Radiance

Monday 23^rd September   - Embarkation Day
(Cruise Day 1)

So an early start saw us swimming in the ocean before 8am.  It was raining quiet hard – but we were going to get wet anyway.

Again the ocean was lovely.  With a huge rainbow disappearing into it.   

It was then back to the room to pack and get ready to go. But a chance for a load of washing was too good to pass up – so while the clothes were washing and drying we did a last shop.

Ice cream  - the breakfast of champions.

A taxi to Pier 2 showed us the mighty Radiance of the Sea – sitting there waiting for us.

Getting on was very simple and we were checked in and onboard by noon.  As we were going through the final check in I heard a loud “Raina, welcome home” and looked up to see the wonderful Juan Diego waving.  What a welcome!

Strange. Our luggage pile grew in Honolulu.

After lunch we went to the Concierge Lounge and sat in comfort and waited until our room was ready. It was then down to see our lovely Grand Suite, 1530, our home for the next 18 days.

Of course I had the obligatory Nanna Nap then off to the Concierge Lounge. 

There is a different Barman there – Rosario from India. He is lovely. And of course Juan Diego, to pander to our every wish and to make our holiday even more special. 

Dave and Sue from Queensland (and the Dec 2011 NZ cruise) were there with their friends Trevor and Vivian.  BUT it appears that Trevor is actually called Keith – but the Trevor name stuck as the night went on and he appears to have been renamed. What an awesome group we made – regardless of names!

After a while we were able to ‘claim the corner’ - so all is good. That was a good effort as there are 50ish people in suites, 50ish Diamond Plus and 6 Pinnacle. So a crowded lounge is to be expected.

A wild few hours were spent and many drinks consumed. I won the prize – well the glory of being the first to break a glass. I bumped it and over it went, making a huge noise and drawing applause from the whole lounge.  Wasn’t even caused by too much consumption.

A few others joined us so our group will grow.

Our six headed off to dinner and it turns out that the allocated time was at 8pm not 8.30 due to the late muster drill.  On the way past Suzanne, Sue and Vivian helped themselves to roses off the flower cart.  They went back to get me one but were told they were $5 each. Opps. 
I was the only person who had glasses at dinner - so we all shared.

We got to dinner at around 9pm. They let the others in and we begged our way into the allocated seating section of the dinning room (we are in the my time dining section). We had a very rushed dinner as the muster was at 10pm.  The poor people who had put kids to bed – but rules and rules and this one is important.

And then sail away at 10.30pm. 

On one of the suburbs on a hill the street lights have been designed to write the words "Aloha". It can be seen as ships sail away – but you do have to scrunch up your eyes to see it.

So there we go.  Off to sea.  No land for 5 days!

Sarah and Andy - Juan Diego sends his love and is looking forward to seeing you on 24th October!

Tuesday 24^th September - SEA DAY (day 2)

A relaxing at sea day. Yahh

Main dining room for breakfast with a nice group followed by  a welcome cocktail party with the Captain and many senior officers. At 10.30am!!!!

As I left the room to go to the said party, there was Captain Sindre walking up our hall, so I got my own welcome hug!  We then went up and chatted. No one vomited on the Captains shoes this time!

After that I went and read and relaxed. I spent time reading in the Diamond Lounge – cause I can!

On repositioning cruised they do lots of major maintenance like replacing beds and re-carpeting the rooms. There are huge plies of carpet everywhere (like in the outside walkways – all labeled Chops, Casino, Photo gallery etc). They ask you to leave your room for 20 minutes. When you come back it has new carpet! Pity the wankers that did our new carpet didn’t learn from RCCL.

In Honolulu as well as being turn around day they replaced the mattresses.  Like 1500 mattresses!!!!!

I went to the first of a series of lectures relating to this trip. The lectures are by a guy called John Roberson who has written a number of books and been on many documentaries about Captain James Cook. He grew up in the same district as Cook and is a distant relation. 

