Day 25: Crossing the South Pacific … Day 1 of 4 (or is it 2 of 5?)

Monday, 30 January 2017
At Sea — Pacific Ocean

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:00p (HAST) … UTC 7:00a (31 January)
Temp: 78.1F (25.6C)
Position: 12.54.93N / 156.07.23W

Always do what you are afraid to do.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

The first European sighting of what is now known as the Pacific Ocean was in the 16th century.  Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa did so in 1513 after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.  He simply called the body of water he saw Mar del Sur [South Sea].  Then came Magellan in 1521.  He was circumnavigating the world at the time.  He named the calm waters he encountered Tepre Pacificum — meaning pacific or peaceful seas in Latin.  HAH!  That’s what I have to say about that!

The largest of the earth’s oceans has not been living up to its name.  At least not for us.  Here we are on another day at sea — a day that would have officially been the first of a four-day crossing had we not missed Kauai yesterday.  And we are dancing across the Pacific yet again.  I think the motion of the ocean has been the worst of what we’ve experienced to date on this voyage … but certainly nothing like what we’ve experienced on our 2007 Antarctic trip … on a much, much smaller ship, too.

It’s now 6:00p, and the overcast that dogged us all day has started clearing up — we have blue patches in the sky, and the sun is coloring the clouds as it prepares to set on the horizon.  But the waves have not softened their blows against the ship’s hull.  Maybe later — after all, Captain B said things would be improving this evening.

I was up at 5:30a.  No walking for me as the outer decks were all closed due to high winds.  The thick salt spray that was being blown about looked more like rain than just a mist.  We ended up eating breakfast at the Waves Grill just to stay out of the elements.

This was a ‘social day’ for me.  The informal Meet & Greet for this segment was scheduled for 10:30a.  Not many showed up, but I wanted to meet Alice and Tom, who joined the ship yesterday.  They are with us for a couple of my tours, so I thought it would be nice to have a chance to get acquainted.  Juanita, who is traveling with her granddaughter Anastasia, Pam and Ray, and Boris and Sonia — all aboard for the full shebang as we sometimes refer to the full voyage — also joined us for a lively two hours of chatting.  Before we knew it, lunch time was at hand.  Since it was such a miserable day outside, we all opted for lunch in the dining room — a nice change of pace.  And a good continuation of the conversations we started at the M&G.

The rest of the day I was in the cabin, recharging my depleted social batteries … and working on a couple of blog posts.  The internet was more iffy than yesterday, but still quite good — take advantage while you can has been my motto on this voyage so far.

Mui says it’s time for dinner — a quick one at the Terrace Café to wrap up our day at sea.

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.