Day 18 of 111. Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

Hi everyone. It’s Ron again.

We just finished day 2 of the Marathon walk to Hawaii this morning. 12 miles down, 14 more to go. We start at 6:30 a.m.and finish about 8:00 a.m. Sunrise is around 7:00 a.m. So it’s really beautiful to watch the sunrise even while walking. Gene, the cruise director, is the smiling fellow in the picture on the deck. His smile really shows his personality.

It’s hard to believe but we’ve traveled over 5,234 nautical Miles (6,000 land miles)! We still have about 1,500 nMs to go before we reach Hilo, HI. We’ll spend 3 days in the Hawaiian islands then another 5 days before we get to Majuro, Marshall Islands. From there it’s on to Guam, Saipan, Japan. Once we get to Japan, things begin to happen pretty fast for a while.

Everyday we have at least two lectures about the history, geology, and peoples of the area we’re sailing to. This week all the lectures are about Hawaii and/or the Polynesian islands. As an example, one of today’s lectures is “Paradise Undiscovered-Polynesia Before Cook” about how for a thousand years before the coming of the Europeans to Polynesia a society existed which was remarkably successful: orderly, prosperous and fun loving.

We even learned a little Hawaiian in this morning’s lecture:
“mauka” means Mountain
“makai” means sea/waterfront
“moana” means Ocean

These lectures are all extremely well attended.

While Paul is off to Watercolor and Drawing classes, I’m off to another cooking class with guest Chef and Caterer to the Stars, Denise Vivaldo. Today’s class was “Shrimp with Corn Salsa and Espresso Tiramisu”.

This evening is another Gala Night. We dress up in our suit and ties before going to dinner. The ladies at our table are always dressed to the nines. There are 15 of these gala nights during the cruise. Always a fun great night.

Finally, tonight’s entertainment is the group UKEBOX. Five guys from Liverpool England (go figure) playing ukuleles. Should be fun??