American Samoa

After leaving Hawaii, we had another five sea days before reaching our next destination, American Samoa. Passage weather conditions were again excellent and the sea days passed effortlessly in a whirl of meals, more meals and various other activities between meals.

We arrived in the early morning at the fabulous natural harbour of Pago, Pago.

Our stay wasn’t to be a long one and we only had enough time to take a short tour on a local, flower-bedecked bus along part of the coast and then walk around the town.

It was our first encounter with a lava lava, skirts worn by men. Even officials wear a natty navy version with gold stripes.

Our main memories of American Samoa are of churches, chickens and graves. There were a lot of churches for just 70,000 people and chickens were everywhere. Family is everything in Samoa. Property is passed down through the family and when people die they are buried in a prominent position close to the house in which they lived so they stay close to their relatives. The graves are above-ground, made of concrete and have elaborate stone plaques and flowers. You can see one next to the bus in this photo.

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Hawaii

During the five days we spent at sea between San Diego and Honolulu the wind blew consistently, never went over a force seven and didn’t go forward of the beam, ideal passage weather for a sailboat. On this big cruise ship, it’s hard sometimes to get a sense of the wind and waves, we just seem to glide quietly and effortlessly along, some days there are whitecaps and other days there aren’t, the only visible measure of change from one day to the next.

We were to visit three of the Hawaiian Islands on this cruise: Oahu (Honolulu), Maui (Lahaina) and Hawaii (Hilo), the Big Island. First stop was Oahu. All the iconic Hawaiian images were there: surfers at Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, long vistas of surf and palm trees, tropical flowers and grand hotels.

A couple of what we’d thought were Hawaiian icons turned out not to be so. Did you know that macadamia nuts originated in Australia and pineapples actually originated in Uruguay and aren’t even grown much in Hawaii anymore? Another surprise was the Hawaiian addiction to Spam (a cheap canned meat product made of pork, fat and fillers that is the butt of jokes in many countries). They eat huge amounts of it and have special dishes like spam fritters, spam misubi and even add the flavour to other things, like macadamia nuts.

Honolulu was the longest stop of the cruise and we had two full days to explore. We toured around Honolulu the first day. After getting our bearings we were then able get on a local bus which went all the way around the island for just $2.50. We turned it into a full day excursion, stopping on the north shore at Shark Bay to have a picnic lunch and go for a snorkel which was great, lots of colourful fish just offshore. On the way back we stopped in at the Dole Plantation to try some of their famous pineapple whip which was very nice. The whole island seemed very busy and even with just 1500 miles of road on the entire island, there was a ten lane expressway in Honolulu along with displays of road rage downtown, probably not a place we’d like to go back to.

Next up was the island of Maui. We stopped at a small town, Lahaina and were tendered into shore from the mother ship. It was a quaint place, but, not much other than shopping was available.

We pushed on to the Big Island of Hawaii and the town of Hilo. This seemed to be more to our liking with lots of natural sights to explore. We were highly anticipating seeing our first volcano. Shore excursions from the boat were all booked and were way too expensive anyway, so, we thought we’d rent a car. Of course, the world famous Ironman triathlon was on in Kona and there wasn’t a rental car to be had on the island. We ended up renting a two seater moving van and had a laugh driving that around! We did visit the lava fields and active volcanoes of the National Park and it was amazing.

There were three, or, four more things we would like to have gone to see (for example, a green sand beach, one of only four in the world), but, just ran out of time and had to return to the ship. A future visit may be in order.

Although the volcanoes in the daylight were fascinating, the real show is at night and you can walk to the active lava flow, fly over in a helicopter, or, take a boat to where the flows are calving into the sea. We were resigned and disappointed to not be able to see any of this as we were leaving in late afternoon. However, once underway, Captain Henk announced that we’d be going right by the lava flow around eight p.m. and he’d try and get in close so we could have a good look.  This made us think of the Costa Concordia disaster and we were hoping there wouldn’t be a repeat, but, the water was very deep right up to the lava flow and we got in as close as just a couple of boat lengths off. It was a spectacular sight and very exciting! It was hard to judge just how far off we were, but, we could see the surf breaking on the shore in the dark, so, we were very close. A quick pivot turn took us back out and away from the large cloud of toxic gases that were gathered to leeward of the flames and heat.

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Shipboard Life

After our brief stay in San Diego we departed in late afternoon bound for Hawaii. We were looking forward to the five days at sea. It’s interesting to compare the big boat experience of an ocean crossing to the small one. First, we can’t believe the speed and smooth ride of the large ship. We are averaging around 17-18 knots, but, can do up to 22. Contrasted with small sailboats which only average maybe 5-7 knots, the big ship gets to places three to four times faster (let’s not mention the differences in environmental impact of the two methods). Although classed as a medium size ship, the Noordam still has almost 2,500 people on it, around 1800 guests and 600 crew. It’s unbelievable.

