In the words of the immortal Gilbert & Sullivan, “O Joy! O Rapture!”. For the first time in years, I’ve found an onboard activity that fits into my very limited sphere of interest. The cruise director, Bruce, used to be the music director for years prior to attaining his current position. He is a very talented individual and graduate of Julliard. It seems on every World Cruise there is a HAL Chorale. Imagine my great surprise and joy when I read a small blip in the daily paper calling for Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses! We’ve been away 15 days now and the only thing I really miss is my Tuesday evenings with the Apollo Club of Boston. This will help me. While I enjoy singing with female voices better than just males, the repertoire is not exciting, “songs of the twenties”. In fairness this was picked by a democratic vote, barely edging out songs of the sixties and completely destroying a medley from Guys and Dolls (my vote).
BTW, this was a weigh-in day. I’m wondering how accurate this scale is because today’s number was 201.0, a cumulative loss of 11 pounds already. I am working at it but this has to be an aberration!
The captain informed us early-on this morning that we would be unable to go ashore at Hanga Roa, the small town and center of life on the island. The small opening from the ocean into the bay was being hammered with ten foot waves, crashing upon the rocky outcroppings surrounding the entrance. He has moved the ship around to the North side of the island in an attempt to get us ashore. This, from the ship, is a barren wasteland with a small beach. The plan is to BUILD a pontoon landing deck held in place by one of the tenders. Tenders from the ship will tie up to the tender and passengers will be able to cross from the transport tender, onto the stationary tender, then onto the newly built pontoon and on to shore. We can see the tour vehicles lined up over there now. Our tour, scheduled for 1:00 PM will now depart at 4:00PM. It is my plan to write a short note to the captain for going above and beyond the call of duty. You have no idea how much effort has been required to pull this off. It would have been very easy to just say “Sorry” and continue on our way. How many times are you going to get a chance to explore Easter Island?
Update - all went as planned. We got ashore and visited one of the places I have always longed to see. The topography is very much like the main island of the Galapagos, scrub brush, no trees over six feet tall, arid and generally an unwelcoming environment. The island itself is shaped like a triangle formed from three distinct volcanoes. There is no water other than the rain water gathered in the craters of the volcanoes. The weird thing is that even though we’ve traveled 2700 miles from the west coast of South America, we are still in the same time zone. Easter Island maintains the same time as Santiago, Chile. Weird!
The moai are magnificent and the mysteries and tales that go with them are entertaining. They are said to be burial grounds and all face away from the sea. Very impressive with respect to size, weight and how they were transported. Four more days at sea before Tahiti, including a stop off Pitcairn Island, where descendants of Fletcher Christian will be boarding the ship to sell their wares.
Joe Wagg
I can't contain my jealousy at both Easter Island and Pitcairn Island. I would have considered swimming if the ship couldn't land. It's nice to hear that after a number of staff disappointments that they really pulled through where it mattered.
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