Whale Sailing

After a messy and sloppy day on Saturday, north winds returned to Maui yesterday. The north shore was still pretty cloudy so Kihei was the place to be. Sunny and 5.0 blasting around Maalaea Bay with humpback whales jumping out of the water in an awesome display power and grace.

Kihei was pretty gusty with a big range between gusts and lulls so I really didn't want to go there again today. Kanaha is just such a nicer place to sail in my opinion. So, today I went to Kanaha even though it was windier in Kihei. Winds at Kanaha were still pretty northerly and we still had some residual cloudiness hanging around keeping temperatures on the cool side (for Maui). Sailed pretty marginal 5.8 until the wind finally kicked in a bit more in the later afternoon. Several humpbacks were spotted off of Kanaha today too. One sailor I talked to found herself sailing amidst 3 of them as they rolled up to the surface of the water. Pretty cool but kind of scary too. Where exactly are you supposed to sail and jibe when you've got three 45 ton marine mammals cavorting around you?