Marty Dread entertains the crowd on Sunset Island Rhythms Cruises.

Maui’s visiting whales and Marty Dread’s captivating music have become synonymous in recent years. For those who love watching frolicking humpbacks and have a taste for a sunset reggae dance party, PacWhale Eco-Adventures’ Island Rhythms Cruise is a must.

“Just try to visualize this,” Marty Dread says about the cruises that support the work of the Pacific Whale Foundation. “You’re standing on a boat and you’re in the basin between Molokini, Lanai, Kaho’olawe and Maui, and basically you’re seeing what the whales are seeing off the water. There’s reggae music playing and people are drinking and having food and dancing. It has a really big dance floor.”

For those who might not be super reggae fans, this versatile entertainer suggests “it’s the kind of thing where people are skeptical because they think, ‘Oh, two straight hours of reggae.’ If you’re not a reggae fan, you might be apprehensive, but I am all over the place, from Bruno Mars and the Beatles to the Police. I don’t just play reggae.”

Known as Hawaii’s reggae ambassador, Marty says he gears his repertoire to the crowd. “I think what endears me to people is I can look at the boat and say, okay, this looks almost like a college age party on here. Then I play to them. Or if there’s an older set of folks, I can drop some Tony Bennett or stuff that they know.”

The success of the Island Rhythms Cruise can be charted from pre-pandemic and post pandemic to now post-fire.

“We did it for pretty much 10 years straight,” he says. “It got so popular from Maʻalaea that we moved it to Lahaina. We did it every Friday, and then people couldn’t get tickets for it. So there was actually a demand to do two in a week. Then the Lahaina one became fairly popular too so they had a third one. When the pandemic hit, I was doing three a week.”

Since that bumper time, Pacific Whale Foundation sailings have decreased.

“The fire happened,” he explains. “I’m only doing it every two weeks now instead of every week. Now it’s a bit in the doldrums. When whale season starts, it will be every Friday again. When the whales come, the people come.”

Along with Island Rhythms Cruise, Marty will host a Halloween sail on Oct. 31. “It’s going to be a costume affair with live music and cocktails and stuff. It’s called Night of the Living Dread. Basically, it’s a costume party on a boat, where there’s music and dancing and drinking and gallivanting, the usual.”

One of Hawaii’s most prolific reggae musicians, he’s just released a new single, a reworking of the song, “Scaba Badi Bidu,” which was a hit for an Argentinean reggae artist known as Donald.

“It’s a duet with Donald, who had the first No. 1 single in the reggae format in South America in 1971. He came to Hawaii and I met him at the Haiku Post Office. We hit it off immediately and he played me this song and told me the story of how it was No. 1 and it associated him with reggae for the rest of his life.”

The new version of “Scaba Badi Bidu” “is a reworking of that tune with Errol Brown, Bob Marley’s guy. Errol remixed it, and I do vocals with him. I basically tell the story of the lineage of it. I’d like to see it be a hit again.”

Back again on the water on Nov. 8, Marty says he loves the freedom the whale cruises provide. “I can play anything from a Glenn Campbell song and go into Bob Marley. These groups just seem to be where I thrive best. I get a chance to dictate the vibe. It’s like we’re all doing this as a unit out there in the water.”

The Pacific Whale Foundation’s Island Rhythms Cruise with Marty Dread currently sails every two weeks on Friday at sunset from Maʻalaea. More information is available at pacwhale.com/ecotour/island-rhythm-cruise/.