So…James Cook did an apprenticeship with the coal companies as a seaman. He had eight siblings – three of which made it to adulthood. In 1755 he joined the navy with the rank of Master’s Mate. By 1758 he was made Master of the 'Pembroke' and was sent to the Siege of Quebec in 1959. The French used Fire Ships as a battle technique (– must have learned it from Tyrian Lanester) where they would send burning ships down stream to the enemy. Cook’s job was to stop them. He did that and then sailed up the right hand channel to Quebec. This channel was thought to be impassable and Cook won the battle.

He then charted the channel and proved himself to be a genius cartographer. His career was on the rise.

He married and had six kids who all died in childhood or before having children, so no direct descendants. 

He charted Newfoundland and the charts were so good they were still used 100 years later and are almost identical today.

He surveyed an eclipse in Newfoundland and attracted attention, as his astronomical knowledge was great. The Royal Society convinced the government to send his to study the Transit of Venue as there was a bit of a world race to get the best info.

So off he went to chart Venus and to ‘find’ Terra Australis – the great Southern Continent that they knew had to be there. After watching Venus he did ‘discover’ New Zealand They stopped there and did some repairs then voted to sail home via Batavia (aka Jakarta) and ran into what is now Australia.

Joseph Banks was compared to Richard Branson – and extremely wealthy man who could afford to pay his was to go on fantastic trips. This was one – and what a difference he made. When Cook returned to England he had successfully charted the Transit of Venus, New Zealand and proved that there was indeed an east coast to what ever was where they believed the southern continent to be. And returned with valuable scientific specimens, drawings, charts and data.

In 1772 he headed off again as he didn’t think he did a great job. This time he found Antarctica. He missed Australia on this occasion.

In 1776 he wanted to retire as he was getting older, but the Navy asked him to go again. This time to discover the Great North Passage (which he didn't discover - as it wasn't there!). So back through the Pacific where he 'discovered' Hawaii and up around Alaska. No passage but lots of other stuff.

On the way back he stopped at Hawaii. The lecturer said that basically “he outstayed his welcome, was a bit pushy as his tolerance was reduced with fatigue, got into a fight and was killed by the locals”.

By the time of his death he had charted ALL of the major islands and archipelagos of the Pacific. He was the first to cross both the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. The result of his three voyages was huge in terms of benefit to Europe and in term of long term devastation to Pacific cultures – disease, religion, slavery, and to wildlife in places like Alaska.

He died at the rank of Lieutenant.  (He went up a rank after each trip). Regardless of rank the top officer on a ship is known as Captain, thus the Captain Cook bit.

As you can see the lecture was great.  Another one tomorrow.

The seas have been picking up and are now lovely. Not huge but the boat is moving.  The wind out on deck was great. Had a lovely walk.

More quality time in the Lounge then a lovely dinner with a group of ladies from Florida.

Wednesday 25th September (day 3)

I hope I don't drop my camera overboard! We are in 5000 metres of water. Yep 5 kilometres of water under us. Thats a lot of water.  

More relaxing, resting, reading etc.

Todays lecture was about Paul Gauguin by Michael Varhola – a Gauguin expert.

"Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin – The Painter of Papeete".

He was a leading French post impressionist artist famous for his use of colour. He was a true multi media artist producing works in paint, sculpture, print and drawings. He was a good friend with Vincent van Gough, although they did have a fiery relationship. Gauguin produced a very famous piece of sculpture depicting himself as an empty jug, showing that time with Van Gough made him feel that his head was drained.

After one disagreement the two had a razor fight. Gauguin ran away – so Van Gough, left on his own cut off his left ear, and the rest is history. 

He was born in Paris and moved to Peru as a baby. He was a good painter. Then back to Paris as an adult where he became a very successful stockbroker until the global stock crash of 1884 left him unemployed.

His chosen drink was absinth. 

He labored on the Panama Canal. During this time he became disenchanted with the European impressionist art and the lifestyle and tried to escape civilisation. He felt that everyone had seen it and had painted it. He wanted something different.

