Fun in the Sun!

October 10, 2008

Hola! It’s been a few days (or maybe a bit longer) but we’ve been super busy around here. Today we’re on our last Sea Day (out of 5!) Sea days are brutal for us - working all day every day. I’ve been working my tail off to fit in work outs etc. We are just plain tired! Tomorrow morning we will be in Raiatea, Society Islands of course, I’m in port manning and can’t get off. But hey, the trade off is 2 days in Bora Bora where I’m not IPM! So, I’m accepting it. Other than working really hard, I’ve taken a few pilates classes (when I’ve been able to catch it) and I LOVE it. It works every muscle and I definitely want to stick it out and keep going. I’ve been going in 45 minutes before the class starts and doing cardio and then moving onto the class and I feel FANTASTIC after it.

Anyways, we spent six consecutive days in Hawaii, all of which we’re beautiful weather with the exception of Hilo. But, I was IPM in Hilo – so again, worked out in my favour!

(I’m not sure if I already wrote this in my previous blog – so here we go again!)
Kona, Hawaii – Kona was our first tender port. Again, in tender ports we don’t get too much time out because it’s extremely difficult to find the time to get over there, stay for awhile and allow enough time to come back before going back to work. We went to a sandwich shack of sorts and ordered turkey sandwiches on Hawaiian Sweet bread which is WONDERFUL. It was fresh and they factory was right down the road. We went swimming on the beach for awhile – the water was cold, but a beautiful blue green. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was how rocky the bottom was. We both cut up our feet, but Sherwin got two huge gashes down the back of his heel.

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaiii was beautiful – very “small town” feel, but as always, very touristy. We didn’t have much time to do anything there because it was a tender port which took away over an hour of our time. We ran to the grocery store and grabbed a sandwich (and attempted to buy some diet root beer…but it was $10.00!!!!) and just headed over to the water, sat close to the pier and ate our lunch. It was absolutely gorgeous. One of our sister ships (and hopefully our next ship), the Volendam, was in port with us. All in all, didn’t do too much that day, but just enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.

Honolulu, Hawaii was our first overnight port. The first day I was IPM, but managed to switch with someone for the night time. About 9 of the bar boys and me, along with one of the bartender’s wife caught cabs and went over to Waikiki Beach at about 10pm and had a BLAST. The boys had some drinks and we took hamburgers and hot dogs from the ship and just went swimming and had a ton of fun. It was nice to be off the ship with no true time constraints (other than when they had to be back for work at 6am.) We stayed until 2 am before catching cabs back to the ship. You’ll see tons of pictures (when I eventually get them posted) from there. There’s a ton of pictures that we took along with other peoples that they passed onto us.

Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii was our last port of call before these 5 hellish sea days! I did a crew tour that they called “Tubing the Ditch.” Basically, we hopped in tubes while wearing our bathing suits, fashionable water shoes (hello...what water shoes are fashionable?!?!), helmets with headlamps and rubber gardening gloves. We went down a long waterway similar to that of the Lazy River...some areas were faster than others. We traveled down through these small rapids and through 5 different tunnels. It was really awesome. I don’t have any pictures of us once we were on the tubes because of the water, but I will post a few of the group and some pictures from a lookout point that we stopped at on the way to the entrance point. We had a great time – I bought a cool t-shirt and had a TON of bug bites to remember the trip by the next day. I guess that’s what I get for being so dam (get it, dam ships!) sweet! It’s nice to go on a tour with crew (even though we have to pay for them) and just get away for a bit from passengers. Between their gassy asses, walkers, scooters and just plain slow moving bodies – it’s nice to remember that we’re still young!

Sherwin couldn’t go on the tour that day with me, he had to work. But him and some of the boys went surfing on the beach – he said the island was beautiful!

Since Nawiliwili was our last port in Hawaii, we did a “traditional” or somewhat traditional “Lei Ceremony.” Basically, we had a huge sailaway party on the back deck and we called up groups (i.e. virgins first, then first-timers to Hawaii, then multiple trip people) and they threw their lei’s into the back pool. Technically, they are supposed to go overboard, but because of Environmental Compliancy Rules, we just utilized the pool. When you throw your lei into the water, it is supposed to mean that you will be back to Hawaii at some point. I ended up playing in the back pool with the On-board physician’s son (he’s 14 months). Some people got some pictures of us playing, so you’ll see those when the pictures get posted.

We did cross the equator again this past week. I had already gone through the King Neptune Ceremony (where first-timers are initiated by getting food thrown all over them.) I’m sure you remember the pictures - I was covered in spaghetti and other food particles. It was tons of fun! Anyways, we had another one of those ceremonies and Sherwin had crossed the equator before, but didn’t go through the ceremony – so I volunteered him to his boss and he submitted his name. So he was officially intiated – again, there will be pictures of that eventually. I was a pirate in the ceremony – so I got to be “mean” and bring the “pollywogs” (newbies) to King Neptune, make them kiss the fish, then bring them to the Doctors and Nurses to get food thrown all over them! All in all – lots of fun and memories!

Last but not lease, Sherwin got a promotion – so he’s really excited. No more 6 a.m. starts to his mornings!

That’s all that is happening here - Just enjoying life and trying to get through the long sea days!