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November 19 Joe's an Ginger's LogWednesday, November 19, 2008. 170 people have viewed this log since its inception. While it has been very satisfying to communicate with friends and relatives through this medium it contains precious memories for Virginia and me. One of these is of the island of Maui. We. enjoyed lunch on the Lido deck (8) yesterday. Outside our window we could see many small boats, a beach and volcanic mountains undulating in the background as eons of lava sheets spread themselves across the landscape. I do not have any pictures because I completed my DVD yesterday. With Robert, our computer expert's help, I am quite proud of it.
By the time we get to San Diego we will have completed 21,200 nautical miles.
Good bye.
November 17 Joe's and Ginger's LogTuesday, November 18, 2008. Today is Ginger's birthday. She is holding up remarkably well. We took a bus trip around Oahu and saw the city as well. Hawaii looks like the United States will look in the 21st century. The mixture has produced beautiful women and fine looking men. We had lunch at a lovely hotel on the beach. You will see the beach in the pictures with a swimming pool. Honolulu is a city of 900,000. It sits on an island which is 600 square miles. It is the perfect place for electric cars since people can't go great distances. People travel from one island to another by plane or boat. The ferries are equipped to carry cars.
While waiting on line at the digital computer room I heard some interesting pieces of information. The ship has a brig. One passenger was put ashore for punching a crew member in a dispute. He paid his own way home. Along with assorted bruises, sprains and broken bones five people have died their bodies have been put in the freezer between the flowers and the filet mignon.
My DVD is done, thanks to Robert, our computer specialist. We are looking at it while I write this. We are very pleased with the result.
At dinner tonight Ginger was presented with a birthday cake and "Happy Birthday" in Indonesian.
November 14 Joe's and Ginger's LogFriday, November 14, 2008. We have sailed over 18,000 nautical miles since we left Seatle. I believe we will reach 22,000 nautical miles when we arrive in San Diego on November 23. I am told a nautical mile is nearly one and an eighth of a land mile. Thus we shall have travelled close to the circumference of the globe.
Cruise ships seem to have dropped midnight displays. Instead, we had a glorious feast with ice carvings, ginger bread houses, and food decorated in all ways imaginable. The crush of people taking pictures and getting into eat was a bit much. I was not pleased with yesterday's pictures and hope these are better.
In a day and a half we will be in Hawaii. These are an archipelogo some 1500 miles long. Hawaii is at the eastern end and is 2300 miles from the California. Midway Island is almost at the far western end. The islands that dot the Pacific Ocean (which is three billion years old) have three sources: some, like Samoa,were detached from a continent; others are made of coral reefs; but, the Hawaiian Islands are the tops of volcanoes. In fact, the main island is still growing territorially. Except for one small island the Hawaiian Islands are further from other lands than any other place on earth. We are in the midst of that vastness now. The azzure blue water is beautiful.
We received two blog messages from my cousin Frank Celentano. Anthony and Joseph sent e-mails.
November 13 Joe's and Ginger's LogThursday, November 13, 2008. We are in the open ocean one third of the way to Hawaii. The seas are quite rough and the ship is rocking. We enjoyed a lunch with some interesting guests, two lawyers (one a holocaust survivor) and the other a Greek Orthodox priest.
At about 11 a.m. we crossed the equator and a ceremony involving Father Neptune was held around the pool on deck 8 (the Lido Deck). I hope the pictures accompanying this will give some of the 'flavor' of the festivities.
After 8 weeks on the cruise I have not gained a pound. It is, for me, quite a victory because the desserts, if they are as delicious as they look, must be incredibly delightful.
Fred Bunt sent a message on my web page. These are always a joy to receive. All else is quiet and these are a relaxing few days.
Goodbye, for now.
November 11 Joe's and Ginger's LogSecond Tuesday, November 11, 2008 (We crossed the International Dateline early this morning.)
Our ship docked at Apia, the capital of Samoa. The people are brown skinned, goodlooking and extremely friendly. This is an abymally poor country with an unempoyment rate of 25% with the rest being minimally employed.
The highlight of the day was our visit to Robert Louis Stevenson's home. It a fairly large, rambling structure, on a rise in the ground, with a superb view of the ocean. It was here in 1894, at the age of 44, that Stevenson died of tuberculosis. He was, and is, much revered by the Samoans. He is buried a 45 minute walk above his home. While there I was reminded that my own father had tuberculosis in 1930. Pop survived that and lived to be nearly 89.
The law of the sea commands ships to come to the aid of ships in distress who either radio for help or wave a red flag. While in the Caribbean several years ago our cruise ship stopped to help a Nicaraguan fishing ship whose engine failed. The tender brought supplies and got the ship's motor going. Not long after leaving Apia, on our way to Honolulu, a red flag appeared on a small vessel. Our captain could not obtain radio contact so he turned our huge vessel around and sent out a tender. This occurred just after 5 p.m. Many folks stopped what they were doing, took out their cameras and rushed out on decked. I took some pictures of the ship and the tender. It turned out that it was some seaman's red shirt and that all was well. Enough 'excitement'!
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