in the South Pacific

We've had several days of blue, blue ocean seas and a fair bit of blue sky with an occasional, brief rain squall. It keeps getting warmer and warmer (actually quite hot if you are in the sun for any length of time). We saw a couple of dolphins the other day, a flying fish, and a few sea birds, but otherwise the wildlife has been quite absent since our wonderful day in Maui. Haven't seen many ship's either - the Pacific is a really, really big place.

We are now officially in the South Pacific, having crossed the equator at 9:15 or so this morning. The "polliwogs" have been successfully initiated into the world of "shellbacks" - a sea faring tradition for one's first sea crossing (this is our second sea voyage crossing the equator - we will also cross the dateline again on Saturday, but I don't think there's a ceremony for that, though there is a poem that Stan enjoys sharing).

We also celebrated Shrove Tuesday with pancake races (and pancake eating). This is apparently the British "last hurrah" before Lent - seems like a much quieter observance that Mardi Gras.

In an odd way the ship has become much like the cottages we rent for a bit of time (minus the need to go grocery shopping :). Somewhat odd to realize it will be our home for a few months yet :).

Tonight is the Hawaiian ball, so probably lots of hula dancing in the ballroom. We've been enjoying the evening shows as well as the Insight lectures.

In some ways today had felt like a day of settling in. It seems like an odd thing since we've been on the ship for two weeks. It was the first day without a lot of things to do or see. We did go to the port talk on Bay of Islands, which is a new port for us -  in between laundry cycles - but didn't go to other talks.

This was our first foray into the "horrors" of the laundromat - while they were quite busy, everyone seem pleasant and recognized the need for patience. We decided to take our bag and start at deck eight and work our way down (our deck is the only one without a launderette). We only had to go down to deck six before we found a washer that was almost done and no one waiting, so we waited 10 minutes or so. It was a longer wait for a dryer but we (I.e. Stan) put stuff in, started a timer and went to the port talk. There is no room for extra persons, so, since he has a plan, I mostly leave him to it.

I hadn't tried the pool, so after lunch, I went for a quick dip - it was delightfully cool on a very hot pool deck. Very little sea motion, but right that there were waves in the pool - kind of fun. I had neglected to put sunscreen on before coming upstairs, so spent less that 15 minutes in the sun and lay in the shade to drip dry.

We have gotten into a bad habit of afternoon tea. With an unlimited supply of scones and clotted cream, it's hard to resist (at least I'm mostly climbing the stairs :).