East of the Dateline

Feb 5 – A relaxing day at sea today. New lecturers, one will talk about the culture and history of Polynesia. Not yet sure what the other one will have as a topic. The lecture today was filled with information but delivered in such a deadpan mode that it was difficult to stay with him. It’s much more interesting to hear someone who’s excited about his topic.

The repertory cast of the ship performed their first show this evening, Sweet Soul Music. They were very good. They sang and danced to soul music of the 60s and 70s.

Feb 6 – I guess the people with no proper circulation have gotten to the engineers, as the ship is very hot everywhere since yesterday. It seems like it would be easy for them to put on a sweater or something. If I take many more clothes off in an attempt to be cool, people are going to be offended. Even our room, which was very comfortable with the thermostat set at the center is now over 76 degrees with the air turned up to the maximum setting. If things continue at this pace I will come home weighing less than 100 pounds. Ha! Fat chance, pun definitely intended.

The Prinzendam does not have as many floral displays (above) as the Volendam but the ones they have are beautiful.

Feb 7 – Today started out pretty well, the air conditioning is working better. We arrived at Christmas Island (right) a little early and then got the BNOTD. (Those of you who followed our exploits in Europe know that BNOTD stands for Bad News Of The Day.) The tides were ebbing and there was not enough water over the reef to get the tenders into the lagoon to the pier. Therefore we are heading to Samoa and hope to arrive there early to get more time in port. They are refunding us the princely sum of $14.37 for the Christmas Island port fees and taxes and the Captain is buying us a glass of Champaign for dinner.

Diana and I visited Christmas Island in 1990 but we are still disappointed that we did not get to land there again. It was a very rustic place. It’s the largest coral atoll in the Pacific. It is the largest and easternmost island in the Kiribati group and has 50% of the nation’s land mass. You might remember hearing of these islands back in 2000. They claimed to be, and probably were, the first inhabited land mass to celebrate the new millennium on Jan 1, 2001 as the rest of the Kiribati group is on the other side of the Date Line. We had a great time when we were here before and wish we could have visited again.

We had to wait a while to leave as the local officials were here on the boat and because the tenders could not enter the lagoon, we had to wait for the outrigger pilot boat (left) to come out to get them.

This evening’s performer was Marty Henne. His show was titled “Songs you know by people you don’t”. He performed a series of well-known songs that were written by people who only had one or two hits. Sometimes a well-known songwriter wrote the music but they lyrics were by someone of whom you’ve never heard. My favorite was ‘As time goes by’ from my favorite movie Casablanca. He was very good; best show of the trip so far.

Feb 8 – As we head south today we crossed the Equator. Of course that prompted a visit to the ship by King Neptune (left). When he found that some poor pollywogs were on their first crossing he ordered them punished. Members of the crew had a great time smearing the pollywogs with all sorts of food items (below) and then dunking them in the pool. One of the traditions is making the Pollywogs kiss a fish. They had a very large fish for this purpose. I’m not sure exactly what it was but it was big.

Feb 9 – Another lazy day at sea. I look forward to the morning’s tai chi class and then our travel agent’s escorts hold an informal coffee time in the Explorer’s Lounge. We get the inside scoop on what’s going on shipboard and some info on special offers they have coming up on future cruises. We have a woman on board who fell and broke her hip. She’s been in bed for 4 days and will be evacuated to New Zealand tomorrow in Samoa. She’ll have surgery and recovery there before being returned to the states. Tonight’s entertainment was Petrina Johnson and John Smitherman. They both had solo shows earlier in the week. Tonight they performed solo and then came back to do a duet from Phantom of the Opera. He’s an American tenor and has done a lot of stage work on and off Broadway. She’s an English alto and has performed on the West End and other venues. They were very good.

Feb 10 – Today we are in Apia, Upolu, Samoa. It was Western Samoa when we visited in 1991,but adopted the name Samoa when they received their independence from New Zealand some years later. Apia is the capital city of the islands and the city is small but has several good hotels and some shopping.

