Honolulu, Hawaii

February 4

Eastern Time minus 5 hours

We arrived in Hawaii bright and early. Well early anyway… it was raining. Carla and Carla were there the minute we got off the ship and we were greeted by this beautiful rainbow. Life is good!

Carla and Carla are Wisconsin friends that relocated to Hawaii last fall. They live on the Big Island of Hawaii. Carla and Carla went to great length to meet up with us. They flew over and stayed in a hotel 2 nights and got a rental car to pick us up etc. We really appreciate it. They were originally scheduled to fly out of Hilo, but with a huge amount of rain, they changed it to another airport on the dry side of the island in case the road was closed because of rock slides. By the time they returned home, Hilo had received 49 inches of rain in four days. For those of you that know I can't type, this is not a typo.

Carl and Jeff had original cooked up the idea that we would fly over to the Big Island and then get back in time for sail away at 6 PM. After Hawaii we had 4 sea days until Pago Pago and I just didn't want to chance it. We almost missed the ship as it was, more later on that.

We took off immediately for Pearl Harbor. We wanted to beat the tour buses and we did. The memorial was high on our list for the day and it was very interesting and quite moving.

Jeff brought along his favorite car companion, "Stella." This is his GPS that he hauls everywhere. He used her in Ft Lauderdale, LA and now Honolulu. Stella led us on our way to Pearl Harbor and then on to Nuuanu Pali Lookout. It was neat up there in the clouds and fog and very windy, but visibility was low because of the weather.

The next stop was Kailua Beach. This was the first place we saw Outrigger canoes which were everywhere. We were there on a Monday and we saw probably 50 outrigger canoes being paddled around the city.

One thing we noticed was that even on the most deserted beach there was a lifeguard stand like this.

They are into safety of surfers. This is a great spot for wind surfing and kite boarding. We really enjoyed watching them. We couldn't figure to what this guy has on the top of his helmet that looks like a crest.
We later figured out that it was some kind of communication device that he used with another guy on shore with a radio.
We stayed there a long time watch an old guy getting lesson from this young guy.
We wanted to see if he could do it, but he never actually got up while I was watching.

The next stop was to see surfers on Kaloko (Queens) Beach. It was fun to watch them try, but they didn't seem to be having a lot of luck.

Time for visit at Waikiki Beach for lunch and cocktails. I had a Mai Tai and Carla had a Honolulu. We had a great lunch of Ahi Tuna Cobb salads and then walked the beach.

Time was growing short so we were off to the Waikiki Yacht Club. It was a beautiful place, although casual. We felt very welcome and at home here. Time for the sailors drink… Mount Gay Rum! Anyway we got involved with the drinks and checking out the club. We were enjoying watching the Outrigger canoes that were over on one side of the club.

I tried to get us organized to get out of there, but it dragged on. We were quite close to the ship, but still had a little way to go. Jeff didn't bring a watch on this trip, so sometimes doesn't feel a sense of urgency when it is needed. When we finally got into the car, he kept fooling around with Stella even though Carla knew how to get to the ship. When we got into the vicinity, we were fairly far from the ship. The roads were one way which made it hard. I got out and grabbled what I could from the trunk which included a bottles of water and a bunch of other stuff. Jeff kept fooling around with Stella trying to put in Carl's address on the other island. I finally just left and went hustling along the street. By the time we entered this huge port building, it was empty. There were a couple of workmen they were finishing piling up all of the barriers. They yelled out, “Here they come”. All of the gangways were up but one. There was an officer there that said he was just going to try to call us. We were there about 7 minutes before we were set to sail. I was in meltdown mode.

When we got to the cabin, there was a message from Stirling, Clare and Kazzie. They were worried. They had a feeling we weren't on the ship and didn't know what to do. They had seen the gangways disappear one by one and knew we were close to leaving. When we got to their cabin, we had some champagne and I tried to calm down. Once again, a great sail away. Four days at sea.

We received this message from Carl the next day. I"ll bet Jeff and Stella are in the dog house for being tardy @ the ship. In all honesty, Stella and her commander did make my driving easier.

All is well that ends well, but it sure was a lesson not to cut it too close. There are a lot worse places to be stranded at than Hawaii.