This was a pretty short work week as we had the Oakland port stop. The weather on the way was really great. Really, it hardly felt like we were moving at all. So when the #2 turbocharger died in the middle of the night and we shut down the main engine, I didn’t even notice. As the 2nd engineer said, “Turbocharger #2 gave up the ghost…but in a nice, gentle way.”
The turbocharger set off the high-vibration alarm, but the problem was dealt with before (luckily) it got to the point of something drastic, like exploding. It has been due for maintenance for a while…so due, in fact, that we received the replacement parts while in Oakland. It just wasn’t a dire enough problem to fix until like, right now. So the plan originally was that we were going to be kicked out of Honolulu quickly to get to Seattle quickly so they could work on replacing the ME cylinder liners, but we lost time, travelled at a reduced speed for the remainder of the trip, and needed to get some serious work done in Honolulu. So there goes that plan.
In other news, the 2nd and I have completed the reassembly of the HFO purifier, which may or may not have involved one person standing on it while the other sledgehammered stuff into place. (“Sometimes I do both by myself at the same time. Yeah, it’s a little sketchy”) We also replaced the governor connection on the #2 generator, which had been seriously worn away. Generator #2, my favorite generator, seems to be commonly referred to as “Christine, The Generator From Hell”. Maybe she’ll be a little happier now.
Usually on westbound weeks, dinner the night before arrival in Honolulu is a barbecue. Last time it got cancelled because of weather; this time we were able to make it happen. So, Andy and I got reassigned to help the stewards carry stuff around. The barbecue was super, and although I did not join the poker game afterward, I heard that was pretty good too.
Our arrival in Honolulu this time happened somewhere between 000 and 0500, so we just got up early to make as much of the day as possible.
First: snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, which we were told is the best place to go. 
It was not too crowded, because they limit the number of people who can come in (so you have to get there early). Also, stupid people have been killing the reef for years, so you have to swim out past them to a) get away from people kicking you in the face and b) get to the part of the reef they haven’t reached yet.
the white line is where the reef wall is.
However, the bay is really shallow AND the tide was going out, so we kind of got stuck beyond the reef and had to swim all the way around to get back to the beach. And the current was pretty strong, so that was exciting.
ANYWAY, the snorkeling was awesome. We saw lots of stuff including parrot fish, trumpet fish, unicorn fish, all the fish, sea urchins, starfish, and our crowning achievement, a green sea turtle. He came out from his hidey hole, bobbed around a little (Andy: “He’s so majestic!”) and then he went back down again. So, the day was totally worth it.
I don’t have any internet right now and this is the only sea turtle picture available to me
speaking of majestic
this is Koko
After lunch, we went to Waikiki to explore a little. We ended up at the zoo, although we did not actually visit the zoo. Outside it is this tree:
our map failed to mention that “Waikiki Banyan” was actually a hotel, but we got there in the end
We went around the shops, although we stayed far away from Luxury Row, because some of the stores definitely had bouncers and would have thrown us out for being scruffy. We stumbled upon the end of some young peoples’ hula dance recital, which was neat, and then we visited the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, Olympic champion and the person who introduced surfing to the West Coast and Australia. We watched the tourists walk by and voted on who had the best outfit -matching husband and wife Hawaiian shirt combo? WHOLE FAMILY matching Hawaiian shirt combos? Hipster/hippie couple? No, the prize went to a group of ladies in “bridesmaid’ sashes escorting their friend, who was wearing a white dress with the veil and all. I’m sure they had an exciting weekend.
Pro tip: most of the expensive Waikiki hotels have open-air lobbies, and you can totally walk in and chill on their couches without anyone bothering you. We also tried asking the concierge what we could do next for fun; he said “nothing” (it was about 7 PM) which was not very helpful. We ended up having a late dinner in a restaurant in the Hilton because we do what we want. Then as we were pretty tired we decided to go to sleep and make an early start the next day.
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