South by Southwest in the South Pacific

And so our journey across the South Pacific has resumed. Moorea, where we spent our Sunday, was  the last land we will see until we reach New Zealand mid-morning on Saturday.

 

We sailed some 2,500 miles from Hawaii to French Polynesia on a body of water that at times reached a depth of 14,500-feet.  We have nearly the same distance to travel to reach New Zealand.  Then another two days at sea to reach Sydney, Australia.

Although we knew the Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest, covering some 46% of the earth’s surface, we had no idea just how immensity of this body of water. There has been no other marine traffic along our route. A bird or two flew past as we neared Tahiti, we saw another some 400 miles from Moorea.

We saw a fishing boat some distance from Tahiti but no others before or after that lone ship. Television and internet signals sometimes weak, other times none existent.

The weather patterns have changed daily.  During the early part of our journey we were buffeted by gusty winds (the Captain called them ‘moderate’ but they blew sandals away from lounge chairs when sunning on the deck).  Yesterday, a sunny warm day, brought the calmest seas we’ve experienced and today the heavy clouds and strong winds have returned. We lean into the wind to walk on the deck in the photo above. 
Our 122,000-ton Celebrity Solstice ship at times lurches and groans against  the wind and waves. (For those of you who think you have a distain for large ships, let me tell you that in the midst of the Pacific and up against the forces of nature, they don’t seem so large at all.)

Perhaps Somerset Maugham, said it best in his “Moon and Sixpence” novel based on the life of Paul Gauguin, when he wrote,

“The Pacific is more desolate than other seas; its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon it has the feeling of adventure.”
“The air you breathe is an elixir which prepares you for the unexpected.”

That’s it for Travel Photo Thursday this week!

The Day That Never Was – October 15, 2013

Sailing east or west pretty much means you’ll cross a time zone or two. For instance we moved our clocks back an hour last night and are now four hours behind the Pacific Northwest. 

This cruise is offering a whole new time change experience~ we are losing tomorrow. So our usual "Travel Tuesday" post is replaced by this one: We won’t have an October 15th, plain and simple. The events of the world on Tuesday will happen outside our sphere of existence.  Some 8 – 10 people on board are celebrating birthdays on the day that won’t happen.

 

We cross the International Dateline tonight, sometime about 2 a.m. That means the sun sets on Monday and comes up on Wednesday.

The International Dateline is an imaginary line  that separates two consecutive calendar days.  It isn’t perfectly straight and has been moved slightly over the decades to accommodate the varied countries in the Pacific Ocean.

Somehow crossing such time zones in an airplane isn’t as strange as going to bed one day and waking two days later.  Have a great Tuesday! We'll be enjoying Wednesday. . .

Living A Celebrity Life

Our floating home has carried us several thousand miles from the port in Honolulu, Hawaii to French Polynesia – Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea.


We are sailing the same waters charted by those brave navigators centuries before us; James Cook and Ferdinand Magellan, among them.  I dare say our ship, the Celebrity Solstice, pictured above, is far more luxurious than the ships they sailed.  And much larger -- it would take almost 10 of Cook’s ships to stretch the length of ours. 

 

And now that we’ve been on this vast stretch of ocean for five days, passing no other ships, seeing no other forms of life, we are even more impressed with the courage of those early day explorers. We leave tonight for another four days at sea to reach New Zealand.

 

Our ship has 15 floors stretching from the lower floor 2 where we board the tenders that take us to shore in many ports, (photo above from a tender) all the way up to the very tip-top Sunset Deck from where we wile away hours watching the clouds and sea.

 

Our room we describe as being on one of the ship’s  bulges – we are on the 8th floor – quite in the middle of the ship.  The circle to the left of the “X” above highlights the area in which our cabin is located.

By being on the bulge our balcony is slightly larger than those on the narrow part of the ship. Note the flat screen television - (we watched our Husky football team play last week and today we are watching Sunday NFL football following our return to the ship.

 

I am writing at the desk to the right of the television and when I turn my head to the right, and look out at our deck, this is my view. We are currently anchored at Moorea.  A tropical paradise? You had better believe it – photos don’t do it justice!

