Part 1: Motoring to San Diego, enroute to Hawaii, 05.01.10 *****
Part 2: Washington and Oregon, Enroute to San Diego & Ship 05.01.11 ****
Part 3: Klamath Lake, and then on into California, 05.02.25 *****
Part 4: The Ship ms Ryndam, Holland America Line, 05.02.26 ****
Part 5: Starting the Sea Voyage to Hawaii, 05.03.05 *****
Part 6: Hawaii at last. Sea Turtles and Picasso Fish, 05.03.20
Part 7: Hawaii, -- Maui and Black Pearls, 05.03.20
Most of this voyage aboard ship is at sea. That's why we took it. Hawaii, for
us was incidental. On the 11th of December we were docked in Hilo. The weather
was good. There were scattered showers, and the temperature was about 23c.
The next day, the 12th of December we were in Honolulu for the day. Again the weather was good and mostly sunny. The temperature was 30c.
On the 13th of December we docked in Nawiliwili. The weather was pretty good, with a partly cloudy sky and the temperature was 24 c. We left in the early afternoon again and did scenic cruising of the Na poali Coastline. At dinnertime we
started to sail to Lahaina and the next morning we were anchored in Lahaina. The sky was mostly sunny and it was 31c. Ben and I did quite a bit of exploring.
We loved a huge Banyan tree there in a square! We took a long time at the local museum. It was a smaller and pleasanter place to visit. At almost bedtime we were anchors aweigh and the next morning found ourselves anchored at Kona. That day was also mostly sunny and it was cooler again at 26c. We were only there
until about 5 pm and then by nearly 11 pm we were scenic cru;ising Mount Kilauea
. It was a long way away, but we could see longred stretches of lava winding their way down by various courses, into the ocean.
It was very pleasant in the darkness on the top deck near the bow watching this and enjoying quite a brisk wind. I got talking with an interesting person beside me at the railing. Finally Ben and I were the only ones left and we enjoyed
about an hour by ourselves just cruising along on the dark ocean with the smokestacks and the radar equipment, and so on all lit up, but nobody but ourselves to admire the night as awe began a north east course for San Diego. From then on
the skies were partly or mostly cloudy due to the hweather approaching the mainland.
One of the new seminars aboard ship on the return trip was given by a very charming Persian named Professor Zadeh. He came to the USA in 1967. The professor began by talking about some of the odd or funny things that made it hard for him
to learn American English. Here are a few examples that he puzzled over to himself:
The saying: "straight from the horse's mouth"
The fact that: noses run, and feet smell Get it????
When he was first in New York City somebody called out to him: "Hey dude, what'
s cookin' man?" and he was completely baffled by that one.
The word "pretty", -- as in "pretty awful" pretty fat" "pretty skinny"
"pretty shitty." He said, how do you figure *that* out?
Here are another two uses of "out" that seem to mean the opposite of each other:
"The stars are out."
"The lights are out."
His puzzling over the word "hell".
"hell of a day"
"for the hell of it"
"hell of a lady"
"hell of a deal"
"fast as hell"
"slow as hell"
"dumb as hell"
"hot as hell"
"cold as hell"
I'll share a little more of Professsor Zadeh later. He got us warmed up by making the whole audience howl with laughter. Gradually, over three or four days heworked his way into some serious thoughts he wanted to share.
2:30 pm on another day, of many: we're on deck enjoying the sun, waves and breeze. Ben is asleep in his deck chair beside me. The deck chairs look just like
the ones in the movie, Titanic. I don't worry about hitting any icebergs, though! ;-> Fat chance!
This morning there is a Captain's luncheon for those with various levels of numbers of days sailing with Holland America line. We must have about 40 or so.
Some people have 300+. A very few have 700+! A few people live on these ships,
so no wonder! The luncheon was enjoyable, and the table talk good. There were two people at opposite sides of the table and unrelated to each other, who stayed behind when the others left to tell Ben and I that we should write a book.
They insisted upon it. One was a woman named Mary Day from Chicago, Ill, and the other was a distinguished looking man named Norman, (not the retired priest.)
This man was lame. His feet had been frozen at the Battle of the Bulge. That
was a WWII horrific war event.
I have been watching the ocean these past few days and thinking of how Baha'u'llah refers to the Ocean of God's Mercy. He also speaks of waves and of billows.
I want to look into it to find out how he uses those metaphors, too. I like to
meditate on the natural world, and this will give me more to chew on as I observe.
Holland America cruises attract many interesting and accomplished people. I'm glad we discovered the line.
At Baha'i summer schools as often happens, or at conferences with seminars, various connections begin to appear between various pieces of information from here
and there. Finally a distinct pattern emerges. I think I begin to see some such pattern emerging here. I wonder if it will solidify so I can describe it?
Yesterday Ben bought me my pearl and a fitting ring setting for them. Today I'm
wearing it. I love it more and more. The slightly smaller and darker stone with the green sheen is me, and the larger, slightly rosier one above it symbolizes Ben. The name given to the ring setting "The Arms of Aloha" fits my vision well, and the two pearls between the twin diamond on it are like the ttwin stars on each side of the Baha'i ringstone symbol can signify the Bab and Baha'u'llah.
I wear a thick gold band with the ringstone symbol on my right hand. The pearl
ring overshadows and protects my wedding ring on my left hand. His wedding ring
is the only ring Ben has ever been willing to wear.
