Voyage to Pago Pago

Having left Hawaii on February 9, we have had four days at sea, following a rhumb line course to Pago Pago. We will arrive on Valentines day.

The weather was somewhat less lumpy, as we are headed south from Hawaii on February 10. We are in the area of the trade winds - north of the equator. The schedule for sea days includes a briefing on some up-coming ports (including tours you can purchase), eclectic lectures by an anthropologist from Chico University, occasional duplicate bridge, choir rehearsals, brisk walks around the deck, wine tasting, and meals. The evenings have a show, and several places to dance and drink. We have been enjoying the Commodore Club on Deck 10 with a singer - piano player who seems to know all the Noel Coward songs, and a few by Matt Dennis. A wonderful place to relax and have a single malt scotch.

A cruise is a lesson in self control - you can eat as much as you want as often as you want. Now that we have been at sea for almost a week, we are pacing ourselves, eating a sane breakfast and a light lunch. The evening meals in the large restaurant are four course affairs, varied, tasty, and artistically arranged. Our table-mates at first were two couples from Yorkshire, England. They have been on the cruise since Southampton - and they are making the full world cruise.

For those on the world cruise (which includes those who boarded in San Francisco, as we did), there are special pins, hats, travel bags, cocktail parties with the captain, and dinners. Our schedule had to be adjusted so we will be able to attend the World Cruise dinner in Sidney. We will attend the Opera the second night - seeing Turandot - rather than The Marriage of Figaro.

There have been two empty seats at our table since we arrived. We asked the dining room staff to investigate. Apparently, the couple assigned does not intend to eat with us - there are several other options on the ship, and you can always eat in your room and have room service. We are recruiting another couple to fill the empty seats. We successfully recruited another couple.. They are from Baltimore, so now there are four Americans and four British at our table in the evening. Last night they featured dance music of the 50s and 60s. Ah, the good old days.

In order to survive on a long cruise one must do laundry. Jean has located the Laundromat (two on each floor). No quarters needed here. So by noon on the 11th, we had clean clothes. With over 2,000 passengers,  securing a washing machine can take fortitude and determination. The weather continues to calm down. The temperatures are now in the low 80s. We have not tried either of the pools yet, but we have our swimming suits.

The U.S. Homeland Security folk are protecting us in Hawaii as well, not just on the mainland. We learned from two members of the crew, who took the tour with us on Oahu, that they had missed the morning tour they should have taken because they were detained by a Homeland Security team which interrogated them, checked their toothpaste, and all their luggage. One was a medical student, who is working as a printer on the ship, and the other was a friend of his.  Homeland Security found nothing.

On February 12, at 11:30 AM we crossed the equator - we are now in the southern hemisphere. There was a ceremony later today to induct the “pollywogs” who have never crossed before - which will include King Neptune and his seaweed court. We are on our way to Pago Pago (which seems to be pronounced “Pango Pango“), so by Tuesday, we should be in American Samoa.

My only disappointment so far is the slow internet connection from the ship. I had intended to include photographs with my blogs. When I tried to upload the pictures from Hawaii, the connection never succeeded, but just restarted in the middle of the first picture several times. This has implications for virus protection as well. Norton is fussing that I am “at risk.” It does not seem to have a setting for slow connections. I was going to show you a picture of the equator.