Kahului, Maui, Hawaii

Land Ho!  After 5 days with no sight of land, it was good to see land this morning.  Shawna and I have never been to Maui and it is pretty.  The port not so much because it is an industrial shipping port but the mountains are beautiful.

After all those days of rest, it is time to get off ship and have some fun.

This afternoon, we all went on a snorkeling trip.  We were bussed over to the other side of the island to board a huge catamaran.  From the dock, we motored out to a reef to snorkel.  It was great.  We all did see a lot of fish and sea urchins. After a while, Betty went back to the boat but she saw a Green Sea Turtle.  Shawna and I were in the water and it did not pass near us so we missed it.  ​

There is a lot of emphasis on renewable resources.   I saw lots of solar panels with most being on roofs, a Tesla battery system, and quite a few wind turbines which makes a lot of sense being right on the ocean.

We passed the Dr. Robert Ballard research vessel Nautilus on our trip to and from the dive area.  Dr. Ballard is best known for finding and study of the Titanic.

The ship has been used on a huge number of scientific explorations. Here is the web site for the ship which includes all the research sites it has worked.  https://nautiluslive.org

On our return to the dock, we had a problem.  The captain announced that he was having a problem with one engine and we might get back to the cruise ship later than expected.

The wind and waves were building so he had some trouble getting the catamaran to the dock but the bus driver got us to the cruise port as quickly as he could.  We were the last to board but they did wait to pull up the gangway until we were all on board.

After dinner, we enjoyed the comedian at the main stage.  He was great.