Handling of this large ship is also almost easier than a long keel sailboat. The Noordam has all-electric engines powered by five generators. The ship can do a 360 degree turn in its own length using its ‘azipods’ which unlike standard shafts and propellers rotate completely around and pull the ship rather than push it. Stabilizers can also be deployed on either side of the ship to keep the ship level. There are three bow thrusters and the ship is able to stop  itself within a couple of boat lengths, unlike a cargo ship which can take several miles to stop.

The ship is very luxurious with two swimming pools, a 500 seat theatre, casino, library, multiple restaurants, shops, spa, gym, art and photo gallery, bars and clubs.

There are quality Dutch antiques and interesting objects sprinkled around the ship and a few nice nautical touches as well, like these unique stools at the poolside bar.

We’re very comfortable in our verandah stateroom and sleep well, leaving the overnight watches to the bridge crew.

Twelve thousand meals a day are served on this ship! You can have three full meals, afternoon tea and a late night buffet if you wanted to. After a summer of a somewhat spartan diet (freeze-dried backpacking food is like eating wet cardboard and canoeing food isn’t much better) we were now faced with huge quantities of all-you-can-eat quality food. We went crazy for the first week eating everything in sight. After viewing the daily parade of poolside pulchritude we soon realized we needed to cut back unless we wanted to join the parade. The quality and variety of food has been excellent with anything and everything you could possibly want. The whole operation runs like an efficient well-oiled machine. Although we’re not much for being waited on and fussed-over you can’t help but admire how the food service operates. You never have to ask for anything in the dining room. White-jacketed waiters bring plates and whisk them away at all the proper intervals.

We were worried about having nothing to do on the sea days other than eat, but, there is such a full slate of activities and entertainment every day that it is not a worry. If anything, some days are packed too full of interesting things to do. There’s really something for everyone. Due to the number of sea days on this cruise they must have hired a number of special lecturers which have been really great. All retired university professors, we’ve attended their very interesting lectures on history, astronomy, anthropology and zoology. It’s also been an interesting introduction to southern hemisphere stories and history which we’ve never really been exposed to before and it’s been an eye-opener.

As this is our first big ship cruise, we don’t have anything to compare it to, but, so far we have been very impressed with Holland America Lines. We met one man on his 33^rd cruise, so, I guess they must be doing something right! The only thing that has been disappointing is that, after traveling to all these exotic places, there is usually such a short time in port that you never get more than a very brief taste of the place. It’s a good introduction though and we hope to spend more time in the area post-cruise.

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Vancouver to San Diego

We had the ‘good’ fortune to be leaving Vancouver on the same day that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were arriving, by floatplane, into Vancouver Harbour, a short distance along the shore from where we were boarding the MS Noordam. As well, there were two other cruise ships side-by-side in the harbour loading passengers on the same day. There were dire warnings of road closures, detours and delays for the downtown Vancouver area, so, we made sure to be there in good time. We arrived very early, but, there were still hordes of people. We joined the long lines streaming into Canada Place where we were herded into groups underneath the white fabric sails.

The crowd management was fairly efficient and we were processed through all the various checkpoints in a couple of hours and were able to board the ship. Our luggage (a lot) was delivered to our stateroom door within the hour. Our scheduled departure time was 1600 and we were underway on the dot. The last few days in Vancouver had been very autumn-like with rain and cooler temperatures, but, the sun had come out and a warm breeze was blowing to see us off. We had a wonderful view of Vancouver behind us with a clear view of Mt. Baker.

The next day we were welcomed to Astoria, Oregon USA by a Coast Guard armed escort which was a bit alarming, but, I suppose necessary these days.

Astoria is where the Columbia River exits into the Pacific Ocean and is famed for the difficulty of crossing its entry bar in bad weather. It was benign for our entry and no problem when everything is in your favour, but, you could see where horrific problems could develop in the wrong conditions with a narrow entry, a continuous strong river outflow of fresh water, a strong tidal flow, many fierce-looking rocks and shallow bars with very long, shallow waves breaking on them.

It was a lovely, sunny day and we took the opportunity for a long walk along the riverfront where were surprised to encounter a massive colony of California sea lions which had completely taken over a marina. Luckily, the marina was mostly empty of boats. It would be hard to find a place to put a boat with this crowd covering the docks!

The noise was unbelievable, but, their antics were a delight to watch. Eventually, a couple of marina workers came by and broke up the party, but, it was fun while it lasted. We also enjoyed quieter wildlife encounters like seeing this heron having a lunch break.

We pushed off to San Diego and had a sightseeing day there. There wasn’t much time to see anything in depth, but, we took a quick tour of the city on the hop-on, hop-off  transit to get a taste of what was on offer. The main reason for stopping was probably to provision the ship for the long Pacific crossing ahead. Next, we have five days at sea before we reach Hawaii.

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