Whale Watch Tour

A couple of weeks ago, our friend Sarah visited us on Maui. One day, we went with her on a whale watch tour on a 50 foot sailboat. We set off from Lahaina around 9 a.m. with a captain, one man crew and five other passengers.









Every year, between December and late April/early May humpback whales visit the waters around Maui. They have their young calves in these waters because the area is so well protected and it maintains a warm temperature of about 75 degrees (warm to the whales, not warm to us Floridians).















The sailing was actually pretty smooth and gave us a great opportunity to view the waters between Maui and Lanai. We scanned the horizon for whale tails for almost two hours.















About an hour or so into the tour, we had not yet spotted any whales. At this point, the one man crew began serving the complimentary beverages: champagne and "the king of beers". But we still didn't see any whales nearby.













So, the captain decided to extend the tour a little and try to get closer to the spot off in the distance where we were seeing a lot of breaching whales. The waters began to get a little rougher suddenly as the wind picked up along our new route.










The waves were suddenly much bigger. It was amazing to look out and see the top of a wave be above the boat!













The captain sits leisurely to the left of the wheel while everyone holds onto their hats.














As the waves became more intense, motion-sickness began to set in on Katie. The captain recommended that she lay down behind the wheel to alleviate the feeling.


This was very helpful, and for the remainder of the tour, she lay there listening to everyone's "oohh's and ahhh's" about the breaching whales off in the distance. But, it was worth it as it was very effective. As we all stepped off the boat, back at the slip, the one-man crew congratulated Katie for "not popping" and thanked us for sailing with them.


And then, we all needed some food and drink. . .
Sarah with Mai Tai #1. Great cup, but she didnt think there was actually any rum in it!















Our post-sailing Mai Tai's. . .ahhhhh, or was it arrrrghhh. . .

April Garden

Here is our most recent addition to the garden:















We had fun yesterday building this bamboo tripod for our blue-lake snap beans. Russell suggested we do a little "waddle and daub" without the "daub" and add a trellis of sorts to the tripod for the beans to grow up once they sprout. He had me thinking about artist Andy Goldsworthy and this piece he made out of driftwood. If you've never seen his work, I highly recommend checking this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBcdL8uO71E&feature=related

As you can see, (bottom left), our Mustard greens are starting to get going. We are thinking about harvesting a few for dinner tonight. . .














Sadly, the Broccoli and Cauliflower plants aren't doing as well as we had hoped. It turns out, we have a case of white butterflies. We aren't sure what else to do about them except hand pick off the eggs and worms.
















These butterflies flutter around our garden playfully all day, occasionally stopping to land on our vegetable greens and lay their eggs. . .which turn into ruthless kale and broccoli leaf eating monster worms!!!

















But, the Mustards seem to be pretty safe, thanks to their natural protection: spiciness!