11 - 16 August

Saturday 11 August Port of Honolulu – Pacific Ocean 

Currency – US Dollars

We arrived in Honolulu about 0800 hours and everyone was more than ready to go ashore after five days at sea.  I had spent a week in Honolulu about 5 years ago and had done all the sightseeing I wanted to do so Pat and I decided we would grab a free shuttle bus into one of the big shops and then continue on to the biggest shopping centre on the island.

We left the ship, grabbed the shuttle and walked into the shops with the intention of walking straight through to the other side to catch the shuttle onto the next shopping complex which was where we intended going.  Yes, you are right $100 later I leave, it was a clever trick, when you walk in you are given a key to a treasure chest and you open it and pick out a prize which is a reduced price on pearls.  I was given a bowl full of live oysters and told to choose the hairiest and oldest one which I did and when it was opened it contained a large pink pearl.  I, of course had to have it set into a lovely charm for my Pandora and it looks fantastic. I have now run out of room on my bracelet, it is full of lovely memories.  Thank you John for starting me off.

We then moved onto the largest shopping centre and that was 1100 hours and we left after 1800 hours.  Pat had her hair dyed, nails repaired and I sat in the court yard making the most of free Wifi and uploaded all my outstanding blog journals, what I did in 1 hour would have taken me well over 5 hours on the ship and nearly $100.  I am going to find another way of doing it next time.

We returned back to the ship just in time for me to gr a bottle of wine and some ships and race up to the top deck to watch the sunset and to try out my new binoculars.  I was going to wait until I was home to buy them as I wanted to take them with me to Africa but they were a good price in Walmart and I can use them when we leave the Pacific Ocean which is just sea and more sea.

We had a ‘Sail-a-way’ party that night, we were all dressed up in Hawaiian clothes and lei’s, the men were all in the loud Hawaiian shirt, we left Honolulu about 2230 hours and we continued dancing in the warm tropical air until late into the night.

 Sunday 12, Monday 13 August – Pacific Ocean

The weather is still overcast and the sea is a little choppy although we do not feel it very much as the stabilisers are very good.  We still can’t get up on deck a lot as the wind is very strong.

All the 600 ‘Around the World’ passengers met at 1700 hrs on the top deck Monday to have a group photo taken; we covered the whole deck plus the surrounding deck, not sure if the photographer managed to get us all in.  I stood next to Ann who was wearing bright pink shirt so I should be able to find myself.

People are starting to talk about the end of the cruise and it is hard to believe that we have less than three weeks left.  

Tuesday 14 August – Pacific Ocean 

The weather is getting warmer although the wind is still strong, especially in the mornings. Tonight we cross the Equator at about 2030 hour and to celebrate the event the ship had a ‘crossing the equator’ ceremony during the afternoon.  I must admit that I enjoy life at sea and this section has a heap of sea days as we cross the Pacific.    

Wednesday 15, Thursday 16 August – Pacific Ocean

Gosh the Pacific Ocean is huge, we seem to sail and sail, over 500 nautical miles a day and we never see another ship and very rarely see land.