Tuesday, November 11 (The second one)

First, thanks for all the birthday messages and e-cards! You sent them on the 10th, and I actually got them the same day, but it was the (first) 11th here! Today is the second 11th as we cross the International Date Line, so now we’re back in sync with the U.S. dates again.

Last night, even after the lovely lunch we enjoyed, we all turned up for dinner! Also at dinner, I was presented with a lovely chocolate mousse birthday “cake” (which, of course got shared) and a serenade from our dining room staff. I’m not sure what language they sing in, but it’s their version of a :good wishes on your happy day” song and has a lot more pep than our usual “Happy Birthday.” Last night was also the big “Chocolate Buffet” upstairs at the Lido, but I figured I’d already ODed on chocolate for the day, and I can always see it in the photos Jill took.

Today we are at Apia, Samoa. It is a small island which was the home of Robert Louis Stevenson and is where he is buried. Weather is very hot and sticky and it’s quite a hike to the town’s center. I went ashore briefly to some temporary kiosk shops set up on the dock, but was soon back on board.

In the afternoon a group of young people, the Island Gospel Culture Group 2008, came aboard to present a folkloric show of a local legend about a young girl and an eel. They were very energetic, both with dancing and singing and even saying their lines. The show was lots of fun. Also during the day, there were one or two tours of the ship by groups of school children. I think it was great of the ship to do this for them as they obviously had a great time!

After we got back out into the open ocean, all of a sudden the Captain came on the PA saying that we had passed a small fishing boat that was waving a red flag, so we were going to turn around and go back to help them. So around we go, and about the time we get back and slowed down almost to a stop, and they are ready to lower a tender to go over to see what’s the matter, the little boat fires up its engine, runs a circle around us and heads off. The Captain comes back on the PA saying that the “red flag” turned out to be a guy waving a greeting to us with his red t-shirt! He then commented that he was going to see that the young man got another color t-shirt! Some of us think he also ought to get his bridge crew a better set of binoculars! But seriously, because they couldn’t raise the boat by radio, the Captain was obliged to do what he did in case there had been a problem.

Wednesday, November 12

At sea for the first of four days before reaching Hawaii! Jill I started work on our dragon this afternoon and made pretty good progress. In the past, on some trips, there have been contests for teams of people to build a ship from odd parts supplied by the cruise staff. This time the contest is not a ship, but “an icon of the trip.” So we (actually, Jill) decided on a dragon. There were three distributions of “parts,” and you must use at least one/some of each part in the first distribution. This includes things like corks, tiny papier-mache flowerpots, markers, a roll of red ribbon, a short piece of white ribbon, a foam paintbrush, etc. The second and third distributions have included a bag of mixed buttons, scissors, assorted pipe cleaners, medicine dose cups, rulers, dowels, glue sticks, aluminum foil, bits of glittery stuff, etc. At one of our ports, Jill found and bought a packet of fancy origami paper and a big hunk of florist’s foam (which carves like a dream), and we’ve been saving things like the gold foil wrappers from the pillow chocolates, etc. So now we have a head (which at the moment looks rather like a green duck while the glue dries, and a pair of front legs, and about a thousand ideas of what to do with the rest of it. The judging isn’t until after we leave Hawaii, so we’re making a list of stuff we might need at Wal-Mart, and I’ll make an expedition there on one of our two days in Honolulu. (Jill is flying off to the big island to visit some friends for a day or so.)

The other day that we will be in Honolulu, I plan to make an expedition to Hilo Hattie’s...just on general principles. If there is something specific you need from there and you can let me know all the details in time (via e-mail to my regular address, please), I’ll look for it for you. (Note: that last sentence applies only to people that I may be seeing in person in the foreseeable future. I don’t plan to take on shopping duties for any- and everyone who might be following this blog.)

I want to mention television on board. There are about 17 or 18 channels available on the tv sets on the ship including those in our staterooms. Several are dedicated to things like the view ahead of the ship from the camera on the bridge 24/7 (somewhat interesting except at night), some music-only stations, a couple of stations that show and reshow videos of things like shore excursion information, some of the lectures, and other programs aboard, etc. Several of the others show videos of old cartoons or programs from channels like Discovery, A&E, etc. These get repeated over and over throughout the cruise until you are thoroughly sick of them. Four channels show movies from the ship’s relatively extensive DVD collection; they repeat all day, but are changed every day. And finally, there are three channels that we get from satellite feed: CNN, ESPN and TNT (or maybe it’s TBS, I can’t remember which). Anyway, for the past ffive or six days we have not been receiving these satellite channels because we are too far out in the Pacific. The satellites are, not surprisingly, aimed at the continents and certainly not at these small islands or at a ship in the middle of the ocean so our dish can’t pick them up. This will most likely continue at least until we reach the vicinity of Hawaii. I’ve found it refreshing that we are actually out of the reach of the instant media!