Whale Magic On Maui

It’s one thing to watch a nature documentary with incredible close up images of whales frolicking in the ocean while David Attenborough intones about their majesty and splendor. It’s another thing to stand on shore and observe actual whales through binoculars. But when you’re more than a mile off the southern coast of Maui in a sea kayak and a humpback whale surfaces mere feet from you, well that’s taking whale watching to a whole other level.

The annual migration of humpback whales past the island of Maui is one  of nature’s great spectacles. From January through March these leviathans of the sea call the warm waters of Hawaii home. People come here in droves, all of them hoping for a once in a lifetime chance to see whales up close. My family and I have been coming to Hawaii since 2011 but never once made it to Maui for the humpback migration. This year Carol and I decided it was about time we did. We’ve both done lots of whale watching but mostly from shore, so we were ready for a next level experience.

Our condo sits at the northern end of Keawakapu Beach, a nearly two mile long yellow-sand Hawaiian dream of a beach. Its crystal clear waters are ideal for kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming and snorkeling. Most mornings the sea is smooth as glass and you can leisurely paddle around for hours. Giant Hawaiian green sea turtles are a common sight. When the trade winds kick up in the afternoon it can get a bit choppy but by then you’ve usually had your fill. This is where our journey began.

We didn’t waste any time. On our second day here Carol and I rented a sturdy tandem sea kayak from an outfitter next to our condo. Gentle trade winds blew while clouds, wispy brushstrokes and piles of whipped cream, dotted an azure sky. We pushed off from the beach into water as clear as water could be with visibility all the way to the sandy bottom. Behind us Haleakala volcano, the dominant feature on Maui, looms over everything, its 10,000 foot summit veiled in a tiara of clouds. The islands of Molokai, Lanai and Maui are very close together. The channel that runs between these islands to the southwest of us is where the humpbacks make their appearance. This is where we’d seen them the previous day. From our third floor balcony we watched whales breeching, flapping their massive tail flukes, slapping their pectoral fins against the surface of the water and just generally frolicking about. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what all these behaviors mean but to me it looks like the whales are simply having fun and happy to be on Maui, just like us!

We took a leisurely pace and paddled out straight from shore towards the aforementioned channel. It was an absolutely stellar day and we were in no hurry. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have any expectations. Of course I was hoping to get close to a whale or two but after all this is nature and whales are wild animals. We kept our eyes out for whale spouts but what it comes down to is a whale must choose to show itself to us. Our task was to keep an open mind and an open heart, be in the moment and receptive to whatever may come our way.

When we finally stopped paddling and glanced behind us the buildings on shore looked very small. We figured we’d gone far enough, so we just sat there bobbing and swaying ever so slightly in the middle of the endless blue. I felt so free and alive. We spied a few spouts in the distance, much too far for us to paddle. We had taken a southwesterly direction and were over a mile from shore so we decided to loop around in a counter clockwise direction. Suddenly like shooting stars a couple more spouts appeared, but these were much closer, between us and the shore. These whales appeared to be heading in our direction so we headed that way too, mindful of the 100yd distance that boaters need to keep from them. However if a whale decides to approach us for a closer look, well that’s a different story. The spouts were coming closer, we held our breath and waited. The surface of the sea was blue glass. Without warning a whale surfaced about 25-30 feet from the bow of our boat with an explosive exhalation from its blowhole that sounded like a steam locomotive. The whale arched its back gracefully, exposing its telltale “hump”. It was so close I could make out small details on its dark body. The whale appeared to be moving in slow motion, because of its immense size (40 feet?) it took 5-10 seconds for it to go back under. Being this close I finally got a sense for how huge these creatures are. In the presence of this whale I felt tiny and humbled. Attenborough’s voice-over was playing in my head! Then with a flip of its tail flukes just like that the whale was gone. The encounter literally took my breath away. Carol and I were speechless because speech is irrelevant at a moment like this.

Our two hour window for the kayak rental was closing so we began to paddle back towards shore. A pair of kayakers were up ahead and about 20-30 yards to our left. They had witnesses our close encounter now we got to witness theirs. A pair of whales surfaced as close to their boats as our whale had to ours. Again, the rush of sound and water vapor from their blowholes, the arch of their backs and this time a twin display of massive tail flukes as in tandem they dove back under. The ballet was complete, a graceful water dance, timeless and eternal. We headed back in reverent silence.