Day 11-15 January 24-28 Sea Days over the Pacific

Here is a synopsis of our sea days after leaving Honolulu.

January 24 - It's too windy for the walking track to be open. Passengers are walking around the deck chairs on the pool deck at 06:30.

The cabin next to ours has a food tray at the entrance. On the ATW 2022 when food trays were in front of a cabin door that meant the passengers inside were in quarantine.

Cabin steward and stewardess as well as room service staff have been masked and gloved when talking to them. Glad to have had our booster in Honolulu. No one wants to go to the doctor in fear of being quarantined.

The walking track is now open but with the motion of the ocean the bow of the ship can be seen bobbing up and down.

Janice along with Bev and Glenn registered for a Forever French Wine Tasting. It included two white and three red wines. Janice is trying to expand her wine palate. These included the following wines:

Le Domaine Saget Pouilly-Fume - Loire Valley, France
Louis Jadot Meursault, Cote De Beaune - Burgundy, France
Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin - Burgundy, France
Chateau Mont-Redon Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Rhone Valley, France
Domaine de Chevalier Grand Cru Classe de Graves - Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux, France.

At afternoon tea the Insignia culinary staff provided an abundance of chocolate desserts. Thank you Helen for providing me with the picture.

Our Trivia team suffered another embarrassing result. I am thinking our name should be changed to "We don't have the answers" LOL.

January 25 - It's Robbie Burns Day and no haggis is on the menu

January 26 - Continue to sail in a southerly direction but at 06:45 a rain squall hits Insignia. Yes I am up early again.

The warm humid air greets you as you leave the confines of the air conditioned ship, affecting your cameras. You need to climatize your camera to the outside temperatures before shooting as your lenses fog up.

The crossing of the equator ceremony began on the pool deck with the introduction of King Neptune and his court. A selection of crew members as well as passengers lined up to kiss a fish and be annointed by King Neptune himself with a ladle of cold water poured on the expecting heads of Scallywags. Once the ceremony was completed King Netune declared the following:

"I, King Neptune, Gatekeeper of the Equator and Ruler of the Seven Seas doth hereby decree in compliance with ye old traditions hath been ceremoniously transformed from Scallway into the Secret Society Shellbacks on this date January 26th, in the year of our Lord 2024, aboard the grand ship Insignia. And so possesses my blessing and protection to travel freely the Seven Seas and to pass the Equator un-accosted as ling as ye shall remain on this earth!"

In recognition of the high number of repeat passengers, the Oceania Member Club Cocktail party was carried out over two nights. Ours included Platinum, Diamond and President passengers only.

We did not experience the speed bump when Insignia crossed the Equator near midnight. LOL

January 27 - A breakthrough our Trivia team tied for second. Things might be looking up.

January 28 - Our final sea day before reaching Rangiroa, French Polynesia.

Another brunch was held by our culinary staff - so much food so little time. On the last segment my downfall was the many desserts available. I was able to limit myself to just one.

It is a busy day on the Insignia with two NFL conference final games, Olife Enrichment Speaker, a wine tasting with a selection of 17 types, and the Insignia Building Sea Trials.

Those passengers willing to build a boat were limited to using those products found on the ship. At the sea trials the boat must be able to nagivgate the water of swimming pool. Over the last few days the pool has been rough. The only requirement was six soda cans must be placed in the boat's compartments while it is floating in the pool. Only one ship capsized when the sodas were added to it. This boat had a Bud Lite theme to it.

The report from the bridge provided these statistics at 13:00:

Sailed from first port, Los Angeles - 4,758.3 natical miles
Sailed from previous port, Honolulu - 1,973.8 natical miles
Remaining to next port, Rangiroa - 285.1 nautical miles
Remaining to the last port, Auckland - 3,639.3 nautical miles
There is still alot of water to sail before reaching Auckland.

Tomorrow is Rangiroa.