Whales, Storms, Moon, Snow, Waves and all that

A few days ago, when there was a large but very westerly swell (287 deg), we drove up the west coast looking for some waves. We ended up at Lahaina where sure enough the harbor had some chest to shoulder high surf breaking. Enough to make the short paddle out worth it. Plus we had another reason for being in Lahaina. At 3:30 we were hopping on a zodiac for some whale watching. Now we've been on the island many months and have seen our fair share of whales from the shore (after all they winter here). But this would be the first time from the water and up close.

I was a tiny bit skeptical regarding the excitement factor, sort of imagining a slow boat with pitching seas while trying to squint at dark indistinct shapes on the horizon. But I wasn't aware of the following facts: 1) before the watch you can surf the harbor then walk 100 yards to the boat - very convenient! 2) at least for this private charter, we could bring along adult beverages. Many in fact! 3) zodiacs go fast, and when there's enough swell as on this day, you practically catch air off the tops. 4) the small size makes them more maneuverable and the captain didn't mind showing that off a bit while cruising over the ocean swells. Almost like a theme park ride! 5) you will feel closer to the whales in a smaller craft like this. In fact once they swam right under us as we were sitting still just trying to spot them. Hello! 6) and yes we had no problem finding whales. Lots of whales. 7) afterwards it was a very short walk to more drinks and dinner. So we had a grand old time. Only thing was my camera ran out of juice mid trip so I managed just a few shots...

Now I might have mentioned in the last post something about a huge storm in the western pacific.  Well, it's here!

That's much bigger than a hurricane with winds just as strong.  It practically has an eye!  So the buoys show a big swell is a coming, arriving tonight in fact.  How big on Maui is open for debate, as it's still a bit west meaning some island blockage is possible, especially for breaks like Kanaha.  On the other hand, it's a really huge swell!  I guess we'll find out soon enough. Also trades should come back for a few days starting  tomorrow, at least the lighter version of the trades.  And that's always a challenge - light wind plus really big waves.  I'm actually hoping the waves aren't quite as big as predicted.

In other interesting weather phenomena, it looks like the wet weather that flooded Maui and made some of our ocean water brown headed up to Oregon as a pineapple express. I have to say, it's definitely more pleasant to be on this end of that express hose. Anyway, something like 6" of rain fell last Sunday with a freezing level at 10K on a deep snow pack. This is the result...


The Sandy River from alexandra erickson on Vimeo

Scary! Meanwhile a very cold upper level low passed over Maui last night. There was a full moon shining through the leading edge of clouds, which had a very interesting effect. I laid on my back taking many shots before I got one that looked right...

Then this morning when I woke up, I saw this on Haleakala.

I guess it really is winter when there's snow on Maui!  But you know, the beaches are still warm.  Knowing that soon, very soon, this giant swell would be arriving, Julia and I headed down to Hookipa to check it out.  At 2pm the waves looked manageable so we paddled out and caught a few. Of course the whole time I was expecting some monster set to suddenly arrive. And after about an hour a much bigger set did make it's presence known and broke in a solid closeout before we could paddle outside.  I dove off my board under the wave and still ended up being dragged a long ways.  The next wave was just as big but we managed to ride the wash inside. At that point we decided maybe it was time to come in.  Of course after that I didn't see any comparably large sets for awhile (as soon as we got out it looked totally flat) but little by little over the next few hours bigger sets started showing up.  So I would say we were just getting the forerunners, with the real deal coming tonight. While laying in the late afternoon Hookipa sun, I got some shots of the action at middles...