A quick hello from the Cooks

Hello all,
Well this will be short as Ive already spent far too long at this internet cafe, and although it is delightfully air conditioned, I really want to leave. Ill give a super quick once-over of where we've been, then Ill concoct some fabulously detailed update later on. (By the way Im sorry about the lack of photos, theres no way of uploading them here...)
Leg three has, thus far, been quite different in that there was no long passage at the beginning. Instead, its been a delightful few weeks of island hopping in French Polynesia. We started off at Morea (right across from Papeete) where a few of us went on an amazing hike and got a massive view of the lagoon and reef (also stopped by a juice factory on the way back...much needed).

A lookout along the way

The view from the top

Tav and I near the top

Huahini came next. Most of us spent the entire day on a small motu on the outside of the island just snorkeling (I got some neat photos of an anemone...just like in Finding Nemo...yes, I realize Im a nerd) and reading on the beach.

There you have it - Finding Nemo anemone.
Bec and I made the grave mistake of not wearing shorts over our suits or sunscreen on our tender backsides, and had to spend the evening within reach of aloe and sitting on ice packs the burns were so bad. We definitely got our fair share of mocking for that one. We also went to a great church service in Maroe (a town on Huahini) where they sang "I Love You Lord" in Tahitian and French as their last song. We got another game of volleyball in that afternoon (on concrete...nice) which was oh so fun.

One of the great kids from Maroe

We headed to Tahaa from Tuahini and snorkeled around a little motu in the morning and then visited a pearl farm in the afternoon.

On the dock after the pearl farm tour
Very neat to learn exactly how each different kind of pearl is made. We got another hike in at Tahaa as well, and even though Bec ripped her entire toe nail off at the top, it was enjoyed by all.

Tav's photo of a wee fern we found on the way up


Mom and the boys at the top

From Tahaa it was only a short jump over to Raitaea (thats definitely spelled wrong). Again, hiking was the plan. After a bit of following the river and looking around, we found the trail and made it to a massive 60m waterfall.

Our first fresh water rinse in quite some time
It was so nice to swim in fresh water (we hadn't actually had a fresh water wash in over two weeks by this time...), and it was delightfully cold. (Sidenote: on the way down we found the hottest peppers of all time. Dont really know what kind they were, but our mouths were on fire for at least an hour afterwards.)
From there we headed to Bora Bora where we not only stocked up on juice and chocolate, but also got to explore quite a bit. Tav and I had a fun hitchhiking day where we got a ride with a hot-dog vendor (he moved here four years ago and has recently started selling hot dogs as a living...he gets up at 6, sells 60 hotdogs - until 8, or until he runs out- then goes kiteboarding all day. he then works as a bartender until the wee hours of the morning at the resorts...yup we meet awesome people while hitchhiking. he was great), found a nifty viewpoint, and almost didnt make it back to the boat in time.
The next day Bec, Arwen and I had some serious sister bonding. We rented old fashioned bikes and rode around the island (only 32km). It is by far my favourite way of exploring. Its faster than walking, but slow enough (unlike hitching) to see everything and stop and chat with people. All in all a very fun day.
From Bora Bora we had our longest passage yet! Three whole days! We had by far the roughest weather Ive seen yet.

This gives you an idea of how far we were keeled over, and how the spray/waves were (Tavs photos)
There were times when the upper pin rails were under water, and we were dunking the tops of the stantions on a regular basis.

The Starboard quarter under two of the bigger waves (the sail is the trysail tied up on deck - we had to take it down...)
It got to the point where we had to wear our harnesses up on deck during the day, and Pop wouldnt let Simon and Noah on deck at all. It was AWESOME! Granted, we only had it for a day so the novelty didnt really get a chance to wear off, but it was quiiite exciting. We were all totally decked out in our foulie gear, and my watch was on 12-4 so we got quite a good go at it.

