Tuesday, November 19

In general, I love the food on UnCruise- prepared from fresh ingredients, just the right quantities and many good vegetarian options.  This, however, was the breakfast special today.  Spam is very popular in Hawaii.  I requested a veggie omelet instead.

This morning we went out on our first kayak paddle.  It felt good to get out into the boats.  We paddled around for about an hour, stopping a few times as the guide told us about the various volcanic formations.  When we came back, they’d set up a swim area behind the ship, with lines ending with “noodles” on either side.  I soon found out why they set up boundaries and ropes; I swam out a bit and getting back to the ship was WORK because of the currents.  I refused to use the rope, of course. 

I made a trip to the bridge after lunch.  UnCruise has an "open bridge" policy; passengers can visit any time during the day unless there's some sort of emergency going in.

When I commented on the paper log a crew member told me, "If it's not on paper, it didn't happen".

In the afternoon we went into an area that was a known whale sanctuary, with the caveat that it was a bit early in the season.  We did see three humpbacks; I didn’t get pictures because the best of my whale pictures usually include only a blurry tail fluke far off in the distance.  The beginning of the whale watch I used the gym equipment on the top deck while listening to my Classic Rock playlist.  I made sure to include Jimmy Buffet’s “Volcano”.  I was treated to the sight of a school of flying fish that arced over the water and submerged again.