Still Sailing to Honolulu

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five and a half days of sailing and we’re still not there! This may be the longest “at sea” period we’ve ever experienced! Some people get bored with these long stretches of sailing but we don’t. We had two days of rough seas but all is calm now.  And unless I missed them, we haven’t encountered another ship or even a whale or dolphins!   

All this sailing has allowed us to get caught up on rest after the busy Christmas weeks. And I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying having other people cook, clean, do the laundry and make my bed!!  It’s wonderful!!

We’ve enjoyed dinners with friends the last two evenings but for the first few nights, we dined in our suite while Ken recovered from a cold.  He’s much better now and certainly past the contagious period.  

Hot Rocks dining on deck under the Pacific sky.

The weather was perfect last night for dining outdoors at Hot Rocks and we enjoyed getting caught up with Linda & Mike, old cruising friends from Los Angeles.  We first met them in 2008 when they switched to Silversea from another cruise line.  They will reach 1000 sailing days with Silversea on this segment of the journey so you can do the math and figure out that they spend a great deal of their lives aboard one or another of the ships.  They say its more efficient than having a vacation home and maintenance free!! They are getting off in Singapore, going home for a few weeks and then returning to the ship when it reaches Greece. They will leave their luggage on board so they don’t even have to worry about that for a second time. Very efficient!!  

We’ve learned that once the ship reaches Papeete, more passengers will board bringing the total from 262 to 350. That’s almost full capacity for the Silver Whisper.  It will be interesting to see if there are more familiar faces among the newbies.  

We hope all is well back home.  Delighted to see that the deep freeze has lifted at least in Toronto.  It must feel downright balmy at 1C after what it was over the holidays.  


Will write again when there is something interesting to report.  In the meantime, back to my book ....
D & K

During Cpt. James Cook’s third voyage, he became the first European to set foot on Hawaii, which he called the “Sandwich Islands” after his patron the Earl of Sandwich. Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay celebrated Cook’s January 1779 landing with joyous celebrations, and for good reason: by some strange coincidence, the explorer’s arrival coincided with an annual festival honoring the Hawaiian fertility god Lono. His fortunes swiftly changed in February after the natives realised he was mortal, ending his life in grisly fashion when Cook tried to take the local king hostage in exchange for a stolen cutter ship.