Everyone on deck in their foulies (Tavs photo)
Dishes was definitely a gong show while smashing around so much (there may have been a towel fight or two initiated as well), and since the skirt on the main was loose for a while, poor Tom got probably 30 gallons of water on his bunk.
We are now in Rarotonga in the Cook islands, and things are good. Everything is amazingly cheaper, we're out of the storm, and Avarua is quite a nice town to explore. The plan is to rent bikes again tomorrow and see what we can find on the other side of the island.
Oh yes...and during the passage we found some unwanted visitors. How do you say... bed bugs. Yeah its pretty sweet. Anyways, since Rarotonga's the biggest of the Cooks, we decided to have a massive extermination and get things under control (I make it sound really bad, but really we only found a few bedbugs, and only two or three people have been getting bites) before it has the chance to get out of hand. So this morning we all got up at 6 and moved absolutely everything we owned up on deck. So all the clothing on the boat is currently getting washed at an industrial place, and we had to hand sort all other items and fully inspect them for bugs/eggs. So all the mattresses, all the bags, shoes, all the food(which had to be brought out from under bunks and put up on deck), galley stuff (all the cupboards were emptied, silverwear, utensils....everything had to be brought up on deck...) is inspected and up on deck.

The whole boat torn apart: everything on deck, mattresses all over the place...gong show
The entire inside was swept, scrubbed, and bleached, and now the exterminator bug man is in there doing his thing. All in all it was a painfully long and arduous process, but we are all glad to be doing it now when things are relatively easy to contain and not later when it has run rampant.
Anyways, I really need to go...fresh air is calling me. But I'll try to put some photos from the last islands up when I find another place. Hope all is well, thanks for all the notes! Keep keeping in touch, I really love hearing from everyone! Im doing my best with the postcards, they're still coming! Miss you all, Ill talk to you later

A Marqueses Meandering...

Well, I really have no idea whatsoever how to sum up this leg in a manageable update. Really, to do it justice would take so ridiculously long that none of you would read it, which would defeat the whole purpose anyways. So Ill try to give you a bunch of the highpoints according to me.
We started the leg with a 16 day passage from Honolulu to the Marqueses. It went ridiculously well regardless of our complete lack of favorable winds until the last few days.

Arwen, me, Tristan, Noah, and Simon during a freshwater rinse

It was a great group of trainees and we all got to know each other very quickly; many very interesting discussions and debates which I enjoyed very much.

Some of the good sailing we got near the end, and fun times out on the bowsprit with James

Oh the joys of swim stops...

The passage passed with fun sail handling at night, crib games, games of 2100 questions (leg one-ers, you’ll find the humour behind this game..), head winds, and possibly the most epic stash party of all time. For anyone who has not been out on the boat, I should explain that you tend to crave all things sweet, chocolate, and nut related while you’re away from land. Tav, myself, Bec, Mary, Tristan, James, and Jer solved this problem with one fantastic night of gluttony. It involved all of us (in our ridiculous harnesses of course), huddled in the bow, clipped into each other, and perhaps the most laughter experienced to date. All in all we managed to destroy (in a worryingly short period of time...) three bags of M&Ms, three granola bars, a whole tub of peanut butter, five juice boxes, a rather large bar of chocolate, and an entire bottle of Hersheys ‘hard shell’ chocolate sauce. This was all accomplished while giggling fiendishly and spilling quite a lot on both ourselves (mostly me) and the deck. Then came a rather dramatic and prolonged sugar high, followed by a tremendous crash.

Oh yes, we also crossed the equator. King Neptune came through with epic style, accompanied by his entourage, and it was a hilarious affair.

Anemone and Starfish...lovely as ever.

Alltogether too much slop and spandex for anyone's liking. Since we crossed the line during the night we were a bit off by the time the ceremony came around, but it went through nonetheless with gusto.
The passage also included some of the best rain squalls Ive ever seen. Karen, Chris and I were on watch one night when a fantastic one hit. It was like Nairobi amounts of rain, but all coming at you horizontally and at tremendous speed. All around you is spray, and all the tops of the swells are being whipped up into mist. By far one of my favourite parts of nightwatch: squalls and the unbelievably large number of stars.
We also had a few dance parties this passage for various birthdays which were a lot of fun. Strobes are always useful for events such as these, and Jose dancing on the table adds that extra little touch. For music, Jose and Tav produced extravagant drum beats on the big drum in the hold. Jer also engaged most of us in a very entertaining game of silent football which had all of rolling around laughing while trying not to be burned by ‘Mr Commisioner Sir.’

