Funeral canoe, Beach at Kahana
We had two unique experiences today: a funeral next door on the beach and our first sighting of humpback whales on Maui.
The funeral was held on the sand right beside our condo. We only watched the last part when they took out the ashes in a boat and an outrigger canoe. People paddled around in kayaks and canoes (they took out some of the older people and the mother in a motorboat) and after circling for a while they went out to the edge of the reef and scattered the ashes and then threw flower petals on the ocean. The people who remained on shore waded into the water and threw flowers, leis, and petals into the waves. It was interesting to watch. After the funeral the kids spent most of the afternoon playing and swimming in the water, or paddling around in the big canoe. Enid says it’s the only time she’s ever seen the participants at a funeral wearing bikinis, as this is what most of the girls in the canoe were wearing.
Later this afternoon I heard someone down below us say “What’s that flipper? Is it a whale?” and when I looked, sure enough there were humpback whales spouting and surfacing just off shore perhaps about a kilometer. They didn’t stay long, but we saw them once more. There must have been at least three or four of them.