September 11th, 2001

Maui, Hawaii - Day 5

Some High Resolution Pictures Now Available for the Island of Maui!!!!

Today we woke up very early.

I must say, the alarm went off and I thought I heard the radio say 4 airplanes had crashed....  It hit me as if I was having a bad dream.  I kind of laid there, in and out of sleep.  When I finally realized what was going on, I woke up Laura and we turned on the TV only to see 2 burning World Trade Towers and pictures of the Pentagon and Somerset, PA.  We woke to find ourselves completely overwhelmed with what had happened.  

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who had friends or family that worked in any of these areas or were on the aircraft that crashed on this day that will live forever in our hearts.  What is really eerie for us is that we just went through the USS Arizona Memorial depicting a surprise attack only a few days prior to this event happening......

We decided to go on with our plans for the day.  It was difficult to enjoy the day due to the tragedy that had come upon our nation.  Everyone that we saw was talking about what had happened and trying to clarify the facts.  

Tour Operator: Maui Dive Shop (http://www.mauidiveshop.com/)

Boat Harbor: Maalaea Harbor, Maalaea, Maui, Hawaii.

Captain: Jim

Boat: Maka Koa - Pro 48' Dive Boat

Checkin 6:15 AM, Departure 7:00AM

1hr 20min Boat Ride

Dive Sites:  2nd Cathedral and No Name Reef

Divers: Read our comments about Maui Dive Shop!!!

We proceeded onto our dive boat.  The captain thought that maybe we could still enjoy the day.  There was nothing that any of us could do right now, so we went out to go on an hour and 20 minute boat ride out the island of Lanai.  

Lanai is a smaller island off to the west of Maui.  It used to be used to grow a large amount of Pineapples by Dole, but our Captain said that most of that operation has been moved to the Philippines because it was cheaper.  Anyways....  we dove off the south shore of Lanai near the last lava flow on the island.  This lava flow formed large "lava tubes" in the ocean.  Making places under the water where you could swim through the lava flow.  Large caverns of sorts....

Anyways, the first dive site was Cathedral #2.  We couldn't dive Cathedral #1 because the visibility was poor and the current was too swift. 

Cathedral #2 was a neat dive with lots of swim-throughs and mini-caverans. 

We got to see some rare marine life that you don't normally get to see like a red pipefish....(no picture)

Blue-Lined Snappers

A neat fish (I don't know it's name) but it was tough to see in the blue light of the water.

At the second dive site (No Name Reef) we saw some more interesting things...

This is some "finger coral" that is only found in Hawaii....

As we looked overhead, we saw the waves crashing over the top of this 40 ft tall coral/lava wall...

VIDEO !!!!!!  Wave Crashing Video (MPG - 5MB) 

(right click, Save Target As... note where you save it to so that you can play it back)

A neat little purple sea urchin.  (Actual diameter about 1 1/2 inches)

A pretty large moray eel.  (about 6ft)

I saw a bunch of these guys... they like to sit on the coral and they are very skittish once you get close to them.  They are only about 2-3 inches long.....

On the way back to Maui from Lanai the ocean swell really picked up.  We had 2-3 (and an occasional 4) foot swells, it was a bouncy ride back!!!  

Back to reality, we went to lunch and watched the grim news on TV.  We sincerely hope that they find some survivors.