Our first landfall was Hiva Oa; one of the Marquesan islands that we visited last offshore as well. I never quite get used to the landscape of French Polynesia. The huge jagged ridges, all completely covered in super lush jungle/bush is so beautiful, and makes for great hiking. Hiva Oa certainly did not dissapoint. We spent our first day just exploring the tiny little town and developing what would be an ongoing love affair with baguettes and fruit juice in cartons. Really, it was just nice to be on land and walking around.

Tourist poses after our first ice cream and juice purchase.

I love the tiny islands as opposed to the big cites of the US. Just small towns, super friendly people, and tons of kids to play with. We had a ton of fun when we found a group of younger kids playing around in the surf and joined in with them for the afternoon. To explain, there was surge coming into the beach (it wasn’t really a beach, it came right up to a cement wall of sorts) and then smashing over the shallows into the wall where it would rocket up into the air, completely soaking anyone in the vicinity.

One such 'blast' and an unfortunate kid who got caught in it...he was alright by the way.

After some coaxing (and mocking) from the kids, we jumped off the wall into the surge (quickly getting away from the wall so as not to be squished...) and had an amazing couple of hours just playing around in the surf and chatting with these kids (finally, a use for highschool French...)

Very fun.

The last time we were in Hiva Oa a dance troupe came down an performed for us near the dock, so we looked into whether or not they would be interested in doing it again with us this time. They came back with a resounding ‘yes’ but wanted to ‘give us a proper welcome’ this time and do it at another location. Since they needed a couple days, we took a day and a half trip over to Tahuata before we would return for the dancing.
Our first day on Tahuata was spend in a tiny village called Hapatoni. I had an absolutely fantastic day and Mary and I were on top of the world; we got to play volleyball! I definitely spent my entire five hours playing ridiculously satisfying games of volleyball with a group of local highschool/university students in their dirt court. Highlight: two fantastic blocks in a row...oh it was beautiful.

I loved this.

They were planning a traditional dance practice that night (for an upcoming wedding) so they invited us all back later that night for some dancing. It was very fun. First they practiced all their dances for us, then they definitely made us come up and try some of the dances with them. I doubt there is anything funnier than watching my dad (or any of the male crew/trainees for that matter) concentrating quite intently on performing a Marquesan fertility dance...classic. Antony and I did a quick instrument run back to the Grace, and we were able to perform a few songs for them (complete with fiddleJ ).
We moved around the corner the next morning for some snorkeling, and we ended up being able to get a dive in as well which was great. Saw a big manta ray and were able to follow it for a bit which was amazing.

Our manta. They are amazing to watch underwater. Im loving the underwater digital.

Took the video camera down on the dive which will be very neat (though, I was definitely taped while doing some sort of ridiculous dance while in scuba gear...embarrassing).
We went back to Hiva Oa and had an amazing night with the dancing. They showed up at the dock with trucks to pick us up, and we all arrived at a sort of hall with torches and drums set out all outside. It was amazing to drive up into this fire-lit place amongst all these intense drum rhythms. They didn’t say anything to us when we arrived, just put flowers behind our ears, and palm leaves around our necks. They did some of their tranditional dances for us, then we were up there again dancing. Definitely busted out our awesome dancing skills from Hapatoni.

