep traveling!
-Dai Mar