Protests that earlier included up to 100 opponents subsided after the last vehicles drove out of the harbor. U.S. Coast Guard and Maui police reported no arrests.

Earlier, protesters on North Pu'unene Avenue shouted at disembarking passengers who made their way out of Kahului harbor.

Yelling "Go home," "shame on you" and "give us back our harbor," the protesters' ranks grew in number significantly from the early moments of the vessel's arrival.

"It's a very peaceful protest. Everybody's being very respectful," said John Garibaldi, Superferry president and CEO.

Traffic was very slow for vehicles driving off the vessel at Ka'ahumanu and Pu'unene avenues. Concern about traffic slowdowns from exiting Superferry vehicles had been a concern for opponents of the ferry prior to its launch.

Police at 10:50 a.m. pushed a stalled vehicle out of the intersection of Ka'ahumanu Avenue and Wharf Street. Nearby, about a dozen protesters are carrying signs reading "Superferry=Super problems," and "EIS first" and "Aloha Aina."

Cars honked response to the protesters.

The vessel, which first pulled in to the harbor at 10 a.m. under a light drizzle, was initially greeted by a handful of protesters, but their number grew as passengers began getting off.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports no arrests or other problems so far.

About five or six surfers were in the water, but they remained in an area in which protests are allowed and are not violating a fixed security zone established by the Coast Guard. The surfers were holding protest signs.

The Coast Guard had four boats in the water, joining two small boats from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

As soon as the Alakai pulled into the harbor, Katy Rose and Andrea Brower, of Kauai, put on T-shirts that read "EIS First," and Hale Mawae put on a malo. All three then hung a 14-by-16-foot banner from the starboard side of the vessel that read "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono?"

A Superferry employee quickly pulled the banner from the side of the ship and handed it back to the women.

"We hugged him and told him mahalo when we left," Brower said. "He was cool about the whole thing."

The 215 passengers aboard slowly disembarked, and 70-80 vehicles were being offloaded at about 10:10 a.m.

The crew said about 25 of the passengers became ill due to the motion of the waves during the trip, which ended 10 minutes early.

Maccine Carter, a paralegal from New York City, spent the last day of her Hawai'i vacation riding the Superferry.

"I was sick the whole time," Carter said. "It was my last day and I wanted to see Maui. It's beautiful. But there was a lot of choppy water."

The crew took an alternate route, bypassing a humpback whale sanctuary, which would have required the vessel to slow to 25 knots. Instead, the vessel was able to go 34-35 knots by avoiding the sanctuary.

The vessel pulled away from its pier in Honolulu at 6:46 a.m. today, about 16 minutes behind schedule.

A handful of protesters opposed to the resumption of ferry service to Maui stood along Nimitz Highway with signs denouncing the ferry, but did not interfere with loading operations.

The vessel can carry as many as 866 passengers. There were 60 to 70 vehicles aboard the ferry, which has space for as many as 282.

Sailing time to Maui was estimated at about three hours. The National Weather Service has posted small craft advisories for all channels between here and Maui with winds estimated at 25 knots and wind waves of 9 feet.

The Superferry began operations in August but a Maui judge ordered operations to cease a day later due to concerns over potential environmental impacts.

The company that owns and operates the ferry laid off 249 of its 308 employees in October, saying it was losing $650,000 per week.

When it was finally cleared to sail in November, the resumption of service was twice delayed by bad weather.