Cruising The Pacific Ocean en route to Honolulu, Hawaii - January 25

overcast, 15 degrees, 

I'm someplace in the middle of the 'north' Pacific - apparently that's what where I am is called - to me it seems like you could go a whole lot more north in the Pacific, but when the ship’s captain describes our position, he calls it the north Pacific…I will not argue.

Each day the captain gives a noon announcement. In his announcement he talks about sea conditions, sun rise and sun set, distance from the last port etc. He also describes the sea depth…I don’t usually pay much attention until he talks about 1000s of feet…today was over 4000 metres, 13000 feet, or 4 KILOMETRES!!! I don’t know much about sea depths, but I’ve been hearing about them for the last 3 weeks and 4000 metres comparatively speaking is DEEP!

The captain also told us about the swells we were experiencing – we were told they were 3-4 metres. Since Miami, we’ve experienced swells this large, but not for as long. We talked to a few people who said they didn’t have a great night and were a bit barfy. So far, so good for both of us. I don’t necessarily think this means we are in the clear and won’t ever experience sea sickness, but…

One day down and 4 to go, on our crossing to Hawaii. Many people we talk to expect to feel a bit stir crazy or dying to touch land once we get to Hawaii…The longest I’ve ever been at sea was 4.5 days and I handled that just fine. As I’ve written about before, I can fill my days with the gym, sleeping in, blogging, reading etc, etc. Now I can add BINGO to my day’s activities.


BINGO onboard a ship is as I expect it is on land…you buy cards (can use ship board credit), someone calls numbers and you hope to get more than everyone else…basically. I don’t think I’ve ever actually played BINGO for money. I’ve played at school and worked a BINGO or 100 for band back in high school, but never actually played. I didn’t actually win, but it was fun. Part of the fun was the quiet meditative aspect of it – not much talking and a whole lot of listening. I can see doing this again. Also, no dobbers were used here…the cards have tiny holes you punch out. As we were playing Kingo Bingo came up in the minimal conversation we were having…now thats a blast from the past! Of course as we were talking about Kingo Bingo, Stampede Wrestling came up too…ah…nostalgia!

After BINGO it was time for lunch, a nap, some blogging and the ship’s block party. Again, as with the beginning of the last leg of this journey, at a specified time, everyone on the ship spilled into the hall just outside their cabins with an empty wine glass to meet neighbors. Cabin stewards wander the halls with wine and canapés while the ship’s officers make their way down each hall until they have ‘fist-bumped’ everyone…That’s right…fist bumped. They staff here try to limit hand shaking for hygienic reasons and I’m just fine with that.

Cruise Mapper is a web site we use to see where we are and what other ships are around us. This is pretty interesting, more for who is around is and less for where we are. It also gives plenty of information about the ships. We are the Seven Seas Mariner.
https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9210139