Pacific Odyssey - Leg 6

The past day and a half have been incredibly full and wonderful . . . and sad.  It´s always difficult to say good-bye and let some of our ´family´ go.  I like to think I will see them all again at some time during our lives.  Most of us spent our final day together on the beach, climbing Diamond Head, shopping, etc.  The packing was left mostly until this morning; there were more important things to do.  By 1730 hrs everyone was back on the boat clean and beautifully dressed; summer dresses and skirts on the women, and dress shirts, ties (a few), and nice pants on the men.  Will looked especially smart with his trim beard, tidied up just before the dinner.   Will and Kaitlin have another 10 days on the island once the ship leaves.  This will be a fun place for them to hang out for awhile and process some of the many experiences of the past 2 months. Gillian and Katie made an amazing meal. Crew sets up the table, serves the trainees and do the clean up before, during, and after the dinner.  It´s always a lot of fun, serving and being served.  The after cabin  house becomes our table, one we can all be seated around and which is decorated with table cloths, candles, flowers, ribbons, etc.  It looks beautiful.  The dugout canoe turned upside down becomes a bench for sitting on along one side, and four 5 gallon oil buckets supporting two 6 foot fender boards become benches along the other side.  In the dusk, with the candles burning, it looks very cozy.  We started the evening with hors´d´oeuvres; cucumber slices with goat cheese and cream cheese, with finely grated carrot on top, baked garlic, shrimp with dip, and a selection of fresh fruit with a vanilla yogurt dip, delicious.  Trainees wandered around the deck, chatting and visiting, and taking lots of photos, while nicely dressed crew served.  Crew then escorted trainees to the table where a green salad with strawberries and walnuts was served along with a very tasty punch.  Noah and Jacob made the punch and made sure everyone´s cups stayed full.  Main course was very generous portions of chicken cordon bleu (or pork cordon bleu), brown rice and steamed broccoli.  Dessert was ice cream sundaes, as much as you could eat. Between the main course and dessert Jordan presented awards to everyone. The awards all pertain to some characteristic we have all come to know, love, and appreciate about the particular person the award is for; some of them remind us of funny details, some of them are more serious, all of them are wonderful reminders of how we have grown together.  After dessert we watched a slide show set to music; it allowed us to relive this leg, there are so many experiences we have gone through as a community and it was wonderful to go through it again with each other.  We laughed, we ´aahed,´ we remembered . . . nothing needed saying as we had all been there, it´s something we all have in common and always will.  We woke up this morning at 0800 to another gorgeous day; departing trainees enjoyed their final sleep on deck, I overheard Keira say she would miss sleeping under the stars on a very hard deck and I sensed she was serious.  It´s quite special to sleep as a group, on deck, out under the open starry sky.   Port watch was up early for a final cup of coffee together at Starbucks.  They took the time to tell each other what they appreciated and learned from each other.  It´s a very uplifting and encouraging group activity; one we often do at the end of a leg.  Antony and Jose did the same activity with their watches earlier on in the week.  Katie served bagels and cream cheese, with an assortment of fresh fruit for breakfast.  Skipper, Steve, Chris, Ian, Tristan, and Jordan played a final round of Par 3 golf together, using the funnels as the holes, with a cereal bowl placed in it to prevent the turks head ball going down irretrievably far.  It was an exciting game; I´m not sure who won.  The final word on the Chess Tournament is that Liam won by default, as Jordan and Steve did not play their final game.  The winner was to play against Liam, so, congratulations to Liam, his name will go on the elephant trophy named ´Chad.´  I mentioned at the beginning of the leg that we held a ´Landfall Lottery, with everyone guessing what day we would reach land. Leanne won by ´Price Is Right´ rules; she was the last to guess without going over.  She guessed April 25th, and we arrived on the 26th.  Will and Kaitlin won if Midway was considered our first landfall, which it was, but the lottery was set up for our arrival in Hawaii.  Trainees packed up their things and good-byes were started.  It was sad; it is difficult to leave the ship.  We as a crew will miss them; our family of 37 is tight and it is not easy to let go.  For those of you looking forward to seeing your kids, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc., I wish you a wonderful coming together; enjoy their photos, enjoy their stories, enjoy them; we sure did.  The next few days are days off.  Skipper, Antony, Gillian, Leighsa, Tristan, and Katie will have 2 days of rest.  Some of the trainees continuing on have rented a condominium on the North shore, while others will enjoy some quiet on a quiet ship.  We will all come together again on the night of the 8th, ready to invite new trainees the following day.  This will be the final log for this leg; I will take 2 days off and resume again on May 9th.  Thank you for all the encouragement we have received via letters, emails, etc. from both crew and trainees.  Until Friday, Bonice.