November 18, 2007 – Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Today was a relaxing day spent with Cheryl (Lee’s daughter who lives in Kailua) who surprised us with lei greetings. We got the chance to spend the day catching up on Cheryl’s life and also see the changes to Kailua since we were here a couple of years ago. We also got haircuts and stocked up on Cheetos for the trip home.

Cheryl took us to lunch at Bubba Gump’s where we sat on Forest Gump’s bench by his “box of chocolates”. She almost walked our legs off up and down the hills of her town. It was very good to see her again and also to see her so happy and doing so well.

November 17, 2007 – Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

We have been told that Kona, Hawaii is out here someplace and that we will arrive there in the morning. The past 4 days at sea have been very relaxing but also filled with some fun along the way.

When we crossed the equator there was an initiation ceremony into the Son’s of Neptune which recognizes a crew member’s first crossing of the equator. We were too busy with port visits when we crossed the first time but made up for it this time. The crew members are labeled pollywogs, had their crimes against King Neptune read, forced to kiss a fish and then dunked into a mixture of yogurt, fish and spaghetti. Great fun!

Sunset at the equator.

We got the opportunity to tour the bridge of this beautiful ship. A rare teat post 9/11.

Millie wearing traditional Bali formal attire that was a gift from our head waiter.

November 13, 2007, Apia, Samoa

We have been sailing through an area that has no satellite coverage – since nobody lives out here – so we have not been able to connect to post to the blog. Yesterday, during the 24 hours that really did not exist the Captain spoke up on the PA system to tell us that we had lost one of our drive motors and would be late getting into Apia. Now we come from airline families, not seafaring families, so the loss of an engine – when they only have two - is something that got our attention. We made excellent progress with only one motor (17 knots rather than 23) and we were only about 3 hours late getting into port.

Apia, Samoa is the only real town in Samoa and is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived, wrote and died. There are 9 islands of Western Samoa and this one – Upolu – is the largest. It is a pretty laid back town of only about 40,000 people who all seem to want to say hello and welcome. They are probably just as happy to have us leave but who can blame them. There are not a lot of tourist hotels here but there probably will be someday. It is a beautiful island paradise. We were only here for a few hours due to our engine problem so we only got to walk around the little town and did not go out into the country side like we usually like to do.

November 12, 2007, Suva, Fiji Islands

To celebrate Millie’s birthday, today we jumped onto a local 50’s era bus and drove up into the rain forest outside Suva, Fiji. After an hour driving over some of the worse “paved” roads we have ever been on and having our bones rattled we came to a little wide spot in the road that had a little shop. The shop sold wooden coffins! It also was the jump off point for a run up the Navua River in a wooden long boat (undoubtedly made by the coffin shop). We donned our life jackets and stepped down into

the bottom of our boat which was filled with about six inches of water but our boatman was bailing so we knew we were in good hands. We took an exhilarating ride up the river for about an hour and saw lots of rain forest, waterfalls and villages. Very beautiful! We stopped for lunch at a village whose ancestors practiced cannibalism until the 1920’s and then back to the boats for a ride back down the river during a torrential thundershower. We arrived back at the coffin maker and our rattlely bus in fine, but wet shape. So Millie had a day to remember, even if a bit wild and wet.

We are off to Apia, Samoa but first we have to do that thing with the International Dateline. We get two Tuesdays this week so while we have one whole day of sailing before we get to our next port, we actually will arrive there tomorrow based on the calendar. We gave up a Wednesday on the way over here but we now get to have two Tuesdays. Not sure if that is fair since everyone knows that a Wednesday is a better day than a Tuesday. Anyway, this issue has kept us up at night - well, actually just Lee – since it just doesn’t make any sense that you can just run through a whole day but then have a do-over. It is just too much to think about right now – we’re going to get something to eat.

November 10, 2007, Noumea, New Caledonia

Does anyone other than Lee remember McHale’s Navy? It was a 50s something TV comedy based on a misfit PT Boat crew during WWII in New Caledonia. So, here we are in Noumea, New Caledonia and there is not a PT boat in sight but there is a lot of beautiful water, coral reefs and white sand beaches. It was a murderously humid day (at least by our standards) but we did manage to drag ourselves around some of the island lookout points so we could bring you these pictures. Enjoy!

….and for Teri and any other Nike people following our blog.

November 7, 2007 – Sydney, Australia

We arrived at the entrance to Sydney harbor just as the sun was coming up on a cloudy and misty morning. Even with the clouds it was a wonderful sight that is one of the most recognized in the whole world. It was interesting to us to hear that the architect who designed the famous Sydney Opera House was so disenchanted with the process of selecting the winning design that he threw his design entry on the table of the City engineer, left town and has never been back since to see his creation.

We had already arranged (and paid for) a tour up to the Blue Mountains outside Sydney so we were hoping that the cloud cover would break and give us a peek at this unusual mountain range. It didn’t! We had fog and rain the whole day at 3500 feet but still we were able to get a feel for what an interesting formation these barrier mountains are. At one time the Blue Mountain range were higher than the Alps but over time have been worn down to flat top hills with very deep cliffs of sandstone. In fact, that is why they are called the Barrier Mountains since they were impenetrable for centuries before someone decided to try crossing them by following the ridge tops rather than the traditional routes through valleys. This area is still very much an unexplored wilderness, so much so that a grove of pine trees that were thought to be extinct for the past 60 million years was recently discovered in a previously unexplored valley just 80 miles from the heart of Sydney.

Our sail away was late at night, cold but dry which gave us a nice chance to see the skyline all lit up.

On to New Caledonia. Need to brush up on our French. We are in the middle of another storm with 12 foot seas. We just stuck our heads out the door and our glasses got covered in salt spray (the glasses we wear not the glasses we were carrying).

November 4, 2007 – Cairns & The Great Barrier Reef

We will have to come back to Cairns someday. There is just too much to do here to only spend a few hours. It is a small but beautiful city stuck between the rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef. Since Millie had already been to the reef, we split up for the day. Millie went out to the rain forest and Lee went out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Millie made sure that Lee got on his boat okay and that there were responsible people who would look after him and make sure that he didn’t get left out at the reef. Then she was off to ride a gondola up over the rainforest to the top of the Kuranda range of mountains that surround Cairns (pronounced “Cans”). The skyrail is over 4 miles long and from the top you can see much of the Kuranda range and out into the Coral Sea.

While Millie was swinging from a small wire rope over the jungle, Lee was out at the Great Barrier Reef trying, unsuccessfully, to breathe water. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Natural Wonders of the World and is the largest living organism on Earth. He went snorkeling and took some underwater pictures that we will get on to the blog as soon as we can figure out how to do it.

Other great day in a great trip! Next stop – Sydney, Australia