In January, we went out to watch whales with my five-year-old. Captain Steve (my dad) shut off the engines and we were just floating watching a pod, which at the time was over 100 yards away. As we floated, they began to move closer. Here, you can see Molokini Crater in the background and the West Maui mountains in the distance.
My daughter was "talking whale" like they do in "Finding Nemo" and talking really slow—over and over again, calling to them, "Heeeelllllooooo whaaaaalllllessss. Weeeeeee loooooovvvvveeee youuuuuuuu," which was cute for the first few minutes.
As the whales got closer everyone was running around the boat trying to film them and still my daughter was calling out, "Heeeelllllooooo whaaaaalllllessss. Weeeeeee loooooovvvvveeee youuuuuuuu", which was beginning to get a bit repetitive.
The whales kept getting closer and then they came right up to the boat, at least ten of them....and under the boat! We could see them just under the surface below us! They completely surrounded us. We could hear them, see them, feel them and smell them, they came so close.
Since he was trying to record all the sounds of their blows and splashes, Dad asked my daughter if she could stop talking "whale" for a few minutes so he could capture the sound of all the activity.
She did as he asked and suddenly all the whales moved away. Seeing them leaving, he said, "Okay, go ahead and talk whale!"
"Heeeelllllooooo whaaaaalllllessss. Weeeeeee loooooovvvvveeee youuuuuuuu." she continued happily and lo and behold all the whales turned and came straight for us!
We watched in absolute awe.
These pictures were taken with a cell phone camera....
Aloha, Samantha Hogan
The Humpback Whales are breeding and birthing in Maui's waters between Dec. and April.
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