FANNING ISLAND PART TWO

FANNING "ISLAND" is really an Atoll.  Note the blue are - (my attempt to draw a circle with a mouse on a moving ship) - that is where we anchored and went ashore through that small opening. The dock was just inside on the right.

Arlyene was ready to go long before the tenders were ready to take us ashore.

Tabuaeran was ready

The tenders were ready

...and finally we arrived

This is the real deal with a crew that looked like local pirates - except for their friendly waive.

Ken and Sandy and Arlyene's head.

Outside the lagoon.  Does not look so big from here.

There are more pictures but nothing much worth posting here considering the upload speed.  There is very little of note here.  A muddy dirt road after rain with lots of big puddles.  A group of native men singing to us as we arrived.  A few tables with native crafts.  By the time we got to the tables we were getting a significant rain and most of the natives cleared out.  There were few places to get out of it and one of them was the tender dock.  So we found ourselves "in line" for the next tender but we had to wait a bit as the Eurodam crew off loaded gifts and donations for the islanders and their kids and the school.  We were impressed with the amount of stuff that passengers and crew managed to put together.  As I have mentioned they have no electricity and no running water.  We saw two trucks and two motorcycles in operation.  Everyone on the Atoll who is employed pretty much works for a coconut plantation company.

School supplies and clothes -  donations from the ship to the islanders

FANNING ISLAND - THE VISIT - PART ONE

First, the proper name of Fanning Island is Tabuaeran in the independent republic of Kiribat.

For fun this morning I started up my cell phone and went to Google Maps with the Location turned on and to my surprise I got this.  You can SEE why I referred to it as "the middle of nowhere".

We had a nice visit ashore and as you will eventually be able to see in  photos, there is not much there.  Just paths and a dirt road and when it rains, as it did while we wee there, they get muddy.  The water babies got to wade around but, alas, there was really no point in snorkeling as there were few fish.  However, lots of big sand crabs dug into holes all over the place.  You would not want to sleep on the beach there.

It took about 10 minutes to post this one picture this afternoon.  Reminds me of "dial up" speeds of the past.  I will hold off on additional posts until the connection improves then we will revisit Tabuaeran again here.

As I write this the crew is bringing the last tender aboard and the captain is preparing to depart and we will start our approximate 1300 mile journey to Bora Bora, our next stop to the south.

INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE

As you can see from our TV monitor we are much closer to Fanning Island this morning and as of now we are still scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.  We overheard another passenger this morning who has done this cruise before comment that they will sometimes bypass Fanning Island if the monsoon rains are there because there is no shelter and road is just dirt so things get pretty messy.

The seas are rougher today with winds about 23 knots.  Our current speed it just 15 knots.  I suspect that is more about our scheduled arrival time than it is about sea conditions.  We can see rain here and there around us so I guess we will just wait and see what happens.

We crossed the International Date Line about 10:30 this morning and just like that lost a day.  Actually that has no impact here on the ship as we keep "Ship's time".  We are kind of like our own country.

Not much else to report today so a short post.

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY AT SEA

It is Saint Paddy's day and I expected to see some green attire today.  What I was NOT expecting is the degree to which the old farts on this cruise are prepared to show their colors, up to and including a couple of old ladies with green hair at the breakfast bar.  I did not have my camera - but the day is not over yet. 

By my dead-reckoning we are roughly 432 miles south of Hawaii and on track to cross the international date line tomorrow.  We lose a whole day but I trust we will get it back at some point.

2 = Honolulu, 3 = Hilo and 4 = Fanning Island.  Total distance 3 to 4 = 1020 miles.

The "Pub Crawl" that everyone else wanted to go to (so I went along) was interesting.  I have not counted up how many bars or pubs there on this ship.  The "Crawl" went to four of them.  Arlyene and I made it through the first three.  About 60 people signed up.  It started at 9:30 and I am sure a good share of our passengers where already in bed.  There was a different drink in each location and they were very watered down so there was little to no danger of overdoing it unless you cheated and drank someone else' drinks.  Arlyene and Kimberly participated in the first game at the first location - a version of "Simon Says".  They did not last too long.  After that we mostly watched other people have fun and act ridiculous.  It was fun but kept my up WAY past my bedtime.  I hear there is another one coming up in a few days.  I probably won't be there.  But if you are a night person you have to find something to keep you busy on these long sea days.

FANNING ISLAND - MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW

Since Fanning Island is our next stop I thought I would record some information about the Atoll since most of us have never heard of it.  Did this mostly for myself while I still have internet here in Hilo.  May not be of much interest to anyone else so don't feel bad if you skip it.

