Scuba Diving

In preparation for my future cruise contract, after I was initially hired by Princess, and when I had nothing else to do, I began my scuba certification. It's been a long process, starting in Delaware with online learning, continuing in New Hampshire, when I had some time, then progressing to pool classes in Pennsylvania. Finally, a year later, in Hawaii, I have the opportunity to complete my open water dives and become certified. I became certified on the flat, shallow reefs off Waikiki in Honolulu over the course of multiple cruises (two days of diving took me a month, since visits are so long apart on this itinerary).

Yesterday, I went diving from Maui. We boated over to Lanai on a fast Hard Rigid Inflatable Boat (HRIB), at about 45 knots (about 50 mph). We saw plenty of whales on the way over, with a few breaching in the distance. It was an awesome start to the morning. Then we hit the dive site, got our briefing, suited up, and went in. The sites were incredibly different from anything that I was expecting. The sites in Honolulu were flat and shallow, as I said. They were reefs emerging from a sandy bottom, and scuba was just snorkeling underwater. This site had topography. We moored on top of a pinnacle of rock, jutting up from the sea floor 40' below. We descending along its wall, swam to nearby rock walls, went through lava tubes, explored the vast coral floor as it descended into the blue, and checked out crevices and caves. It was a three-dimensional exploration that raised my expectations of what scuba diving can be.

I can't wait to go back.

Life Aboard: Missed Ports

Winter in Hawaii means occasional fierce storms. Bad weather hit the islands as we were visiting this time around. The weather held for the first two days, but by the time we headed to Nawiliwili, the island of Kauai had taken a pounding. Drenching rains has caused flooding and land slides. Not surprising for the wettest spot on earth. The port was closed, and we were not able to dock. Our itinerary has four Hawaiian ports. We just missed one of them.

In lieu of docking and being able to get off the ship, we circled the entire island, coasting just off shore, doing some scenic cruising. We hit the Na Pali Coast around mid-morning, and the views were incredible. It’s one of the most remote places in the country, inaccessible by almost every mode of transport, other than tackling the grueling and dangerous Kalalau Trail (see picture at top for a view of the end point, Kalalau Beach). Our usual itinerary keeps us on the Eastern side of the island, never venturing out to the wild western side. Today we got a good peek at the dramatic cliffs and storm clouds.

The next day, we missed Lahaina as well. As we incredulously sailed away from the Hawaiian Islands, we dug in to deal with six straight sea days, and thousands of unhappy passengers. Our itinerary has four Hawaiian ports. We just missed half of them.

Always an adventure, here aboard the Golden Princess…

Zip Lining in Kauai

Another island, another tour. This time I went on a hiking/swimming/zip line tour through the red dirt of Kauai. We headed to Kipu Ranch, the working cattle farm right next door to the falls that I jumped off of a few weeks ago.


We trekked through the rich red dirt of Kauai, so famous for its high clay content and its remarkable staining power. There had been torrential downpours for the last few days, so the trail was nice and soggy for us.


We hiked across many river crossings to arrive at a rope swing. We continued on to a zip line and jumping platform at the base of a waterfall. We stopped for some swimming, to the dismay of some of the non-dirt-oriented passengers. Well, it did get the mud off our legs.


We got back on the wagon, and trundled past the sleeping giant (in the mountain range).


We then stopped for lunch, and suited up for the zip line. After some congestion, we headed to the base of a waterfall and zipped across a river. We got two solid runs on the zip line, then it was time to call it a day.


We were all muddy and mosquito-bitten, and ready for the luxury of the ship. We got back with plenty of time before setting sail. So I did some lighting maintenance.

Life Aboard: The Holidays

I guess the holiday season started at Thanksgiving, but with all the tropical weather, lack of autumn leaves and copious visits to the Hawaiian Islands, we haven’t really been getting in the holiday spirit. Thanksgiving was celebrated by moving our formal night one day earlier, to correspond with the holiday. Other than that, I think turkey was served. Probably. Somewhere.

Fortunately, Christmas and New Years fall in the same two-week cruise, so we have only one chaotic cruise with plenty of strange requests.

Christmas involved making a Christmas variety show out of whatever we could find onboard. The cruise director booked the guest entertainers from around the ship (a comic, our show band, the street entertainment from the piazza, the production dancers) and we decorated with stolen Christmas trees and garlands. A quick, stressful tech later, with automation, video, special effects and specific requests, we had a show. It was performed twice on Christmas Day, and then we never saw or spoke of it again.

The Islands proved a nice break between Christmas and New Years. It was a calm few days of trying to forget about the ship.

Then the returning sea days hit, and with them, New Years. This was a time for special requests throughout the ship, like live video feeds into every cabin, balloon drops and midnight count-downs on the open deck… All in all, it was a pretty normal day for me, since I’m in charge of lighting in the theater. We did our normal show, then no more lighting in the theater was required.

We had our fleet-wide Christmas photo competition, and are still waiting for the results. We’re pretty proud of our entry.