A Love Boat

Ha vah'i--how do you spell the enunciation, anyway? I've always wanted to visit the islands since I was a young teenager. A school friend, Portuguese by heritage, Hawaiian by culture let me tag along with her and her parents for their weekly band/dance rehearsal. Her papa played the uke, with a troupe of musicians and dancers who put on luaus for the local Hayward wahinis. The young dancers were so graceful and I wanted to learn to move like they did. I also realized that to look the part, I needed to let my hair grow down my back. But I couldn't do a thing to hide my pale skin that refused to receive a golden glow from the sun. My friend and I placed ourselves at the back of the room behind the dancers and tried to follow along. She had picked up a lot on her own, having been to many rehearsals. I had been going over to her house after school to take lessons from her. Though I could hula reasonably well, I never quite got the hip action for the Tahitian gyrations.

Right around that time, my mother, stressed out from family events and ill with a bleeding stomach ulcer, boarded the ship Matsonia in San Francisco bound for Hawaii. She was to stay six weeks with a friend whose Navy husband was out to sea, but stationed there ... Doctor's orders. Oh how I wanted to go with her! I wanted to see Don Ho in person, visit those amazing waterfalls, buy a real grass skirt. But this vacation was hers alone -- to decompress, heal and come home to us whole.

I often looked through her album of pictures she took and thought that maybe some day I would get to go, dance with the natives, try eating poi and buy that grass skirt.

Skip many years later. We were empty nesters and had a lot of miles of life under our belt. My husband and I decided to take the 7 day cruise of the islands. I no longer danced and buying a grass skirt wasn't my top priority for wanting to go. We decided as an introduction to Hawaii, why not go in a traveling hotel and see several islands. We were on the "Latitudes" list with Norwegian Cruise Lines from an Alaskan cruise we traveled years ago. It turned out that all it seemed to get us was an additional cocktail party with the Captain. But we got a special pin to wear indicating that we were "seasoned" passengers with the cruise line.

Our flight arrived in Honolulu early and we were one of the first passengers to board. The ship was quiet and as soon as we dropped off our luggage in our stateroom, we lit out to explore the ship. The experience of exploring a ship and not meeting another person was surreal. We made our way around the different decks, not quite knowing where we were and never knowing what we would find around the next corner. I felt like we were in some sort of mystery adventure video game; getting our bearings and looking for clues. The idle hum of the ship's engines went great with the, mysterious background music from Myst playing over and over again in my head.

We finally made it up on the main deck where the crew were preparing a barbecue of hamburgers, chicken and hot dogs. Just about all of the ship's passengers had arrived, but we managed to get a table along the rail and sipped our tropical drinks. With buckets of streamers, hired hula dancers and a Hawaiian band on the dock, we got a send-off with everyone on board and on the dock shouting, "A LO HA!!" with emphasis on the HA! Though there weren't the crowds of people on the dock to see the ship off like I saw in the old movies, it was a nice gesture of the famous Hawaiian hospitality.

Norwegian had changed from our first cruise of Alaska with formal dinners and fixed seating for meals. They now had "Freestyle" sailing for those who really prefer to remain less formal, laid back, and free to dine in shorts and flip flops. We could choose any dining room we liked and whether we wanted to sit alone or with someone else. We always chose to sit with someone and visit with a different couple every meal.

We watched the Honolulu port slowly disappear along with the sun. We cruised around to the other side of the island for our next stop in the morning. That evening, as we settled in our room and turned out the lights, the ship rocked with creaks and groans here and there. My husband rolled over and with his mouth near my ear said in a low, raspy voice, "Arr, arr, arr... ship ahoy, me matey." As I closed my eyes and with the gentle movement of the ship, I thought all I needed was someone to sing a beautiful, lullaby. Instead, I heard a rhythmic thump that seemed to come from the wall to the right.... it was a familiar sound of rhythm... and then it dawned on me that it must be the couple next door having a send-off launch of their own. But the thumping wasn't short lived and I thought, "My, what a randy couple!" Things quieted a bit and then the thumping started up again. I giggled to myself.

At breakfast the next morning we went to one of the main dining rooms at the rear of the ship ... I mean the "stern." Our table was at the very back next to a massive window where we could see the ship making its wake in the water, and as we sat drinking our coffee, that familiar thumb started in again. This time, we felt it coming up through the floor and the ship gave a slight jerk as it pushed forward. Our "randy couple" was indeed a damaged propeller and we learned later that day that the itinerary that would take us off to the remote country island called Fanning, had to be nixed because the ship couldn't sail fast enough to stay on schedule.