Sunday 15/2/2015 – One sea day between South Pacific Islands to Fiji

Beautiful seas and skies, but so hot, best viewed from inside!  We haven’t felt inclined to be outside much today, apart from our essential walking after breakfast and dinner.  No swimming or hot-tubbing today, in fact there was even a decadent little afternoon nap in the cabin today.

Our quest to keep cool had also involved in-cabin telly, rewatching the captain’s slide show “life on the Bridge”, very informative and once again reminding us of how much there is to learn, and to stay mindful of what’s happening here and now, and not to take the work of the ship’s officers and crew for granted,  plus a documentary called “20 Feet from Stardom”, an insight into the work of Black American background singers over the last 50 years, all about Gospel roots, women’s issues, racial equality and much more.

Otherwise normal activities in air conditioned spaces like dance (today it was Samba) and art (a mountainous landscape) were comfortably achieved.  The landscape is quite complicated so we are going to take two sessions to finish.

Meal times are still just as interesting. I always start a new conversation as soon as someone says “Is anyone sitting here?”  There are a few retired nurses doing the whole circumnavigation. One of our table mates, Bea, is a nurse, and Bea incidentally only lives in Whitefield, then a lady we met at breakfast a few days ago who spent her nursing career at Pendlebury children’s hospital working with children with leukaemia, and today a former Barts nurse and midwife who later became a nurse manager in Southampton, who coincidentally knows someone from the Department of Health I remember doing a DANS when I was studying for my B.Nurs at Manchester in the early 1970’s. Some lovely unexpected yet vital nursey conversations.

Tomorrow we arrive in Suva in Fiji, we don’t have a tour booked this time, but Khachik has all the instructions he needs to find a haircut and we know that we won’t need a bus or taxi to get to the town centre, just a short walk from the port. We dearly hope that alongside visiting Paradise Island we can have some live chats with our loved ones tomorrow. Clocks go back one hour tonight so it might be possible.

Let’s see. Bye for now, time to get the black frock on for a formal dinner. xx 

Wednesday 11/2/2015 Day 37 Lobsters on board!

Oh dear, some passengers have overdone it on the decks and in the pools. In spite of warnings about the deceptive feeling of coolness the breeze can give, there are some frazzled bodies moving gingerly and looking lobster-like today.  I hope they all feel comfortable again soon and can enjoy the next couple of port days.  I have not suited sunbathing for many years so I have escaped a good baking, and am still on SPF 30 when we go walking, taking coffee or hot-tubbing.  Even so there’s a healthy change of skin tone coming.  This area on the ship has now been renamed "Lobby Bay" by our dining mate Jim

Certificates of Equator Crossing were on our beds last night, and the fun and games when Neptune boarded yesterday got everyone together in a good way.  By midday today we had travelled 14,025 miles.  Today’s air temp is 30C and surprisingly the water temperature is 31C.  You might not be surprised to hear that this makes the energetic activities less likely to come about ;) Five laps early, no dancing, but we are just getting ready for art, which is in an air conditioned ballroom.  We will wait until sunset to finish the walking today.

The excitement to be getting to Samoa tomorrow is building again.  Our first Samoan port is Pago Pago, Tutuila and the second island is the following day Apia on Upolu.  Trips booked on each island to get us a bit closer to family life on the islands. Very good feeling about these although the days will be hot ones, no air conditioning, wooden seats in the buses, bumpy rides on bumpy roads – sounds real and fab and we can’t wait.

Instead of dancing Khachik went to a lecture today in the Palladium, given by the Captain about how the ship works.  He learned that the ship is driven by 2 propeller pods which can rotate through 360 degrees, no rudders required. Sideways movement is through a large diameter turbine which sucks sea water from one side, and pushes it out of the other.  Very interesting. However I didn’t go to this one, but sat out of dance taking a few notes about the Ballroom Tango (for when it cools down later!)