Tabuaeran or Tahanea, known in English as Fanning Atoll (both Gilbertese and English names are recognised), is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometres (13.02 square miles), and the population in 2010 was 1,960. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide.  The lagoon has an area of 110 square kilometres (42 square miles). The deepest water in the lagoon is about 15 metres (49 feet), but most of it is very shallow.
At some 900 miles (1,400 kilometres) distant, Tabuaeran is one of the closest landfalls to the Hawaiian Islands. The atoll was possibly used as a stopover by the Polynesians who first settled Hawaiʻi. Artifacts have been discovered that indicate possible early settlements by people from Polynesia—probably the Cook Islands or Tonga.  The first European to sight Tabuaeran was American captain Edmund Fanning of the American ship Betsy on June 11, 1798; it was named for him.[2] At the time, the atoll was uninhabited and, like all of the Line Islands, had no truly native population. After Fanning, it was visited by whalers of several nationalities.
Before 1855, Captain Henry English and 150 labourers from Manihiki settled, and began producing coconut oil for export. He put the island under British protection, when it was visited by W. H. Morshead on HMS Dido on October 16, 1855.  Fanning was formally annexed to Great Britain by Captain William Wiseman of HMS Caroline on March 15, 1888. A deep opening was blasted, thereafter called the English Channel, on the west side of the atoll. Tabuaeran hosted a station on the Canada to Australia section of the All Red Line telegraph cable system, beginning in 1902. Fanning Island Post Office opened on 29 November 1902.[3] In September 1914 (World War I), the cable station was shelled by a German cruiser, the Nürnberg, and was severely damaged. A landing force went ashore to complete the destruction. In 1939 the atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1979, it gained independence, becoming part of the Republic of Kiribati.
Tabuaeran features in John Updike's short story "The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother's Thimble, and Fanning Island."  There are 8 villages listed in the 2010 census results:
An airfield was constructed on Napari (Napali) islet when the University of Hawaii operated a tide monitoring station on the atoll. The station closed in 1981 and the airfield is no longer in use. Tabuaeran had a population of 2,539 at the 2005 Census, principally Gilbertese settlers brought from the main Kiribati archipelago by Fanning Island Plantations, Ltd., to work in the copra industry. The administrative centre of the atoll is Paelau, which is on the western side, south of a passage into the lagoon. The main health centre is located at Paelau. There are health clinics on Napari (Napali) islet on the north end of the island and at Kimarimari at the southern end of the island.[1] At the 2010 Census the population had reduced to 1,960.[1] The explanation for the reduction in population is that people left the island after the closure of Meleangi Tabai, the secondary school (which has since reopened); work opportunities were reduced by the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ceasing to visit the island and as a result of the reduced operations of the Atoll Seaweed Company.
Tabuaeran was a weekly port of call for Norwegian Cruise Line, who had ships based in Honolulu. Due to US federal regulations requiring foreign-flagged ships to call in a foreign port, the ships cruised to Tabuaeran. It was also more cost effective for the cruise line to visit a foreign country than to pay port charges as a consequence of the U.S. Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.
In 2007, the Norwegian Wind left Norwegian's fleet, and they introduced three cruise ships specifically to cruise in Hawaiʻi. These were all US-flagged ships, and thus were not required to visit foreign ports. The Pride of Hawaiʻi and Pride of America had seven-day sailings, and the Pride of Aloha took over the 10- and 11-day sailings that included Tabuaeran. In the fall of 2007, Norwegian announced that the Pride of Hawaiʻi would be reflagged and renamed the Norwegian Jade and sail in Europe.[6] Due to this change, Norwegian announced that the Pride of Aloha and the Pride of America would sail seven-day cruises in Hawaiʻi and eliminate cruises to Tabuaeran. In the late spring of 2009, NCL decided to only have the Pride of America in Hawaii, and the Pride of Aloha was relocated.
Starting in January 2010, the Holland America cruise ship Rotterdam, September 2011 Westerdam, April 2011 Volendam and January and February 2012 Seaborne Cruiseline have been scheduling visits to Fanning. That is beginning to allow the island to regain some income with help from visiting cruise ships.

We have been told that there is no running water and no electricity.  The ship must anchor outside the lagoon and the tender takes about 45 minutes to get to shore.  We have also been encouraged to donate school supplies.  Kids like to get cash but there is no place to spend it.  Should be an interesting visit.

HILO

We were awakened this morning about 6 am by the ships emergency alarm sounding.  The same one that can precede an abandon ship order.  Once we were wide awake there was (my words not theirs) an "Opps, false alarm - sorry, never mind" type of announcement.  We were about an hour out of Hilo when this happened insuring that we would be out on our veranda to watch our arrival.

We eventually decided to each go our own ways today.  Having been to Hilo before Arlyene and I had our sights on a point of land we could see from our stateroom where there was some nice breaking surf on the rocks.  Our plan was to walk there.

However once we were off the boat we discovered that our planned route was along a busy highway without a safe shoulder to walk on an even if we tried we would have our backs to the heavy traffic on the way back.  So, we decided to just head in the direction of Hilo and make it up as we went.  At one point, in a park, we were able to see the ship back behind us.

Taken next to a very old Banyan Tree

Shortly after taking this photo we ran into Mike and Kimberly walking towards us on their way back from heading in closer to Hilo.  We turned around with them and ended up in a funky little restaurant on the edge of a lagoon and had a cold beer before returning to the ship.  For us the total distance was just a little over 4 miles.  They had walked farther.

We are now back aboard relaxing with a cold drink and awaiting our planned 6 pm departure.  We are schedule to cruise near the Kilauea Volcano for a bit before we start south for Fanning Island which is a couple days and about 1000 miles away.  So about 3 sea days to go.  We will cross the international date line.  I have already given up trying to keep track of what day this is in the overall 28 day cruise.  It's just Saturday today........

.....and this will likely be our last day with good cell phone and internet coverage.  From here on we will be dependent on the ship's systems to make posts and keep our e-mail  up to date.  This system is totally satellite of course and subject to some areas of poor coverage so there may be gaps in our updates.

HONOLULU

Arrived safely in Honolulu this morning about 6 am.  Most of our little party is going shopping.  I plan to stay and keep pirates away while they are gone.   Meanwhile we take on fuel.  Gives a whole new meaning to the term gas guzzler.

Once the shoppers returned we walked over to the Aloha Tower where we met up with my cousin Janie who spends the winters here with her husband Jim.  We had a nice visit and then walked back to the ship.  We will be departing Honolulu this evening and moving over to Hilo tomorrow morning for another day ashore.

Not a great photo.  Will have to try and lighten it up after we get home.

Eurodam at the dock in Honolulu