Mary, myself, and Bec in our greenery after dancing

Then came a great meal that they had prepared for us, and some awesome hangout time. We had brought instruments with us so we did a few songs for them (a neat instrumental one with the fiddle/mando/guitars/drum which was a lot of fun) which went really well. It was a very neat feeling to be playing music with and for them and both sides enjoying themselves immensely. We sang Twist and Shout for fun... we all ran out amongst them, grabbed partners and did the classic dance...very fun, everyone was busting. Played music and danced with them for a while afterwards, and just enjoyed hanging out. Had a lot of fun with the fiddle; the chief came up and wanted to try it out, as did a bunch of the drummers. Tav, Jose, and Jordan (not to mention Noah, who was a star) drummed right in with their drummers which was awesome. Both sides loved it, and it is amazing having that many super talented drummers on so many absolutely massive drums... fantastic.
(Minor violation on the way back to the dock when the driver tried to give me more of a ‘souvenir’ than I was ready for...awkward but hilarious nonetheless.)
After Hiva Oa we went to Nuka Hiva (also visited last offshore), where we enjoyed a fantastic pizza place, many people got tattooed (and I very much enjoyed watching...and got oh so close to getting one myself), and has a delightful freshwater shower. The tattoos turned out really well; very clear and defined, and there were some super neat designs.
From Nuka Hiva, we had a three day passage to an atoll called Apataki. A group of us set out to navigate the passage by celestial only, and decided to do the whole process longhand (doing the calculations with tables and almanacs instead of the computer) and tranditionally. In hindsight...would have been better to figure out how to do the longhand method before we left...and as such we had a fun time teaching ourselves how to use them while trying to work our sights through at the same time. In the end we ended up getting it pretty close, and have big plans to use our fantastic skills on our next passage. It was very neat to be doing everything completely as it would have been done a hundred years ago; we used DR’s for our sights based only on course and speed (which we got by trailing the taff rail log instead of by GPS.) Ooh, on the passage we also made probably the worlds best lime-aid with limes given to us in Nuka Hiva...delicious. We also had more than our fill of pamplemousse (which may or may not have had amusing effects on our GI tracks...no comment), and tried inventive ways of cooking coconut. So far my favourite is coating it in melted brown sugar and frying it a bit...so very good.
Apataki was probably my favourite spot thus far (maybe a tie with Hapatoni...). Its this tiny little atoll in the middle of nowhere, with a little town which revolves around black pearl farming, and completely poweraid blue water.

Aloft, coming into Apataki.

The passage into the atoll was super small so it took a while getting in (and I got to go aloft to help navigate...not going to lie, that was fun, I was excited to be useful like that...)

Looking outwards from inside Apataki.
The first day was Mary’s birthday, and was spent snorkeling around the bay and walking around the tiny bit of the atoll that we were docked on (we also may have eaten our weight in ice cream). Very cool snorkeling; sting rays, huge blue clams, tiny beautiful feathery things (I have no idea what they are...), and tons of bright coral fish.

Im quite proud of this photo. They're such amazing-looking animals...

The next day a group of us had various birthday adventures (for Tristan and Jer), and I got to go on a dive with the guys which went really well. Saw tons: lionfish, boxfish, stingrays, eels, needlefish, parrotfish, and were circled a few times by huge schools of baracuda. Had fun filming on the bottom with flips and dancing too... We spent the entire afternoon and night hanging out with the local kids which was so very fun. It all started with a sea-slug fight (disgusting...one was definitely stuck down my back for an hour before I noticed...). A game of soccer started up after that and I hung out in the water with a few of the younger kids and the digital camera (which they had a blast with).

We headed back to the boat and spend a few hours just playing tag, dancing, using the ropeswing, and swimming around the dock/boat/lines with them all. It was as close to Kenya as Ive had for so long; I loved it.

Fun on the dock at Apataki

The kids are awesome, very tough and very hilarious. Had a bit of a dance party with everyone on the dock after dinner which was fantastically fun (Antony definitely did the worm...spectacular), then had to say our good-byes and take off for Papeete.
Our time in Papeete has been spent mostly exploring around the narrow (and extremely packed) streets. Our diet has consisted of baguettes, brie, fruit slurpees, steak and fry sandwiches, juice, and pain au chocolate...oh and crepes. We had quite a successful roadtrip around the islands in a massive 9-seater mercedes van. Found a little church service in the morning and were welcomed right in. Kids and Church cervices are probably my two favourite things about French Polynesia (though, lets be honest...nutella is up there). The singing in the services is amazing; I love the lack of intrumental, and the amazing harmony. Even though its all in Tahitian and I cant understand a word, I could sit and listen to the singing forever. Ive been taping the music in all the services so you’ll most certainly be hearing it when I get back.

