Thursday, November 13

At sea with the usual laid back schedule. Noon is the time for team trivia. Here’s one for you from a couple of days ago...what country has an AK-47 on its national flag? I assure you I won’t forget this one again...it’s Mozambique! Or from yesterday, name the seven von Trapp children from “Sound of Music.” That one is a lot harder than the seven dwarfs! Our team lucked into three of the seven. Then today, what was the name of Captain Hook’s ship. And who played Marian the Librarian in “The Music Man” on Broadway before Shirley Jones played her in the movie? Jolly Roger and Barbara Cook.

I skipped the “Neptune’s Revenge” ceremony for crossing the Equator which we did at about 11:00 this morning. Such things are pretty silly with various people (nowadays members of the crew rather than passengers...probably someone sued over it) getting slimed with various gooey substances and tossed into the pool and made to kiss a dead fish etc.

In the afternoon Jill and I worked on our dragon again. Making pretty good progress. We have decided that her name is “Delilah Dragon-dam.”

Beginning in the late afternoon, we got into an area of reasonably significant swells. The sea condition is described as “moderate” meaning swells between 4 and 7.5 feet. It makes for uncertain walking but excellent sleeping.

Friday, November 14

At sea. Seas still moderate. Good sleeping. Didn’t do much all day. This evening was Polynesian formal night. I wore one of my new pareos as a skirt with a fancy jacket.

Coming back to the cabin I discovered our latest “gift” from the ship which is another nice duffle suitcase with wheels in which to carry home all sorts of acquired stuff. I haven’t really bought all that much stuff, so I’m going to try to pack one of my smaller suitcases inside a larger one to be shipped home so I’ll only have two to deal with on the plane. Fortunately we have 4 days after Maui to do trial packings. Only one week left!! I find that I’m still not really ready to get off, even with a 65 day cruise!

Saturday, November 15

Another lazy day at sea. Caught up with a couple of taped lectures on the tv that I had missed. Jill and I worked some more on Delilah Dragon-dam. We have until the 21st to finish her. Discovered, by accident, that we are back in range of the media, i.e. CNN et al.

Sunday, November 16

Honolulu, Hawaii. Up at just past the crack of dawn to go through US Customs and Border Protection (all they did was a “face check” against our passports which we now have back from the ship’s tender care). Grabbed some breakfast and went back to bed! This being my fourth visit to Oahu, I don’t have any tours booked

In the afternoon I made a “pilgrimage” to the local Wal-Mart along with about half of the ship’s passengers. Wal-Mart was even running a shuttle service! I went to pick up a couple of craft items for Delilah, but it was very interesting to see the difference in merchandise here as compared to central Virginia...mostly in clothing, although there was a pretty large “Hawaiian souvenir” department as well. After I returned to the ship’s vicinity, I wandered around the Aloha Tower Marketplace area for a while, in the process meeting three of my table mates plus a bunch of other passengers I know.

I then spent the late afternoon up in the Crow’s Nest watching rainbows come and go over the city.

Multiple rainbows
shimmering over Punchbowl
in liquid sunshine.