Oct 4-8 - At sea

 Oct 4-8 -  More sea days!

Today is the first of 5 sea days between Hawaii and French Polynesia. It has been sort of a ho hum day with not a lot of activities of interest on the agenda - Hula lessons?  Ukulele lessons?  Basketball? Bingo?   Mary had a workshop booked but it was cancelled.  I decided to enjoy the great temperatures and gentle breeze out on the balcony and start a new ebook that just arrived from the library.

After lunch, fortified by Merlot for Mary and a Bloody Mary for me we went to the enrichment presentation in the theatre, Welcome to the White Ships.

I wonder what will be on the menu tonight for dinner? It’s always a hard decision to choose!!  The entertainer in the theatre is an Australian, Beven Addinsall.  We are seriously behind in our quest to achieve the daily drink limit!!  Even combining our consumption we fall short!  Time to up our game??  Lol

Check back here for an update on each of our sea days… I’ll add the next day’s post at the end of each entry.

Still enjoying the ride!

M & D

Oct 5 - Going in circles?

Well…….

Last night we had an unusual occurrence!  While having dinner the captain interrupted with an announcement.  There was a person onboard who was ‘not doing well’ which necessitated us returning to Hawaii for an airlift transfer to hospital.  It was expected the transfer would take place about 1:00 AM.  Several cabins had to be evacuated because of the danger of leaking fuel.  

When we awoke this morning, we were still sailing north!  About 7:30 AM we were informed that the helicopter would be arriving in a few minutes.  It was a ‘winch’ operation to get the passenger from the top of the ship into the helicopter.  That took about a half hour. We then learned that the helicopter would go to Hilo on the Big Island, turn around and come back for a second passenger!  Following the second airlift, all the equipment had to be cleared and then we would turn around and continue our journey to Moorea. The whole operation would be completed by about 9:30 AM.

This is a video of what such an evacuation looks like.  It is not our emergency, but another one.  It is amazing to watch.

And this is on our ship this morning.

Of course, all of the procedures took way longer than anticipated.  As a result the captain announced at his 12 noon update that we will be unable to make our next port of call by the previously expected time.  So, unfortunately, our 🐳 whale watching 🐳excursion on October 9 is cancelled!  😢

Just saw this update from one of our Cruise Critic people who was evacuated from their cabin…

It was definitely 2 ill passengers. The spouse/family weren't able to go with them. We just spoke to the Captain and they were considering going into port in Hilo or Kona where the family could also leave but,  there were issues with tide and pilot availability. It was also felt that they needed to get the passengers to hospital as quickly as possible and by air was the best option.

Those poor families!  What stress and worry for them.  This all took me back to 2013 and I am so thankful my experience in getting Con to the hospital in Greece was so much easier than this.

Today we are busy with activities!  This morning there was a presentation by the destination expert on Moorea.  Right after that, one of the navigation officers gave a talk about the operations on the Crown Princess. Then a mad dash for lunch so we can get back to the theatre for Part 2 of the presentations on the White Ships. This series of 10 presentations looks like it will be very interesting; Duncan O’Brien is the speaker and he weaves past, present, humour, and information to make it enjoyable.  

Tonight is ‘formal’ night and then the show - a MoTown performance.  Not my favourite music, but I will turn down my hearing aids and try to enjoy!  LOL. 

Come back here tomorrow for our update!  Hopefully there won’t be so much excitement to report on!

Cheers!

Two Travellers

Oct 6 - YAWN!

Rain greeted us this morning!  We were very lazy this AM and didn’t go to breakfast until about 9:00 AM!   After that, Mary went for her walk while Dorothy went back to the cabin to read on the balcony.  However it was too humid to sit out, so the bed was a dangerous place to sit and read as it led to a rather long nap!  Ho hum!  

It has been a rainy day that contributed to our lethargy.  This afternoon’s highlight was the third in the series of lectures by Duncan O’Brien.  Duncan is a Canadian author/ historian living in Victoria BC.  Today his talk was about how the Matson Line was instrumental in the birth of tourism in Hawaii.  His stories are fascinating - filled with information, short video clips and anecdotes.  I never knew that the Matson Container ships originated from this same line and to this day, Matson is the major carrier bringing goods to the Hawaiian Islands from the west coast of the USA.

He showed old photos of Honolulu and the two original hotels, the Royal Hawaiian and the Moana still gracing the waterfront today. 

Oct 7 - Crossing the Equator

A beautiful day!  Bright sunshine, warm temps, and a nice breeze!

There were three lectures today - one on the Amazon, and two more about the White Ships (click here to find a synopsis of the interesting lectures Duncan O’Brien is presenting).  The first of these was about how the Matson Line’s four ships were pressed into service after Pearl Harbour, transporting soldiers and their families, military equipment and supplies between Honolulu and the mainland. They were repainted a navy gray, the ‘M’ on the smoke stacks removed, and all the luxurious fittings were removed or boarded up.  Cabins that once had two or four passengers now housed 12 or 14 military men!  

The second presentation was on Tahiti once the ships began sailing with passengers to the South Pacific.  It was a great introduction to Pape’ete, our next port of call. 

There was a special program up on Deck 15 celebrating crossing the Equator.  Mary attended and will likely post her photos on Facebook!  I don’t think we actually crossed the equator during this program!!!!  That happened later.  LOL

Dinner was very nice again tonight - Veal Cordon Bleu for Dorothy and NY Steak for Mary!  I am loving the special coffees to end the dinner; tonight I had the Nutty Irishman ( coffee, Frangelica and Kahlua topped with a dollop of whipped cream!!!) - no calories if you sip it slowly!!

And now we are waiting for the show to begin!  Willis White will entertain us!  

 

The end of another day.  I have a terrible feeling that the days are slipping by too quickly!  😢. But we are enjoying every one of them!

 Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update  from the Southern Hemisphere ( where the water goes down the drain in the opposite direction!!!)

Cheers!

M & D

Oct 8 - Still sailing towards Tahiti!

After breakfast we did not to go to the popular traditional Tug of War on the pool deck - a competition between various ship departments.  Part of the reason was that it will be really crowded and that is difficult to navigate with a walker, even though it has a built in seat!  The other reason is the number of people we have noticed who are coughing the last couple of days!  

We have also had that tickly cough - Mary attributes hers to a sinus issue and mine seems to be related to post nasal drip!  Yesterday morning I felt like it might be turning into a dry cough so I asked our server if he could get me a container with table salt to bring back to our cabin! The good old home remedy of gargling yesterday and again today seems to be getting things under control! 🤞

This morning we went to a presentation on Bay of Islands which highlighted things to do and see in our first NZ port.  We already have a tour booked so it was nice to have the ‘virtual tour’ of the area around the port. 

Following that we returned to our cabin for a bit of relaxation - balcony time to breath in the sea air, read, and play our mindless games on the iPad!

This afternoon is another in the series of White Ships lectures which are so interesting.  Then it will be dinner time again followed by Steven Moris, another musical comedian! 

 

A change for today’s post… some photos to let you know how we are being taken care of!

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Tomorrow I will post on the October 9 page, rather than adding to this one!

Until then,

The ‘Fed Up’ Travellers

😂😂