Our convoy during the roadtrip...three cars/vans in total. This was the little church we joined for the morning.

After the church service we found a couple waterfalls and had a fantastically cold swim. Sarah (and other Leg 3-ers from last time: we also may have taken a leaf photo in honor of you guys...you know what I mean...very funny). The rest of the day was spent just cruising around to different beaches, checking out different parts of the island, and pretty much just having fun as a group.

Our sunset creativity. S=Claire and Bec, A=Tav and I, L=James, T=Josh and Mary, S=Sam and Tristan.

We’ve definitely had to do dock watch as well... Ah ha ha, we mock coastal trainees so much about it, but now we definitely have to do it…rip off. The cause: there was a thief. Yup, someone actually came aboard when we were tied to the dock and there were 30 people sleeping up on deck. Noah saw him walking around on deck checking for music players and got Pop. The guy found Lexi’s iPod and was just walking up the deck when my dad pounced. He had been sneaking up the starboard side (I really prefer the word ‘stalking’), and he made a flying football tackle and landed this kid. Oh its so awesome! Anyways, Jord ran onto the dock (the guy had gotten up, but then fallen over the side while trying to run away) and the security and police then came and took care of him. In the end, the iPod was saved (though the earphones were not), and my dad is pretty much amazing (come on...a flying tackle!)

The work days went really well. Our hull team managed to sand, prime, and paint the entire hull in two days...not too shabby.

Our hull team (sorry, it wont let me flip the photo...lame); painting hats and all. We were disgustingly filthy.

I doubt I have ever been so completey filthy, and it took us at least 45 minutes to scrub all the black hull paint off of ourselves afterwards...overall a thoroughly hilarious and fun two days.
Oh, I should also explain the concept of ‘Le Trucks’. Every night, about 100m from where we’re docked, a bunch of vans pull up, flip open their sides, and cook up all manner of delectibles for rather cheap. Its fantastic, I really don’t know why Canada hasn’t caught on to this whole thing yet. So every night we go over there at around 8 or 9 and gorge ourselves on chocolate crepes, waffles, and other delicious (though perhaps not quite as nutritious...) dishes. Really, I cant explain how great it is. There’s tables set up all over the place, they play music...its so delightfully tacky and perfect - I cant explain it.
All the trainees left on the plane last night. Even though there are a lot of people staying over for leg 3, its still so hard to say goodbye to people you’ve gotten to know so well and shared so much with in the past two months. There were definitely great amounts of tears at the airport, and we were all pretty sullen when we got back to the boat.
Overall, Leg Two was amazing. As a group everyone got along and worked together ridiculously well, and we were able to challenge each other on a regular basis. There were so many hilariously funny and ridiculous adventures (we were told off by the police the other night for waltzing...granted, it was in the middle of a traffic circle...), all the passages, islands and kids are unforgettable, and I am going to be missing people pretty much until I see everyone again when we get in.
If you guys made it to the end of this update...good job, kudos to you. Sorry it was so ridonculously long...hope it was fun to read! I hope all is well at home, the family says hi. Thank you to everyone who sent me notes/emails/wallposts; I love hearing from you guys. Sorry if it takes me too long to get back to you guys, my internet hits are few and far between. Oooh, and send me mail! The salts office will have all the mailing addresses, and there is few things as exciting as getting mail at the end of the leg. (Also, I promise to send at least something small in return ). Take care, and keep in touch.

And now, FINALLY, some photos for your enjoyment: (The first few are from the first long passage, the ones mixed in later are more recent.)



Banjo-ing it up in the stern. How I love this instrument. The fiddle has come out a few times too - its been a lot of fun to have it onboard, though its so hard to keep it from getting too damp!



