Sea days are so chilled and relaxed. Watching the ocean glide by is restorative, calming, and soothing. Each morning before we head out I sit facing the ocean, listening to the waves and the sounds of the ocean, feeling the gentle rolling and pitching of the ship beneath me. There’s a rhythm to it that settles into your body after a few days, the creak and sway becoming as natural as breathing. The water is a deep, deep blue and fills my field of view entirely, no land, no other ships, nothing to break it up, just that colour stretching out in every direction I can make out. Our lives sometimes are so full that we forget to enjoy the quiet moments, the ones with nothing scheduled and nowhere to be. Five full sea days will give you that opportunity, and I thoroughly recommend it. You won’t be bored.
After some quiet reflection, we head out to see Brent Nixon. Today he talks sea birds, and Hawaii has more of them calling it home than most people realise. The Laysan albatross is the big one, close to a million birds, almost the entire world population nesting in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, spending years at sea without ever touching land before returning to the exact beach they hatched on to breed. They feed at night, mostly on squid, seizing it from the surface, and can cover extraordinary distances on almost no effort, riding wind currents in a technique called dynamic soaring, which is exactly what the birds Mardi spotted off the ship were doing to us. Alongside them you’ll find wedge-tailed shearwaters, red-footed boobies, great frigatebirds with their extraordinary inflatable red throat pouches, and white-tailed tropicbirds, all breeding on the islands in their own season and covering huge tracts of open Pacific the rest of the year hunting fish and squid, often diving or plunging for it rather than simply picking it off the surface.
During the talk Brent reminds us there is no such thing as a sea gull. Plenty of gulls, but no sea gulls, the name’s a misnomer and it clearly needles him in the best possible way. In his usual antics, he flaps around the stage mimicking flight behaviours, nesting and mating rituals, with a host of associated sound effects, and the audience is totally engaged.
We then enjoy some lounge time before lunch. During lunch, interestingly, Mardi spots some birds off the side of the ship. Albatrosses migrate thousands of kilometres towards Hawaii and often use the wind currents produced by the ship to catch a lift, exactly as Brent had just described. She then sees a flying fish leap out of the water. The birds also dive in search of food. The poor flying fish get it from both below, where they’re hunted, and above, from the birds. One bird successfully plucks a fish.
Our food is smoked salmon, wild mushroom pappardelle, a lemongrass soup that’s quite spicy, and a burger.
We relax in the lounge before a double helping of trivia. The first is a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery set on a ship, featuring 22 song snippets as clues. We score 13, ok considering many of the songs were very old, the 1940s and 1950s, and most were only played for a few seconds. Quite the challenge. The mystery itself was a bit naff.
Then it’s time for progressive trivia. We sit in 6th place. Debbie and Geoff arrive and we settle in for the 20 questions. We score 15 today, another good round. Tomorrow, our final sea day, is the final round.
We take it easy for a couple of hours in our room. Katarina, our butler, pops in for a chat and brings us some snacks, a hot chocolate and an iced latte. She hails from Montenegro and chats to us about the beauty of her homeland. It sounds delightful. We will visit next year as we cruise around Europe.
I have a meeting to attend on Teams from the room as Mardi gets ready to go out. We then head out to the lounge for a drink before dinner. Janet, one of the stewards, subtly brings us aside as we leave for dinner. She then invites us to a small group private tour of the bridge. Wow, that’s awesome, we say, and thank her. We then head to dinner.
Dinner is light: asparagus, sashimi, and trout. We strike up a conversation with the couple beside us. The lady compliments Mardi on her striking pink-streaked hair and matching pink outfit and handbag, both of which Mardi made herself. The couple are from LA but live in England. We chat during dinner about sport, travel, and Sydney. They’re spending New Year’s Eve this year in Sydney, on a yacht in the harbour.
After dinner we head back to our room. Mardi is feeling a bit second-hand, so a quiet night is in order. Katarina arranges a nightcap for us, Tia Maria and milk. We read and settle in for the night.
