pkdof

We went to Lanai once with Trilogy. The weather was bad and therefore no snorkeling, but the boat ride was fun, food ok, driving tour of the island interesting.

We have been on the zodiac boat Molokini tour several times. In fact, it's our traditional Thanksgiving Day snorkel. Because of the smaller boat and its maneuverability, they can get into spots larger boats can't. Also maintain good communication with other boats to react to something interesting - like the time there was a whale shark off the back of Molokini. Swimming with (and touching) a 50 foot whale shark was amazing!

Only downside to the zodiac boat is no facilities on board, so the restroom at the Kihei boat dock is the last thing we do before boarding and the first thing we do after we get back!

tednugent(no relation)

I've only done Molokini Crater (and loved it ), but I would tell anyone going out there to go in the morning.

The prevailing winds pick up in the afternoon and more often than not I've heard of them scrubbing the Crater run to go someplace you could have driven to.

dhuey

A few weeks ago, we discovered for the first time a hugely better way to snorkel on Molokini: the Kai Kanani from Mākena: http://www.kaikanani.com/snorkelmolokini.asp. Take the early departure (6:30 am) and you'll be in the only boat at Molokini (save a few small boats for divers). Calm, early morning waters and hardly anyone there -- can't beat it.

For years we would take one of the boats from Māʻalaea. There isn't really anything wrong with those boats, but leaving from Māʻalaea adds about 45 minutes to your journey, each way. From Mākena, it's only 15 minutes to Molokini. The total time on the Māʻalaea boats is 5 hours, while the "Molokini Express" trip from Mākena is just 2 hrs. 15 min.

Maybe you like the idea of a longer boat ride -- you might see some whales or sea turtles. But I'm pretty bored with the Māʻalaea to Molokini journey, and from now on, it's only going to be the Mākena departure for me.

Recreation

We stay in Ka'anapali so leaving from Makena at 6:30am would be difficult, though I like the idea of being the first and only boat out there.

dhuey

Yes, I should have mentioned that it adds about 20 minutes to your drive, each way, if you're coming from outside the Kihei/Wailea/Makena area. We stay in Wailea, so we also save on drive time.

W2B Globetrotter

Took the Kai Kanani early morning trip 2 years ago from Makena when staying in Wailea. Great boat and crew. No other boats around at Molokini while moored there, so snorkeling experience was pretty good. Even saw a small white tip reef shark.

BUT, can't whole-heartedly recommend them as I later found out that they've presumably done quite a bit of damage to Maui's reefs and were fined a whopping fine.
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e081024a.html

Hopefully, they've cleaned up their act as they offer something very advantageous for those staying in South Maui.

FlyinHawaiian

Since Makena is in the wind shadow of Haleakala, I would imagine the ride would be much more comfortable in calmer seas. When the wind picks up in the afternoon, the run back into Ma`alaea can be wet and bumpy.

dhuey

Quite true, and that's the whole reason we learned about the Makena alternative. The trade winds were unusually strong on March 31st. All Ma`alaea boats (including ours) had to cancel their trips, but I later learned that the Makena operation still went out that day.

medic-again

So Molokini seems to be the place to go snorkel. Most of the charters seem to start pretty early in the morning, but some also offer afternoon tours that are shorter and cheaper.

We'd prefer the afternoon tours since a few in our party are more interested in the boat ride and won't really be snorkeling; plus we're not really into the idea of snorkeling for 5 hours like the morning tours normally do.

Question is do these tours really happen or do the trade winds prevent it? Can you see anything during these afternoon dives or does the water become too choppy? If it matters, we're going at the end of August/early September.

Seems like the dive site should be sheltered, but a few sites have mentioned that these afternoon tours often end up at a dive site other than Molokini due to the weather.

ac921ol

http://www.prideofmaui.com/destinations/

My wife and I are looking at doing it seems for $172 for both of us we can hit up molokini then turtle town??
or we could do the whale watch/ snorkel for $80 for both of us.

have any of you used this company before?

LiquidHonesty

We've used them before, great company. Although, if you're not set on going to Molokini only, I say check out Trilogy....by far our favorite thing to do on Maui, and we do it every time.

http://sailtrilogy.com/

If you have any other Maui questions, feel free to PM me...we've been several times, including the last three years in a row (and going back for half a month in December). :-)

msp3

Is there any other info on this? The only thing I can find is this NYT article and I'm about to take a trip with them!

philemer

Trilogy is highly rated but VERY expensive. I like Pacific Whale Foundation: https://www.pacificwhale.org/ Good value for your bux.

onthego15

The article you quoted is more than 7 years old!

My step-daughter worked for Kai Kanani up until recently when she left Maui, and it sounded like a fine company with good environmental consciousness.

msp3

Didn't cancel my trip given it was 10 years ago when all this happened, and after reading more into it it seemed like it was a regulatory problem at the time when all sorts of operators caused serious harm but nowadays there are places to tie the boat underwater and it's much better all-around. Unless of course a Maui local wants to correct me on this.

That said, at the time it was *very* scummy for Kai Kanani to negotiate their $0.5 million fine down to $150k with the state... Regardless, I would imagine all the boat operators nowadays are very concerned about the state of the reef and conservation in general. The real criminals are aquarium fish *collectors* that have wiped out reef fish all over the islands selling them for pennies on the dollar to the aquarium trade and the state government that's aiding and abetting them!