Sailing the South Pacific – It’s Official!

With much fanfare, fal-dee-rah and zany festivities we crossed the Equator about 2 p.m Tuesday Honolulu time and 5 p.m. West Coast U.S. time.

 

We passed the half way point in our journey to Tahiti on Tuesday  morning; just beyond 1,100 miles from Hawaii and 1,100 miles from Tahiti.

Tuesday afternoon’s crossing from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere was marked by three blasts of our ship’s horn: one for the sea, one for the sky and one for the Equator. The photo above is our Captain Neptune (whose voice was much like that of our Cruise Director) who led the silly festivities marking our passage.

You can tell from this photo that it was a standing room only crowd of our fellow passengers who marked the occasion under near 80-degree sunny skies.

 

We’ve not seen land since we left Lahaina, Maui Saturday evening.  We love these days at sea (and again they are going too rapidly!)

I’ll write more about the Celebrity Solstice, our floating home, in our next update.  Just wanted to check in with you all who are kind enough to be following along.

(And thanks to my blogger buddies who’ve written such nice comments on our recent posts – I have limited internet out here so will be back to your sites after we reach land – but want you to know it is nice to hear from you in Greece, Provence and Australia today!)

Travel Tuesday: Christmas in July

We meet some of the most interesting people when we travel.

Many times, it is while sitting at a bar during Happy Hour.  Like that evening in Hawaii . . .

 Doug and Carla Scott, were sitting a couple bar stools away from us one evening at  Chuck’s Restaurant on the Ko Olina property on the western shores of O’ahu, Hawaii. 

While sipping our Happy Hour Mai Tai’s, I overheard Doug  tell someone they were sailing to Fiji.

Because we are heading that way ourselves this fall, I asked about the cruise line they’d be taking.

Silly me!  These people are sailing themselves to Fiji.

As is the case when strangers, who share a passion for travel meet, the conversation continued long past Happy Hour.

Doug and Carla Scott

These two nautical vagabonds met and married in Oregon. In fact, the first time they sailed together was on the Columbia River. Then their work lives took them to landlocked Albuquerque, New Mexico for the next 18 years.

Leaving the Conventional Life Behind

Just as we decided to jump ship and leave the conventional world behind for our Mexico adventure and subsequent life of travel, you might say they jumped to a ship and left  the conventional world behind.

Moondance

They didn't shake their sailing 'bug' in the high desert and by 1988 were researching sailboats; they also had decided to sell  ‘almost everything’ and buy one.  In 2000 they found Moondance, a blue water cruiser for two, (pictured above) had her shipped to California and lived aboard her for eight years getting ready to begin the life of cruisers.

After leaving San Francisco in 2008, they spent a year and a half sailing around the Sea of Cortez and by February 2011 were in Banderas Bay on Mexico’s west coast preparing for the Puddle Jump to French Polynesia.

In April 2011 they spent 22 days sailing to the South Pacific; they spent seven months there exploring Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands, Moorea, Huahine, and Bora Bora. The photo above was taken at Tuamotus Bay.

They arrived at the Ko Olina Marina in January 2012 and decided to make it home for the next year and a half. 

Our chance Mai Tai encounter happened at the end of their stay, just as they were beginning preparations to head out again for the South Pacific.

The four of us planned to continue our conversation while we were all at Ko Olina  (we were at our Marriott timeshare home) but never quite managed to get in more than a brief chat . . .usually during that popular Chuck’s Happy Hour.

But we’ve stayed in touch and are now following Doug and Carla as they are sailing to the South Pacific.

They’ve sailed 1,200 miles from Hawaii to Fanning Island and on July 4th arrived at Christmas Island, both part of the Republic of Kiribati  made up of  33 islands spread over 2,400 miles.

If their story has sparked your wanderlust, check out their blog, by clicking this link:  Following Moondance for their tales of the South Pacific.

That’s it for Travel Tuesday the day we feature either tips or tales about people and places! If it is your first visit, we hope to have you return soon. And to our many regulars – thanks so much for continuing to travel with us!