We headed out to town to the Piula Cave Pool (right). It’s on the grounds of the Methodist Seminary in the islands. The pool is right next to the ocean but is fresh mineral water. It flows slowly out of a cave into the volcanic rock hillside. The water was about 75 degrees, too cold for the geriatric set from Florida but just right for a Pennsylvania country boy. Most people took a dip and then moved a few yards away to swim in the ocean, which was about 84 degrees.

I found the pool refreshing, as it was hot and very humid today. I swam back into the cave about 20 yards around some gentle turns. At that point there was enough reflected light to make the water glow enough to see the rock ceiling and walls. From that point the cave turned 90 degrees and all the light reflection was cut off. I went a little further but visibility was terrible and I had to turn back. As I swam out I realized that there was a soft current flowing out of the cave, as it was a little easier to swim out than it was to swim in.

The water felt a little heavy and when I tried to float I discovered that I was very buoyant. I tasted the water and it had a very high mineral content. It was much more dense than the salt water of the South Pacific just a few yards away.

After the swim we drove part way back into town and had lunch as a small local restaurant right on the beach. They had a buffet of Hawaiian style pig, chicken, fish, shrimp, octopus, various salads and the best little variety of bananas I ever tasted. They were about 4-5 inches long, very stubby and about as round as a quarter. They were sweet beyond description. The lunch was great. After that it was back to the ship to drop off our touring stuff and head downtown for some shopping and sightseeing. The shuttle dropped us off at the far end of town and we walked back looking at the sights and stores.

At Aggie Grey’s Hotel we found a nice shop with local crafts. Diana bought a shell necklace and some tapa cloth coasters. Tapa is made from tree bark and is decorated with Samoan designs. While we were in the store she posed for pictures with several of the employees. Samoan’s being very friendly people they readily agreed. The all asked me to send them copies of the pictures. I’ll email them copies tomorrow. I wanted to get a lava-lava to wear on casual nights on the ship. I asked the sales lady if she had some in my size. She asked me if I liked any of the bolts of cloth on the wall and I picked one out. She said, “You look like about 2.5 yards.” And proceeded to cut the cloth and go behind a little partition. Two minutes later she was back with a fully hemmed lava-lava and all this for $8 Samoan, about $5.75 US. Best buy of the day.

By the time we finished looking around we much closer to the ship than the shuttle pick up point so we opted to walk back to the ship. It rained a little on the way and the cool rain provided welcome relief from the heat and humidity.

Back on board the ship HAL had arranged for a local folkloric group (left) to sing and dance to Samoan music. They were very good. They are touring New Zealand next month to promote Samoan tourism.

After that it was down to the room and on with my new lava-lava, an island shirt and sandals (below) to head to dinner. The Indonesian staff in the dining room thought I looked great, as did most of the passengers. The stuffier passengers did not appreciate my look but it’s rather a sport of mine to see if I can get on their nerves a little. Too much pomposity irritates me. Life is meant to be fun in most of its aspects.

We gain another hour tonight in preparation for a ‘tiring’ day at sea. After that it’s on to Suva, Fiji. We were supposed to go to Tonga that day but the Tongans withdrew their landing permit saying we would tax the infrastructure too much. The real story is that the newly installed government just wanted to undo the permission of the previous administration. Yikes!! Politics is politics even in the islands of the South Pacific.

Feb 11 – Today we are enjoying a day at sea. Very restful. Even more so as the air conditioning in our room is back to normal again. We will be crossing the International Date Line today and that means that we will not get Feb 12th this year. We will drop Saturday completely and go directly from Friday to Sunday. Several of the passengers were wondering if we would get a refund for the day we missed. I’m telling you, it takes all kinds, even when you’re cruising. I’m so pleased that the air conditioning is working that I’m declaring today ‘be cool’ day and that’s the way I’m greeting everyone I meet. I think I’m developing a bit of a reputation for being eccentric. Lots of people I don’t normally have conversations with have complimented me on my lava-lava from last night. Good to know that the effort is appreciated!! (Now that’s really funny) Well Suva, Fiji tomorrow. We’re going to a Cultural Center to see some dancing.

Feb 12 - The Day That Never Was. They put that on the movie listing outside the theater and I overheard several people wondering if they had ever seen that movie. One gentleman thought it was an old black and white science fiction movie from the 50s. I'm telling you, you just can't make this stuff up.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005