Hawaii / Tahiti 30 Day Cruise - Day 9 Lahina

Sunday Day 9 - Lahina

Here we are in Lahina on the island of Maui.  There is not a dock large enough for the cruise ship in Lahina so today is a tender day.  Tendering means passengers are shuttled to and from the town via tenders, which are small boats also normally used as lifeboats.  It was windy so there were high swells and it looked like tendering might be a little difficult today and it was.  We signed up for an excursion called a “Beach Break” and that was basically a bus ride to and from the Ka’anapali beach area.  The ship arranged with the Sheraton Hotel at Black Rock for us to use their beach and facilities which included basic beach chairs and some food and drink discounts.

Arriving in Lahinea.

Getting the tender into the water.

A tender starting it's service to shore.

After our usual quick breakfast we were off on our excursion.  It got off to a pretty rocky start as the usual fifteen minute tender ride to shore turned into a forty-five minute ordeal.  I don’t know why it took so long, but for some reason we couldn’t land at the dock and we bobbed around in the heavy waves waiting to get in for quite a while.  Because of the heavy swells, quite a few people were feeling sick and beginning to get angry and frustrated.  It all ended well and we finally got to shore and on the buses to go to the beach.  The Ka’anapali Beach area is beautiful with many very nice hotels.  The Sheraton was very nice with several pools and beautiful grounds.  Val and I decided to upgrade to a “beach cabana” which was a pair of padded lounge chairs with a cover over to keep the sun and wind off you.  It actually worked quite well and we were glad we had it.  One disappointment was we were told the waves were too big to go snorkeling so we had to put off our first snorkeling experience.  Someone told us the bay we were in was almost always calm and today was very unusual, just bad luck I guess.  All-in-all though we had a very nice day, the weather was nice, the water was warm and it was a beautiful spot to relax and enjoy the sun and surf.

Enjoying our "cabana".

Time for lunch.

The adventurous taking their turn at jumping off of Black Rock.

The Westerdam anchored in the harbor.

 Just after 3:00 we were on our way back to Lahina and a much better tender ride to the ship.  Lahina is really a nice little town and we were disappointed we didn’t have time to walk around, but we had to be onboard by 4:30 as we sailed at 5:00.  Back on board, we cleaned up, I worked on the blog for a while, and then we got dressed and headed to the showroom for the nightly entertainment.  Tonight was a musical revue with the Westerdam singers and dancers and it was a good show.  After the show it was off to another good dinner and as usual we ended the night in the casino for a little while.  Neither Val nor I did very well, but a lady won $2000 while we there so it is possible to win big.

Loading the tenders back on the ship before sailing.

Val and I in relaxing mode out on our balcony.

Sailing out of the harbor at Lahina.

Another day ends as the sun sets

Five of the next six days are sea days with the only stop being at the small atoll of Fanning Island.  We are welcoming the sea days as a chance to relax and take it easy (not that that isn’t what we’ve been doing).  Although our activities in port are not very strenuous, they are tiring as there is so much involved in getting to where you want to go; it just where’s you down a bit after a few consecutive days in port.  A sign of getting old I guess.