In 1891 he went to Tahiti. He lived a fairly wild life there and did things such as take a 13 yo as his concubine. He wrote a book about his life and sexual exploits during his time in Tahiti. Many of his painting from this time made a strong statement about French Colonialism and their interfering with native cultures. Most of his works were very dark.

He was the first European to embrace the Primitivism movement with much nudity and colour. His painting had great power.

He often sided with native people against both the church and the colonial powers, writing books about this and getting himself into trouble.

Although he was living in paradise his painting were often sad rarely showing happy people. He developed serious syphilis and was sentenced to jail for arguing with French but died before he could go to jail.

He never knew financial success in his lifetime although was recognised as a serious artist. Most of his works were bought by a Russian collector, who saw that one day, they would be very valuable.

There are none of his works in Tahiti.
   ---------

Another highlight of the day was when someone pressed the wrong button. The chimes for an announcement went off and the announcement was broadcast.

“There will be a party in the crew bar after 11pm tonight. All welcome. ……Please remember to wash our hands after every visit to the toilet…..see the notice board for….It is John X’s birthday today. Happy Birthday…..Thanks for listening”

 hahaah

The Captain came up to the Concierge Lounge and poured drinks. He was very creative and invented a few drinks.  Someone wanted a Gin and Tonic so he added a red liquor and some fruit and called it a “Radiant Sunset”. 

Our group played “pass the Pig” and had much fun.

They stole my camera and took it on an adventure. 

A good fun day.

Thursday 26^th Sept (Day 4)

Today I went from being a ‘Slimy Pollywog’ to a ‘Trusty Shellback’.

How?  By crossing the equator in a ship!  And going through a ceremony. 

I started the day off in the Northern Hemisphere.

Getting close to 0 degrees North, 0 degrees south.

The ‘Crossing the Line’ ceremony is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, and now other Navy’s and ships, commemorating a sailor’s (or passenger’s) first crossing of the equator. Originally the tradition was created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea.

King Neptune (aka Capt Sindre) and all of his entourage including mermaids, island girls and pirates paraded onto the deck and sat on the thrown. 

The ‘Slimy Pollywogs’ all had kneel before King Neptune while a list of charges was read out.  The charges included  - not tipping the dealer in the casino, using the elevator to go up one floor and pushing all of the buttons in the elevators. The king thought about it and decided to clear our slates.  We then had to kiss the fish.  The entourage walked around with fresh fish - some of us got to kiss the huge fish (like a john dory but about 600mm across), others were smacked on the cheeks with a small fish.

Check out the size of the fish I kissed.

Slimy Pollywogs.

Then the next group came out – all happened to be men dressed in their swimmers. The crimes were worse so they had to be cleansed by being covered in spaghetti, fish guts and flour among other things.

The last guy must have done something realty bad – he was taken behind a screen and operated on. All manner of stuff was removed for him.

Was fun and very funny.

We crossed the actual equator. 0 degrees north.  0 degrees south.  We crossed at 154 degrees west.

The lecture today was about ‘The Polynesian Diaspora’. The dispersion of a group or race of people.

Early studies showed that all nations through out the Polynesian areas of the Pacific shared similar Language, Religious Structures, Artifacts, Social Structures and Canoes.

The earliest explanation was that they all came out of SE Asia then moved on. (This has recently been proven).

Other theories were they they were The lost tribe of Israel.

That they all originated on another large continent called Mu, that sank into the ocean. The mountains became the islands.

It was then believed that they travelled from South America. This was disproven by the voyage of the ‘Kon Tiki.’ But there is still no explanation as to how Sweet Potatoes did get from South America to the islands.

The groups –

Poly = many. Nesos = islands.  Polynesia = Many islands.

