Mike in the Wild

When a tour tells you to expect some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth and up-close encounters with marine wildlife, all along accompanied by expert local guides, two meals and a mai tai bar, you have to wonder how are they going to guarantee all that in a five hour trip.  Well of course weather, seasons and luck are an important factor in any outdoor adventure, so nothing can be promised except for a bottle of rum.  But on the mid-September day I joined Kaui Sea Tours on their deluxe 60 foot catamaran, the Lucky Lady, out of Port Allen, I was destined to experience the thrills of a lifetime. Kaui is the oldest and in some ways the remotest of the main Hawaiian Islands because it lies so far west of the others.  Another distinction is that it was the first island to be settled by the ancient Polynesians.  It's also the wettest of the islands, if not of all Earth's locations, where one spot gets over 460 inches of rain a year.  As a result, the verdant i...