Saturday 4/4/09 7:00pm (2 hours earlier than PDT)

Speed: 19.5 kts, Temp: 65.1 degrees, Humidity 71.6%

24 degrees 12’ N 143 degrees 37’ W

Sailed 1450.6 nautical miles from LA

691.0 nautical miles to Hilo

Seas: 1.5 – 4ft slight

Sea temp 64.4 degrees

 
Continuation from Friday -- We left the “race track” and spent time exploring and headed back to the room for afternoon snacks. Kim brought a plate of chips and guacamole then Bonnie and Ahnna (aka Kathy), brought down a cheese and fruit tray. Watching the water and chatting and snacking was a nice relaxing afternoon. We decided to pass on the formal night dinner and wandered up to the buffet for a late dinner. While having our dinner, we noticed a small Chihuahua (small Mexican dog) sleeping in a large beach bag. The woman was playing cards and had brought her puppy on board.  We ran into the cruise director in the elevator and learned that Princess was moving it’s ports from Vancouver to Seattle due to the cost of flights into Vancouver. The Vancouver area can expect to loose $10B worth of revenue. Seattle can expect a surge of jobs in the next 6 months. The waves had settled down a bit and made for a more relaxing night. Kim is sleeping under the bunk bed that comes down out of the ceiling, and Kathy is the brave one who climbs the ladder up and sleeps in the upper bunk. Marlene and Bonnie share the double bed. We turned the clocks back another hour and that should be all we need to do until the return. There has not been a lot of sun, mostly overcast, but we’re hopeful. A big aloha to our family and friends, until tomorrow!

Through out today we maintained a West Southwesterly track navigating in deep waters with a depth of 16,400 feet. We all know that the shortest distance from A to B is a straight line. This is true for flat surfaces but on a sphere such as the earth, a line that follows the curvature of the surface is the shortest distance. Straight line or “rhumb blind sailing” is acceptable for most navigation, especially coastal navigation, but when crossing vast distances like the Pacific Ocean as we are now, “Great Circle Sailing” is used. A “Great Circle” is defined as any line depicted on the surface of the Earth by a plane which passes through it’s center. When we follow a Great Circle track we are actually continually changing course to compensate for the curvature. This is the same type of navigation that airplanes use when you fly.

We were up and out of the room breakfasting by 11:00am. Then we toured down to the Plaza Deck to check out the library, and game room. We shopped at the boutiques and then were off to watch the karaoke in the Explorer’s Lounge. Marlene, Kathy and Bonnie went to Princess Theater to watch Benjamin Button while Kim participated in the Wii Boxing, she defeated three opponents to win her rounds. Kim had time to take in a Hula lesson and then we all hooked back to the room for afternoon cocktails. The sun has set and the group is ready to head out for dinner. It’s amazing how four woman can make great use of a small cabin, find space for all they have brought and not get in each other’s way. We manage to go through our morning routines and are ready to head out within 2-3 minutes of each other. Marlene is keeping us honest,  Kathy is getting some reading time in while lounging, Kim is still trying to break the casino and Bonnie is not worrying about anything (most of the time).

Bonnie has officially taken over the blogging and K is very happy! 

Dinner was fun. We lucked out by having the same waitperson that Kim had talked about from her previous cruise. Jeanine, from South Africa, was a delight. She remembered Kim and inquired about Sandy and Paulette (Kim’s travel partners in January). We had a fun time and enjoyed another great evening. Note to Stephanie – the cold soup was cucumber; always think about you when ever a cold soup is on the menu. We did some wandering about through the various piano bars, listened for a bit and called it an evening. We crossed the ½-way mark to the islands last night about midnight. The moon is out and casting shadows amongst the scattered clouds. The evening outside is comfortable enough to just sit without sweatshirts and relax. Side note - they have been showing a constant stream of various episodes oft The Love Boat, the original tv show was filmed using the Pacific Princess. We are doing a load of laundry, finishing the blog for posting and then calling it a night. Sending you hugs from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean!!

Oh, there was a humpback sighting off the port side of the ship this morning about 6am and double rainbows.  None of us were up that early and we are on the starboard side, anyway.

We heard a small bit regarding the missle from N Korea landing out in the middle of the Pacific...HEY!!! We are out in the middle of the Pacific!!  Was it a missle or a satellite?