That is the people’s from Hawaii, New Zealand, Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

DNA testing has now proven that the Polynesians came from Austronesia –off the coast to Taiwan. And are not of Chinese decent – maybe from the Malay Peninsular a long time before that.  They left Taiwan around 6000 years ago. And arrived in New Zealand only 700 years ago. This makes New Zealand the latest settlement of an area by humans.  Another group of the Taiwanese group went west and settled in Madagascar. They still have the similar language etc.

Another group had already moved to New Guinea area around 35,000years ago.  The Austronesian group may have stopped there for a long period and inter bred with the New Guinea people.

They arrived in the Solomon Islands around 4000 years ago,  in New Caledonia around 3200, Fiji around 3000 and Samoa and Tonga around 2200 years ago.

They have been able to track much of this through a form of fired pottery called Lapita.

Micronesia is the tiny islands like and Melanesians is the very black skinned people of New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and the Solomon’s.

People didn’t move to Hawaii until 1600 years ago and Easter Island 1700 years ago.  The people of Easter Island cut down all of the trees, thus loosing the ability to make boats and then the knowledge to make boats, trapping themselves on their island for over 300 years.

All of the Polynesian islands have a Kingly cast, then a Priestly cast (who held the knowledge and the navigation skills), then the bulk of the people, then slaves.

Their navigation skills were far more advanced that the Europeans of the time. They used a number of things to work it out. Astronomy, study of currents, and flotsam and jetsam, of ocean birds, seasonal weather patterns. Captain Cook made a chart after getting information form Tupaia, a priest. This chart showed Tahiti as the center and included all islands in a huge area.  They could navigate not just from A to B, but back again to A.

They all built double hulled canoes with outriggers – some could hold 30 people.

They all celebrate the start of the new years based on the arrival of the Pleiades constellation – Hawaii in December, New Zealand in June. 

All were warlike nations

The future of the islands is not great. Although tourism is big – it is mainly big corporations getting the money. 

Large nations are exploiting their fishing areas.

Climate change is already affecting them.  Kiribati Islands are already going under and have leased land from the Solomon’s to move to.

Sad.

The trivia comp was good but we didn’t win.

The scavenger hunt was good but we didn’t win –just.

The Shuffle Board was excellent – although we are making up new rules for tomorrow.  The first team to 10 points wins.  You have no idea how hard it is to get that puck into a square without touching the edges.  Took us all a long time.

Sea days are too damn busy.  So many things to do –so many clashes therefore missing out on so many. No time for a Nanna nap!!!!

Juan Diego continues to entertain us in the Concierge Lounge with his excellent hospitality and keeps us very happy.

I finished the evening off in the Southern Hemisphere.  Pretty cool

Friday 27th September.  (day 5)

Apparently we are heading into a big internet hole.  How strange, we are literally, in the middle of the Pacific and are between satellite links.

So may not get updates up - Sorry ANDY. Keep checking

Today was a very unproductive day.  Didn't do much at all.  We lost trivia again.

Had lovely chats with the captain in the lounge.  Went and watched half a movie.

Maybe I will be more productive tomorrow..........probably not.

 We were making up a funny sentence about Trevor (also known as Keith or Kevin's pants- but i cannot remember it all.

Trevor's terrific trousers .....

My annual photo with the captain.

 Suzanne did give the captain a bit of a lecture on the evil's of being in a satellite 'black spot' and not telecasting the AFL final.

Quote of the day...after many many cocktails.

Suzanne while at the dinner table.

"Excuse me. I just need to go to the toilet.....before I piss my pants."

Saturday 28th September.  (Day 6)

 Sea days are lovely.  Relaxing, reading, watching a movie. 

Shuffle Board was even harder with our new system.  Dave got a bit creative with the minus points so instead of making it faster scoring we all ended up with negative scores.

I finally got a Nanna Nap today!!!!!!!!!!!

In the evening we went to the 'Liars Club' where four senior officers give fake meaning to words. We heckled and yelled and thought we were so funny.

But we won.  I think they do the scoring on participation not points!!!!! Cause we sure participated.

Tomorrow  - Tahiti!!!!!!!!


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