Every afternoon these days it seems to become cloudy and cooler. I'm glad to be
almost well again, and able to spend a lot of time on deck either walking, looking at the bow waves or the great white and pale green at the stern or just reading in a teak deck chair. The voyage over it was much too chilly, windy and rough to spend much pleasant time on deck. It's either much less rough now, or I'm
getting my sea legs and sea tummy as well as over that cold. I hear coughs everywhere. The whole shipful of people seem to have it to varying degrees.
Yesterday two or three people confided in me/us. I guess it is easier to talk about your deepest concerns with people you may never see again. The first was one of our Lido deck waiters. Suddenly, as he poured some water for me he began
to relate how he arrived home from a tour of duty, entered their bedroom, and found his wife in bed with another man! He told me the whole story. through to present conditions of divorce, and now trying for custody of his children to be cared for by his mother. It was amazing how quickly he told it, and was able to move on about his job so that I'm sure no supervisor even noticed that he had done so.
His mother was the one who found the children in the street and took them home with her, while his wife was away with her lover. Three or four days later when
she came to try to collect the children again his mother wouldn't allow them to
go with her. This husband is a wiry and determined looking little man, yet he thoroughly beat his wife's lover. Later he trashed the man's office. It was located right next to the police or army barracks in his town and he has relatives
who are police or in the army. I guess that gave him confidence. The wife and
her lover use drugs together. After telling me this quite quickly he carried on
with his work and I could see that he was still dwelling on it by the stern look on his face.
The same evening Don, our tablemate and his wife Lara, in the absence of Joe and
Lu, suddenly changed from their previous conversation and began to confide the
marital difficulties of two of Don's three sons. One married a lesbian by mistake. On their honeymoon they lived like brother and sister, and came home where the marriage was
annulled. That was after the small, elegant 38 guest wedding, as perfect in every way way as the bride demanded and they managed to make it, spectacular and expensive as it was in every detail. The charming bride had insisted upon more and more, and they reluctantly but lovingly footed the bills. This is usually the privilege of the bride's parents, and not those of the groom. I wondered if she could have been something of a revenge taking kman-hater, but they didn't seem to think so.
They think now that she just wanted a lovely wedding experience. This son is very handsome, popular, well-educated and has a good job. When he returned from the honeymoon Don asked him how it went and he said "fine, if you like living like brother and sister with your new bride." Then Don told us that his own first
wife, after their four children were born, decided she was really a lesbian. Don and Lara seem to be friendly enough with the first wife, who also knew the bride to be. She, with her experience as a lesbian, never spotted the bride as such a girl.
They went on to tell us that another son's wife, who had seemed to have seasonal
affective disorder while they lived in Alaska, suddenly announced to her husband that there was another man in whose arms she found satisfaction and fulfilment
that she had never found with him. The husband was taken totally by surprise.
Their son was devastated and had to try to get his confidence back again after this sudden blow to his male nature.
I was surprised they confided these things at length to us. Lara is rather odd
in saying that if/when Don should die, she would be interested in one or the other of two of his three sons. Now I can't see how she can say that so openly,
with Don present. Maybe to him she's like a daughter? He seems to have gotten her out of Birkenstocks and long, draggy skirts and baggy sweaters, and to have convinced her that she is beautiful and has a gorgeous figure -- whichshe does! An hour-glass figure. She is tall and striking looking. In photographs she looks regal. They are "born again Christians." They didn't try to convert us, and we certainly don't ever try to force our Faith on anybody, so we got
along well. I said I wondered if it would be legal in the USA to marry a son of
your former husband. They seemed to think it would be. This is the second time I've heard of a wife who has had a number of children with her husband deciding that she's a lesbian and leaving him. It happened with an American couple here in my town, too. He was a Viet Nam war "draft dodger" here in Canada. A nice
guy. Some people seem to be pretty mixed up these days. Maybe Canadians are closer-mouthed about their troubles? Or are things different in the States? I can't say.
I realized again just how greatly blessed in many ways Ben and I have always been. No wonder I look at the ocean and contemplate God's endless oceans of forgiveness, mercy, and loving kindness.
This morning I mentioned my Faith to Mary Day at table and to an artist/musician I was sitting beside on deck. She had been singing so softly and beautifully
to herself for awhile as as she strummed her guitar. She is going to be a singer partnered with another noted male singer and they'll travel together. Her music was so lovely as the fresh sea winds blew, the spray scattered and the sun glinted on the crests of the waves.
Ben just left to go up to the Lido deck to get some ice-cream. I've been feeling very disinclined towards anything with fat in it. It's just past three pm.
Don and Lara make a trip out our way about once a year, so we'll probably see them again in the Okanagan. We asked them to stay with us for a few days next time. After we were home again for about a week we received an email from Don to press a little more firmly his belief that global warming isn't really happening.
That little question I asked
had really stuck in his mind. I think some people are indulging in wishful thinking. Our winters here have shortened by about a month, and even glaciers in the Himalayas are melting now, as I read only yesterday.
The sky has blued up again, with billowing cumulous clouds, but the direction into which we are sailing is full of layers and layers of silvery clouds and no blue.
There are many accomplished and experienced people aboard, but you'd never know
it to look at them. Last night was the Officers' Black and White Ball. Ben and
I didn't go. We went to listen to music in the Explorer's Lounge. A light classical trio. Violin, bass and piano. I gazed and gazed at my beautifuland symbolic love ring.
I brought "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins along for this trip. It's a very
old book and so's my copy, which I picked up in a used book store. :-)
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