Day 34
It's a beautiful day in Hawaii; a great day for a cruise, so we looked on the internet and booked a spot on The Makani, a luxury sailing catamaran (pictured above), at Kewalo Basin about a mile west of Waikiki beach. (http://www.sailmakini.com/).
The famous Waikiki Beach (pictured above) is already packed with sunbathers, and surfers, as we walk to the bus stop. It's pretty cheap to catch the bus around Honolulu; a return ticket only costs two dollars. When we arrive at the yacht basin, Louise says "I forgot to put sunscreen on."
TRAVEL TIP: Carry a small plastic container of sunscreen around with you. Otherwise you will end up like us having bought five bottles of sunscreen by the end of your trip. Today Louise purchased a thirty dollar bottle of lavender essential oils made in Hawaii sunscreen, because that was the only sunscreen they sold, and the native Hawaiian lady was so friendly that she felt sorry for her.
Clearing the harbor, the captain hoists the sail and cuts the engine, and we’re cruising along Waikiki beach towards Diamond Head (pictured above), an extinct volcano (Well, I hope it’s extinct).
This is Pal, the ship’s mascot, and he is very cute (pictured above). Don’t you think?
He also doubles as the ships rescue dog, which I think must be a joke, for the only thing he wanted to rescue was our hotdogs from our lunch plate.
There's something romantic about sailing - silently gliding through the water, the sails flapping in the wind, a cool sea breeze, and the sun on your face. But, at the back of the boat, not everyone was finding it quite so romantic, particularly the girl continuously vomiting into a bucket Her poor boyfriend looked shattered, she looked a nasty shade of green, no doubt hoping the whole experience would be over soon.
Meanwhile at the front of the boat, we were having a great time (pictured above). I think this is the way to see Honolulu, by sail boat, just like Captain Cook. Maybe, that's a bad example - didn't he get killed in Hawaii? Anyway, we enjoyed seeing New York Harbour by jet boat in thirty minutes, but we recommend for Hawaii a nice relaxing two hour sailing cruise. Except, if you get sea sick, like the girl above, because then it could be the worst two hours of your life.
As I mentioned earlier, the bus is very cheap, but it's also very popular, and therefore very crowded on the return journey. An advertisement says their building a train, no doubt to reduce some of the heavy traffic conjestion in Honolulu, and their total reliance on imported fuel.
For dinner we went to the Oceanarium restauarant, which as the name implies, features a view of their massive Oceanarium, and a seafood buffett.A scuba diver even swims around and holds up signs like, "Happy birthday Mr Migayi (Hawaii is about 16% Japanese American: The irony is not lost on me either -pictured below).
Tomorrow, if we don't have food poisoning, we plan on visiting Pearl Harbour.
