October 23 - If you read about the Typhoon Neki in Hawaii, we (Hi’ialakai) just missed it by several days. Our sister ship, Oscar Elton Sette, is picking up remaining scientists and Fish and Wildlife people from French Frigate Shoals and Laysan Islands. Yesterday (October 22) while sharing a cold brew with fellow crewmembers at the new shack, you could see the storm clouds over the mountains of Oahu heading towards the typhoon. I could imagine how rough it can get during a typhoon. Listening to the radio this morning, it is a Category 1 storm.
It was an “office” type of day yesterday (October 22) without the traffic. Today will likely be no different as I must go over to my old ship, Ka’imimoana, and do some work there. I have to weatherize the load cell. An instrument measures the weight of the buoys prior to deployment.
I am putting together an Intranet web site for the next cruise, which is educational outreach. It consists of high school students from local schools going out with us for a day and then back. I do not think there will be any overnighters and will go on for four days. I call them the “Nintendo Generation” who grew up with video games and the Internet. What presentation would be without a computer and Internet to the “Nintendo Generation?” This morning I was talking to some of the crewmembers who are young enough to be my offspring. I made a comment about Death Cab for Cutie when the iPod played their song and how I had a CD. Oh, did that sound old fashioned! Consumer electronics I am not chic’ at. Or, was the word “hip?” I still own a turntable and original Beatles LPs!
This blog is turning three days into one. The pace of work on shore is fast and tiresome and may be contributing to the slowing down. Am I getting into the nine to five routine? I have been busier than usual the last several days. As you may notice, my updating has been terrible since we arrived in Honolulu.
On Friday, I worked with the ET from Okeanos Explorer in repairing the load cell connector on my old ship, Ka’imimoana. This was the first time I met my counterpart from the OE when he offered to help. An offer I would never turn down. We had to get into a man-bucket, lifted up to the A-frame by a large crane to disconnect and re-install the connector. We made sure to put back together the right way because this is a one-time deal. As I wrote in the previous blog, the connector alone is about $500 and potted inside so you cannot disassemble it. After we re-connected the cable, all readings were good and all-around thumbs up.
Afterwards I went to dinner with him as well as their XO. Their Executive Officer and I go back a few years. We sailed together on the Townsend Cromwell when we took her down to American Samoa seven years ago. He was the First Mate (same as Executive Officer) on that ship’s final voyage from Hawaii after NOAA gave it to the American Samoan Government. The XO was with me the very moment L and I met for the first time in Pago Pago. After dinner at a Japanese restaurant, we went to catch a movie at the mall in Pearlridge. We went to see “Zombieland.” It was a very offbeat dark comedy. The movie finished before 7:30 and I wanted to get back to the ship and talk to the wife. Then it was off to bed and the darn alarm went off at 05:30.
October 24 - Sleepy eyes, another weekend that makes it a seven-day workweek and it was sprinkling. I wanted to go for a run this morning, and debated whether to take the short run or the long oval run. The short route takes twenty minutes while the oval route is double the time. The objective this morning was to stimulate the heartbeat and not be a marathon runner. Those days of endurance running are long gone with fragile ankles and wobbly knees. The short route won and stopped in the ship’s gym for some resistance exercise with the Bowflex before taking a shower.
Another high-paced Saturday with catching up to do and still some “red” overdue items on the task list. There will be tomorrow too! I was going to go out to the store but the UH football game just finished and good luck navigating through that traffic!
I will stay on the ship, let my eyes be the judge as when to fall asleep early. It is a big difference when you are in Hawaii on vacation versus work. Downtown is just not that interesting and Pearl City is like any other suburb on the mainland. I still like going to the strip malls where noodle and sushi shops are the mainstream. However, tonight I felt like having an old-fashioned hamburger, well, a veggie burger that is. Therefore, instead of a noodle, sushi or ethnic genre I went to Byron’s by the airport. The place looks dumpy but the food is good, the menu large, and the price very inexpensive for Hawaii. Several years ago on the shuttle bus, several tourists from Seattle was putting it down as we drove by. I was offended because I liked the place and knew what it was like. I had told the young women the food was good and to try it before saying anything bad. You can get the same types of food in Waikiki that to cater to tourists from the mainland at double the price! It was at Byron’s parking lot where a homeless man approached me and asked for change. I told him I had none and then his cell phone rang and he went off carrying a conversation. Gee, only in Hawaii, a homeless beggar approaches you and then he is distracted by a call on his cell phone.
The scientist from this last cruise have posted photos and a blog on the RAMP cruise web site from CRED. I have the link below titled "RAMP CRUISE 2009 Reef Assessment and Monitoring Cruise Begins." Check it out!
I bid you aloha and goodnight from Honolulu, Hawaii, paradise.
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