Maui - Lanai crossing

[BSOD]

How rough/smooth is the crossing now?

Are there seasonal differences as far as how rough/smooth this crossing is, or is it pretty much the same year-round, or does it just vary day to day?

I've done the trip before in May/June on a larger boat (with Lahaina Divers), but am looking at maybe trying out one of the other ops (Extended Horizons or Hawaiian Rafting Adventures) which have relatively smaller boats. The HRA boat (assuming they use the inflatable) looks like it'd be fun if the crossing isn't too rough, but I could easily see it becoming a bit more of ... an adventure if the waves pick up.

Thanks

 

[DiveMaven]

We've done this crossing in the winter, spring, and summer and it totally varies day to day depending on the weather. We've done it in a 32' Aluminum hulled boat on what they said was an average day and will never do it again on a boat smaller than Lahaina Divers boats! Not only was the crossing very wet, but so bumpy that by the time we got to the dive site we were actually tired from stabilizing ourselves on the boat.

KrisB reports that Hawaiian Rafting Adventures is a smoother ride than EH, and that may be, but after doing a charter in a ridged inflatable where the water was fairly rough, I'm not excited to repeat it, particularly for a 45 minute ride. Plus they don't have a head, which is a problem for me.

There are some compromises when choosing LD over other operators, but we've found they are very small ones, and that when comparing dive profiles with folks who have gone with EH, there isn't much difference for us. We haven't had a dive less than 50 minutes with LD in years, but we're very known to the captains and most DMs, thus we're almost always first off and last on the boat. The smaller tanks don't bother us since we're very good on air, and even when the boat has 24 divers, we've never felt crowded since there are so many places for people to spread out.

A lot of folks really like EH and feel they get a more "advanced" dive experience than with LD, and I certainly won't argue that for the average person. As long-time customers of LD, we're definitely treated a bit differently, as more advanced divers who don't need supervision, just a good guide. Others may not get the same experience as us, though I do encourage divers to speak with the captain and crew to discuss their desires.

It really comes down to a very personal decision based on needs/desires. Give EH or HRA a try and see what you think. At the worst you'll get a "rough ride" like we did for the crossing, but rest assured you'll still have 2 great dives on Lanai in between.

 

[BSOD]

Looks like it's supposed to be showers most of the time I'm there :depressed:, so I'll probably chicken out and go with the big LD boat again (which I had a perfectly fine [albeit a tad short sometimes] experience on on previous trips).

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

When will you be here / where do you get your weather forecasts?

 

[BSOD]

Will be there from the 3rd to the 9th, and basing off of the weather.com 10 Day Weather Forecast . I'm assuming when it actually says "showers" for the day, it's not referring to the sporadic 3-5 minute ones here and there.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

It rains hard enough to get Lahaina's streets wet less than 20 days a year, and rain in Lahaina usually has very little to do with rough channel crossings to Lanai. Conflicting open ocean wave swells from far off low pressure systems (ground swell) combined with locally gust winds (wind swell) are where the really nasty crossings come from. As a sometimes full time channel crosser for the last 16 months I have only seen a handful of waves splash passengers on the EH boat.

That said, if you have ever felt the slightest motion sickness, treat this channel crossing like a big event! Eat and drink healthily the day before, take sea sickness medicine the night before (w/cookies and milk), eat a light, healthy breakfast with your sea sickness medicine in the morning, do not eat the pineapple and orange slices on the boat and keep your eyes on the horizon or the Island; all Lanai boat crew clean up more puke than they should have to.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Pretty funny that after my last post I drove to Lahaina and it was windy and raining.

 

[BSOD]

Looks like the forecast has changed again to less rain now. Guess I'll just play it by ear once I get there. Is there a site that has swell forecasts/conditions?

I don't usually get seasick, but am just somewhat concerned about being jostled about for 45min or so. When I went to Molokai earlier this year (from Lahaina), it was a bit choppy for part of it, and I would prefer not to do that on a smaller boat.

 

[friscuba]

When will you be here / where do you get your weather forecasts?

I never trust the web weather forecasts, especially here in Kona. I'll get people calling and asking how the rain's been affecting the diving when we haven't seen rain anywhere near the ocean and most of the lower elevations in weeks. People tend to think that 50% chance of rain means it'll rain half the time, everywhere in the area, when it generally means that there's a 50% chance there will be some rain, somewhere in the region, at some point, during the day. If it's like our island on the other islands, there's dryer spots and wetter spots of the island and IF rain falls that hasn't been brought in by a major front, the wetter spot is most likely where it's gonna fall.

 

[bobmaggi]

the weather forecasts on weather.com are more generalized, no specific. I would wait til at least a few days before, to really see what it's gonna be like. When I compare their forecasts to my local ones here, they are different many times. Just an FYI.

Being an owner of a Rigid Hull Inflatable, I would really rather take that trip in a regular boat vs. one of those. They are not exactly comfortable! EH's boat has much more room to move around in ( plus a head) than one of those! Maggi