Day Three: Maui

Maui, HI, March 17, 2017. It was St. Patrick’s Day in Lahaina, the oldest town on Maui, and the home of famous Hawaiian kings Kamehameha and Kamehameha III. I had never been to Maui before, but from looking at the map I thought we would arrive at the largest town, Kahului. (Sorry about all the vowels!)  Instead, the ship anchors on the West Coast of Maui. It’s much more culturally interesting here, and we enjoyed our culture walk in the morning.

Hawaii is quite proud of its time as an independent nation during the 1800s. It sent out ambassadors to Europe, Asia, and the US and arranged for trading treaties. But, by and by, sugar plantations grew up, property was subdivided, and the children of the early missionaries began to institute Christianity and civilization. That meant things like representative government, writing, monogamy, metal working, road building, and roofs.

Still, a lot was done to bury the Hawaiian culture. For example, in the time when Lahaina was the seat of kings, the village was organized around a royal island in the middle of a small pond. After Kamehameha III moved the capital to rapidly growing Honolulu, the king’s huts became derelict and the pond became a swamp. One of the sugar companies decided to turn this ancient royal burial ground into a baseball diamond. It had been used for that purpose for some time until a local cultural movement grew up to return it to its historical configuration.

 

The weather on Maui’s west coast is quite a contrast. The prevailing weather comes to Hawaii from the Northeast – the well-known Trade Winds. This means that the mountains are among the rainiest places on the earth. The coast, however, is a near-desert. Most of the Hawaiian Islands manage water through the use of cisterns.

On the afternoon, we took a submarine ride. The submarine is quite small and its propulsion system is just for maneuvering. They tow it to the dive point in the morning, and tourists take a motorboat from Lahaina. During the dive we saw coral reefs, impressively large schools of fish, a bottom-dwelling shark, and a wreck of a sailing ship. At one point a moray eel peeked out from under a rock.

We dived to 128 feet, at which point the guide said, “This is the deepest any of you have gone!” I told him that we would cruise at this depth for weeks. All jokes aside, however, I was impressed with the level of technology on this submersible. They have some impressive gas management for oxygen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. They also have a variety of sub-to-surface communication systems. It was a fun experience.