We're on the final leg of our sea days, heading to Hawai’i. It’s Tuesday, September 29th and we’re due to arrive in Honolulu tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. You really have to appreciate the size of the oceans on this planet. From the time we left Seattle, some five days ago we’ve noticed quite a few things, but the absence of many. At this point, we have traveled some 2,238 nautical miles (nm) with only 339.8 nm’s left to go before arriving at our interim destination. There have be NO ships, NO birds, NO land and rarely the glimpse of a high flying jet as we sit on the balcony watching the world go by. The ocean color has changed, it’s noticeably more blue that it was 5 days ago. It’s been a real pleasure to have the sound of the sea, particularly at night. We leave the door open and get to hear the sounds of the Volendam cutting it’s way through the waves time, time and again. Even the sunset are getting more romantic and we’ve not yet hit the real "south pacific" I really think something needs to happen for me in my recreation room (casino). Lady Luck has deserted me. Realizing that there is some level of skill involved in blackjack and Texas, l believe that the absence of luck as well is really a big part for my overall, dismal performance – she’s just not been with me. But, as always that will change I’m sure.

We’ve been on board now for seven days and met some very decent people, some at the dinner table, some at the poker table – all with such interesting travel and life stories, it really makes it fun. We’ve met a world-class rock climber, a pilgrimage walker, a furniture magnets and most likely the best, a cool 92 year old poker player who held her own at the tables.

Because we’ve been to Hawai’i in the past we’re planning to tour ourselves in and around Honolulu itself. Since we’ve been to Pearl and toured the Missouri, our plan it to hike up to the top of Diamond Head and then off to some of the local in-town sites such as Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Bail Bonds shop and then over to the only Palace in the United States.