Pacific Ocean

April 11, 12, 12, and 13 Pacific Ocean

We are traveling from Yokohama to Honolulu about 3861 miles over the vast Pacific. Even though this is a long trip, it is only a bit of this ocean that covers more than half the surface of the earth. We are following a great circle route, the shortest distance between two points on a sphere. We headed north and east at first, and the weather became rainy and choppy. Behind our ship, we saw four albatross, the black-footed albatross and the Laysan albatross - - I was excited! They are smaller than the southern hemisphere ones, but still they have wide wingspans of about seven feet. They like to ride on the wind, hardly ever beating their wings.
We had two Easter Sundays on board. (My mom told me that when she crossed the International Dateline, she had two Christmases!) There was a sunrise service the first Easter, but it was cold, and I couldn’t hear anyone in the wind. The second Easter we had an Easter hunt for the four youngest children. I made bunny baskets out of bags, and Les hid M&Ms in the big dining room. One of the mom’s found four plastic eggs and had purchased some little chocolate bunnies somewhere. A college student made a pin the tail on the rabbit game.
Class work has been quite intense since we left Japan, and the evenings are jam-packed with activities. The students had a big test in Global Studies. I am working on my second “long” story and have turned in both field reports for nutrition. We had a Shipboard Family gathering with milk and cookies for supper one night. The kids wanted to have a “family vacation,” so we are planning a picnic luau on the beach in Hawaii next Sunday. There was an auction last night: Matthew bought a week’s stay on Molokai; we sold an overnight home-stay at our house. The money goes to support the ship’s service activities in the various ports. Tonight is a Deans’ Reception. There will be a play and a talent show this week, too.