Christina and I posing up a storm during bowsprit hanging. Note: these photos were taken only moments after she jumped in and completely smoked me in the head.


Well...photos at last. At the moment I’m in the Aloha Tower in Honolulu and am currently pilfering wireless from a store in the center. So very much nicer than an internet café, as I now have full access to all my photos.
Since my last update, we’ve been cruising through a few of the Hawaiian islands, including Molokini, Maui, and Kauai. We did end up finding the rumored waterfall in Hilo after quite a long and laboriously warm walk. It was beautiful. The falls were a bit small, and as such were somewhat lacking in their thundering glory, but it was so nice to spend the afternoon swimming in the pools. There may or may not have also been a bit of cliff jumping involved…
Hilo had a few other perks. We had a series of very enjoyable (albeit quite public) dock showers, which must have seemed terribly out of place to all the industrial freighter workers, and fully enjoyed the feeling of fresh water. We also spent almost an entire day on a road trip up to Mauna Kea, which is home to some of the world’s largest and best observatories. At 14000ft it was enough to make more than a few of us dizzy, but it was amazing. Everyone crammed into a few glorious rental vehicles, and I’m proud to say that our travel group (Bec, Nouri, Christina, myself, and Tavish) came through in epic style.
We drove with Antony and Dave in a Jeep Commander, brought an admirable supply of stash, and had a continual supply of epic music to keep our convoy spirits high. I won’t go into too many details, but I will let you know that our theme song was Danger Zone from Top Gun... you can go from there.



Our good-looking Commander Crew with our sweet-awesome ride. And of course, the travel group: Bec, Tav, Christina, Nouri, and myself.


On the way up we had to stop at 10 000ft for a but of adjustment (so as not to die of shock when we got to the top) and to have some lunch, then we headed up to the top. Got a tour of some of the bigger telescopes, and spent some time just looking around up at the top. It was an amazing view. During the drive up you go right through the cloud layer and its incredible to just emerge out of the clouds and have it completely clear. Definitely a new thing to be looking down on the clouds.


Jose, Quinn, Tav, and I: Giddy at 14000ft


Antony and Quinn with one of the bigger telescopes in the background...I dont recall the name.



You can see the layer of cloud in this shot, very neat to come out above it

We stayed for sunset as well which was very neat as it was so clear and the colours were so vibrant. Overall, quite the day trip; its not everyday I go from sea level to 14000 ft in a matter of hours.

Sunset over the telescopes.


From Hilo we made a quick early-morning stop at Molokini for some of the much talked about snorkeling. It was a lot of fun trying out the underwater digital, and it did quite well. We only got an hour or so in though before there were just too many people. Apparently its quite the hot spot for Maui tourist charterboats, and by 8am you couldn’t swim 5ft without bumping into someone. Annoying really, but the water was spectacularly clear. I definitely got chased by a school of fish...

Snorkeling around Molokini and test-driving the waterproof digital.

From Molokini it was only a quick motor to Lahiaina, Maui, where we stayed for a couple days. It is most definitely a cruiseship town. The streets are just lined with store after store, all selling the same things. Who knew there was such a market for baggy Hawaiian print dresses/shirts, and oversized fake shell necklaces. We did manage to get a bit out of town for some beach time, then most of us congregated again that night for Brad’s birthday. We went to an incredibly posh and classy place called...wait for it...Cheeseburger in Paradise. Maybe I lied about the classiness. It was delightfully tacky though, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Kiesa showed up the main performer when she took the stage and sang some of her songs - we were proud. I also exceeded all expectations and managed to consume ten ice cream sandwiches in the space of two days. Disgusting, but impressive all the same.
From Maui we made the trip up to Kauai. It was a bit of a rough passage, averaging 8-9 knts and taking a ton of water over the rail. Very fun. We docked in Nawilili (say it out loud, its fun), and our travel group reunited for a trip to the Na Pali Coast. Again, good music was involved, and the car ride was great. The short hike (we only did a small portion of the trail) was great. It was all through this dense, lush jungle, there were awesome views throughout the entirety of the walk, and a stiff wind kept you from dying of heat.

