HAWAII - PART 7 - THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE?

 We started home Wednesday night, were at sea Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We would fly home Monday.  Thursday night we had a short stop at Ensenada, Mexico, saw some very unique dancing - a wonderful performance.

This series of pictures were of the building where the performance was held and inside.  Following the performance we had a short time to browse the gift shop at the dock before re-boarding our home away from home for the final journey of our trip.  Little did we know.....

 We were wakened in the morning by a message from the Captain over the loud speaker system.  Upon opening our stateroom door to hear the message we learned that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake had hit Chili.

Tsunami warnings were up.  Hawaii was evacuating the seashore homes, to be safe.  We were advised that the Tsunami would pass under the ship, traveling along the ocean bed, to be prepared for some rough seas.

The crew was already preparing for rough water, draining the swimming pools.  No dunking today, hopefully!!!

All the lounge chairs, tables and chairs on the deck were being stacked and tied down.  Everything inside was being checked, just in case it got really rough.

We had a native Hawaiian on board who spent the days with us, having a story telling period each day about Hawaii, its history, all that good stuff.

Of course we had no cell phone service in the middle of the ocean, and the ship's communication system was for emergencies only.

Our Hawaiian entertainer was able to contact Hawaii, his family had been safely evacuated.  He didn't know yet how hard the area had been hit.

Later he was advised that Hawaii had sustained some very high water, but no major damage occurred.  Everyone was safe.

 But we on the ship had quite a roller coaster ride for about 2 days, as the Tsunami passed by us.  We rolled from side to side, up and down.  Walking down the hallway to our stateroom we had to hold on to the railing along the wall, first to pull ourselves up, like climbing a steep hill, then hanging on to keep from rolling down.

Many of the passengers were violently ill. 
 I have never heard as much noise as the constant crashing of dishes falling and breaking, pots and pans falling, constant noise.  I think they probably would have to replace all their dishes for the next cruise.  Our chairs when we were eating kept moving around, the food sliding across the table.   I never did get sick,which was rare for me as I am the one with really bad motion sickness. It was a quite an  experience.  I never felt frightened, guess I was too busy trying to stay upright.  It was just all too interesting. The last day out, though was again
calm, we were able to pack and get ready to

dis-embark when we arrived in San Diego.

First thing we all did upon landing was to call home letting everyone know that we were safe, just had another adventure.  My daughter Rebecca said all she could think of was the movie THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, not knowing where we were, no communication,
completely cut off.  We had a good laugh over that.

We spent the final night of our vacation in S.D., arrived at the airport early Monday morning and made the flight home without incident.  I'll bet there were a lot of folks really disillusioned about cruising, but this was my 4th cruise, and I would not hesitate to take another one.

 I want to share a few facts with you about this trip:

We traveled a total of 5015 nautical miles, averaging 18.5 knots per hour.

The ship consumed 85 gallons of diesel fuel per mile.  That is 85 gallons, NOT 8.5 gallons.  Sure glad I am not paying their fuel bill.

The ship produced 370,000 gallons of fresh water per day, using 174,000 gallons per day.

There were 1344 passengers and 596 crew members on board.

Upon arriving home I downloaded 2493

 pictures onto my computer.  After days of editing, I saved a total of 693 pictures.

My oldest camera had to be replaced.

And so, this completes our Hawaiian saga, from start to finish.  We came home to snow, snow,  more snow, and bitter cold.  Quite a shock to the system after the Hawaiian and San Diego weather.  No wonder people like living there.

I hope you have enjoyed our three week adventure.  This is the longest trip I have ever taken, probably will never take another that long.  Probably a good thing. 

I will be off line for a week now.  My flight to Phoenix leaves very early tomorrow morning.  I don't know what adventures I will have in the coming week.  When I get back from Arizona, I hope to be back  blogging.  At least I don't have to worry about a Tsunami.  If I do, the rest of you guys are in big trouble.

One sad note before leaving for my trip tomorrow  - remember my April 7th post THE ROAD CALLED LIFE?  I received news today that my friend Judy has started her second journey around 7 a.m. this morning.  I wish her God speed and a smooth journey.

Take a break from my and my stuff, sit back and relax and God Bless.