However, this was the closest we would get to Maui. Since the harbour is not deep enough for the Grand Princess, she needs to anchor off shore and use the lifeboats to shuttle us to and from the pier - tendering to use the nautical term.
Captain Maresca sent a tender from the ship to the pier at 7:20AM to evaluate the sea conditions. Winds were blowing at 15 knots (28 km/hr), and were forecast to strengthen throughout the day. So he decided to wait for an hour and try again. No joy. The winds combined with the swells were giving 3 to 5 foot waves. We watched a larger catamaran heading away from shore and he was bobbing and rolling quite dramatically. Yeah, this is not going to happen. People will be tossed around the tender all day. So the Captain made the difficult but wise choice to cancel our call at Lahaina.
Our next stop is Hilo on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii. With room for only one large cruise ship there, and no other port to call on within a reasonable distance, today was designated as another At Sea day. The Grand Princess sailed through the Auau strait between Lanai and Maui, and then a rather circuitous route through the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and Hawaii at about half-speed. We plan to arrive at Hilo as scheduled at 7:00AM tomorrow.
Dona booked us a dive with Lahaina Divers this afternoon, and it was to be her birthday gift to me. Since there was no way we could make it, she phoned up to cancel. Fully expecting to sacrifice the fees she paid, we were pleasantly surprised they refunded our money. Wow, talk about great service!
The Cruise Director (Sammy) and her staff did a wonderful job of cobbling together today's activities on very short notice. We attending this talk by a retired social studies teacher called The Secret Hawaii. Held in the Princess Theatre on Deck 6/7, it talked about the Northwest Hawaiian Islands - French Frigate Shoals and Midway - site of a pivotal fight between American and Japanese carrier battle groups in June 1942. These islands are sparsely populated, but have millions of birds and an extraordinary variety of marine life. It was a fascinating lecture.
The temperature this afternoon reached +26C, with relative humidity of 82% 8.2 winds from 173 (south) at 36 knots produced waves 8.2 feet high. Breezy.
It's interesting to see the programming on the on-board video system. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 1970s TV series The Love Boat is on every night. The movie Tora Tora Tora was on. It's a very factual account of the raid on Pearl Harbour, and stars Henry Fonda and Charlton Heston.
We took in our third Ukelele lesson today. There's going to be a recital on one of the last days of our cruise where our class will perform in the Princess Theatre in front of all the passengers, at least those who dare to show up. A hula dancing class will have their performance, then we come on stage and perform Tiny Bubbles, Aloha Oe and Pearly Shells. Our entire performance will be on the souvenir cruise DVD. This is going to be fun!
So Dona bought me a Ukelele for my birthday present. Yep, they were selling half-decent ones in one of the shops on board, and our instructor said it's well-suited for instructional use. Dona bought one for herself too. So now we're a band. Next we need to get some groupies, a few roadies, organize a fan club, and we need to start booking tours. Oh, and that sound you hear is Brian's Mom and Mr. Rusinak (Brian's Grade 8 & 9 band teacher) uttering the answer to how you get to Carnegie Hall - "practice, practice, practice!".
The Grand Princess Musicians were playing some incredible Dixieland jazz in the atrium today. These guys are good!Everyone was on their feet dancing and clapping and having a great time! 
Later this afternoon we hung out at the Oasis Pool & Bar - yes this has become our favourite quiet spot on the ship. After a magnificent dinner we took in one of the theatrical shows in the Princess Theatre. Tonight it was Do You Wanna Dance - a montage of dance from various countries around the world. It was a very impressive production. 
After the show we watched an audience-participation game called Princess Peer Factor that pits two teams of four against each other in various activities. It was hilarious! Here's a picture where teams use balloons to make one of their team mates look like sumo wrestlers:
Tomorrow at 7:00AM (11:00AM Central Time) we arrive in Hilo. We're taking the all-day tour to Volcanoes National Park and the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory.
It's 10:34PM. Good Night.
Hilo is a nice little town....there a cute artisan shops and a nice farmers market, but they were all closed when we were there as we got there too late on a Sunday. Have a great day!!!
ReplyDeleteBeen waiting for an email all week and Anity finally reminds me i got one and have to go to the blog. Have a weeks worth of vacation to catch up on.
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