Hiking to the beach

The trail came out at this beautiful little beach with a fresh water pool behind it (note: we were not able to swim at this beach...there was a sign letting us know about the ridiculous drop-off/undertow, and how many people had been killed thus far...interesting). We spent a bit of time there, and even got a bit of climbing in on the fantastically rough rock.



A little spot ot climbing. Very fun.

We then made our way (driving) to the Waimea Canyon, but got sidetracked by a massive mango tree. Yes. An entire tree of magoes. Waiting for us. To eat them all. So we spent the next hour or so in a half-crazed state, up the trees, picking (harvesting, if you will) as many mangoes as we could reach. I doubt Ive ever been so covered in juice. Definitely worth it. We finally made it to the canyon lookout (which was amazing in itself. Colin, Ros, and Erin, it was almost like a lesser version of Worlds End...very neat) for a bit, and I even got to practice my newly acquired driving skills. (Note: I now love driving vans. I realize that’s odd, but Im alright with it).


At the viewpoint in Waimea Canyon, and a view of our bountiful mango harvest.
Most of our nights in Kauai were spent exploiting the Marriott Resort. It was a rare occasion indeed to not see at least one of us in the pool or hot tub. There was also the usual large amounts of towel fights; hilariously fun, but to be honest – quite painful.
A group of people went surfing with Ambrose (a fantastically crazy board shaper) and he lent us four boards on the condition that we use them tons and drop them back off after Leg 6. Also had a day with the family which was a lot of fun, doing a bit of snorkeling around the base of the Na Pali Coast trail. The water wasn’t the clearest, but the reef was super interesting. Tons of urchins, really colourful fish, and tiny little wee things that would sneak out and dash around. There were even some sea turtles who made an appearance. *Highlight: I found HagenDaaz icecream bars for $1. Coffee ice cream covered in chocolate, almonds, and toffee. I was delighted*
We then had the roughest passage (I think) thus far, back to Honolulu.

Just out of the harbour on our way from Nawiliwili to Honolulu. Oh so rough, but it was good; kept us busy.

My time here has been spent primarily walking around, relaxing, sleeping on deck, and taking advantage of the $1 movie theatre down the street. Tav, Sarah and I took Bec out for dinner for her birthday at the Old Spaghetti factory (I had, until this time, never experienced this spectacular establishment), and we were all very much impressed. The two work days went smoothly; I was on deck work. I have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with the orbital sander (I wont lie, its mostly hate), and a complete passion for putting the first coat of oil on a purple heart rail.
We went to see fireworks for July 4th, and though they were quite impressive in themselves, we were rather surprised at the apparent lack of celebration regarding this most patriotic of American holidays.
Oh yes, and I had my first, and very hilarious karaoke experience. A few of us stumbled upon Club Eva (really, the name says it all) when searching for food in the wee hours of the morning. After ducking to fit through the door, we realized we had entered an exclusively Asian karaoke bar. They were very gracious with out attempts at communication, and even had an English song list for us to look at. All in all, our three songs were the only English ones sung, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and left Club Eva quite deaf (and wondering to ourselves if the whole thing had actually happened). Very funny.
Well, Im running out of steam with this whole update and Im sure you are too (if you indeed made it this far!), so Ill wrap it up. Everyone is doing well, the fancy dinner was a success, and I will be very sad to see people leave in the next few days.
If you guys don’t already know, you can keep track of where we are and read all of the logs (daily) at www.salts.ca/011_SALTS_join_odyssey.htm . I think there are also a few photos up there. Ill get the mailing address for our agent in Tahiti to you guys before I leave Honolulu and then I fully expect glorious amounts of mail! I hope all is going well at home. Send me emails, I love hearing from everyone. Pray for a smooth passage to Tahiti, steady winds, minimal seasickness for me, and good connection with all the new trainees. Take care, Ill be in touch.