Next two days are port days, but probably no wi-fi, let’s see. There are clearly too many passengers to fit in the one MacDonalds!!!!  If there is we will share our recent photos. If not we will do this in Suva, Fiji in a couple more days.  Back tomorrow.  xx

Tuesday 10/2/2015 Day 36 A visit by the great sea god Neptune ;)

Well, today we cross the Equator on our way down under on sea day 4 from Hawaii.  That Neptune gets around a bit – he came onto our Hurtigruten ship when we crossed the Arctic Circle in 2011, to be part of an ice baptism ritual and he was there again at the Equator when we cruised on the Costa Pacifica to Rio last year, and rather sportingly became part of a slapstick event involving flour and blue dye. And today we will be partying with the great sea god at 2 p.m. He must be a laugh a minute to spend time with in the sea!

My word it’s hot out there this morning. We had our morning coffee out on the deck and almost melted.  Glad to come inside for a Rumba lesson, lunch and then art (a beautiful quite calm seascape, with frothy waves breaking on the shore). 

I had an extra art lesson at breakfast, as Easa joined us – all about the eyes. I am so happy. Today I learned about highlighting eyelids to create the impression of roundness and softness.  I have had a go at this in pencil for now, and will ask Khachik to sit for me later.

There’s one more sea day after today before we reach Samoa and set about learning some more about Polynesian Village life, and a trip to parts of the islands which are believed to be the inspiration behind one of the most famous characters from South Pacific the old much loved movie from my childhood, Bloody Mary.  Remember “HappyTalk”, and “Balihai” (spelling?).  I can too.

Anyway for now bye. Much love to you all. x

Friday 6/2/2015 – La Haina, Maui. Welcoming, easy going, blissful day out.

This morning after breakfast while we were waiting for the tendering to start we had a coffee on the open deck at the back of deck 9 (AKA Aquarius Pool). I couldn’t believe my eyes when the hump back whales started to pop up out of the water in groups of 7-8, all over the place.  Not close enough to take pictures, but close enough to enjoy enormously. All the better for knowing that when they are courting the males compete with how high they blow water! Of course I might be the only one who is learning about whales for the first time, so apologies if these bit seems unnecessary ;) The bigger the lung capacity, the more attractive the male. There is a lot of water blowing into the air at the moment as it’s that time of year.  Once the whales have paired up, mated and grown a baby, they stay in the warm waters until the baby whales are weaned and become independent. The females lose 40% of their winter weight when they are in these warm waters feeding their young, and don’t bother eating very much until they return to Alaska and start eating lots of fish again.

Tendering is good fun. 30-50 people per boat go ashore and return on the ship’s own little boats when we have to anchor away from the port.  Usually it’s because the ship is too big for the port (today), but sometimes there isn’t enough room (Sydney in a few weeks’ time). Because the boats are so small you feel everything and are very close to the sea.  It feels like you’re riding the back of a dolphin (or how I imagine that would feel). When the sea is rough you move about a lot, and there’s great potential for getting soaked. You are also close to marine life and get the best views.

We walked through the town La Haina and had a really good look around.

Housekeeping activities - Khachik found a supermarket today selling 5 litres or red wine for $20, so he’s very happy. We visited 2 shopping centres, a local café and Starbucks, but most notable a little shack selling Hawaiian food, so we enjoyed a hearty lunch, Khachik the Kahlua pork, and I had a tofu with teriyaki sauce. We caught up with Facebook – very important.

Temperature today has been high 20’s most of the day, just a few clouds, and a little bit windy so we have also spent an hour in the hot tub on the open deck, a few minutes in the sauna, and about 3 laps round the Promenade deck (1 mile that is), a 5 course dinner the main course of which was a juicy Mahi Mahi Fish Steak, followed by an hour of cabaret, and now a quick blog update before bed.

Heading south west towards the Samoas in the South Pacific, starting with Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) where we have booked a tour called “Village Life”.  But that’s after 5 creative and energetic days at sea with daily practising of both our painting and ballroom dancing.  Updates every day of course.  Bye for now.