Another four days of lectures about the Pacific and our upcoming Ports of Call. We learnt about the geological formation of the Pacific and its islands, how the first migrants arrived, the early European explorers and then the Americans and the Whalers, and World War 11 in the Pacific. Another set of talks was on the loss of the Russian Submarine 'Kirsk' and then it's raising and salvage operations. All of it very informative. We crossed the Equator and, two hou...

We left as we arrived, in darkness. However this time we were awake to see the city lights. Heading south west into the Pacific to the other side of the world, and off the edge of the map. Four days into the winds and the waves, sometimes 10 metres high, giving us a bumpy ride. So we were glad to set foot on terra firma in Honolulu. We did some shopping in Wal Mart (well a girl always needs some essentials!) and walked around the old town and China town. After a...

It was dark and we were still in our beds when we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge to dock at San Francisco. As we were going on a 5 hour excursion to Alcatraz and then over the Golden Gate Bridge to the bayside village of Sausalito, a good breakfast was most definitely in order!!? There was a delay getting off the ship as we all had to go through US Immigration before leaving, and you always get someone who tries to avoid this. Anyway we got away on our coa...

It is the 1st February today and we arrive in Cabo San Lucas in Baja (lower) California, as we disembark from the tender boat there are young girls smiling, dancing as they welcome us on land. Once again lots of sunshine, sorry, I know it is freezing at home. Our dear friends, Linda and Kerry, met us here and together we enjoyed a trip in a glass bottom boat, so we saw many colourful fish such as clown fish, we went in close to the rocks around the coastline a...

A glorious sunny day awaited us, as we docked in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The mountains and cloud Forests could be seen in the distance and lots of happy memories came flooding back to us of our wonderful time in Costa Rica, nearly eight years ago. The locals had all come down to the beach that day, as it was the weekend. We sat and watched the world go by as we drank a most delicious cup of Costa Rican coffee, a huge mug for only 50p. Before boarding we looked a...