January 15, 2026, Sea Day #4
Sea Day #4 of 9 (not including missing Townsville) going to Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.
The skies were overcast at 8 a.m., the clocks went forward an hour early this morning. The temperature was 29°C and did not change during the day. Humidity was 73% with NW wind 14 kph. Scott had just returned home from India and was collecting their luggage at the airport, the time difference made it about mid afternoon yesterday.
We had coffee and pastry as we listened to Robbie and the Deck Cadets discuss life as a Navigation or Engine Room intern. A few references were made about yesterday’s rogue storm. The ship was not anchored since the depth was too great, rather she used Dynamic Positioning (DP) systems. DP automatically maintains a vessel’s position and heading using integrated sensors, thrusters, and control algorithms. From our view in the bouncing tender boat, the ship seemed to be serenely floating on the waves, with her stabilizers keeping those on board from feeling the buffeting waves. The cadets and Robbie mentioned that the captain was updating those on board periodically with the state of tender and shore conditions.
We walked on Promenade Deck 3 but there was a light drizzle and several areas were roped off for maintenance. We could not see any visible damage to the tenders, but they were hanging above the roped off areas. We climbed the stairs to Deck 10 to walk on the Sports Deck loop before going down to Deck 9 Lido for a specialty coffee.
At 11 a.m. on the World Stage, John Hocknull presented “World War II in the Pacific in Movies” showing 1942 footage of the Battle of the Coral Sea where Australian Mariners took the island from the Japanese, who were building an air field and the Battle of Midway the next month. Followed by footage about the start of the intense Guadalcanal Campaign.
We left early to attend the 11:30 a.m. Mariners lunch in the Deck 2 dining room. There were officers greeting guests including the Food and Beverage Director, Ali Sahin, who was one of the crew “catching” people as they exited the lurching tenders yesterday. There were several hundred mariners enjoying sparkling wine and a three course lunch.
At 1 p.m. in the World Stage, Berny, the travel guide, presented Oceania Up Close: Divergent Oceania about the different evolutionary track of Australian animals. We had seen it on the last cruise.
We returned to the World Stage for Dr. Gerard Carney’s presentation, “Sailing for Spices and Sovereignty” at 2 p.m. He explained about the nations actively exploring the unknown seas of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. In 1494 by the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Roman Pope divided the Atlantic Ocean from pole to pole, giving the Portuguese his permission to explore east of the line and for Spain to explore to the west of the line. (Dividing the newly discovered lands outside Europe along a north-south line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, about 46°30′ W of Greenwich) The problem was that the line was not in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after all. Part of what now is eastern Brazil was on the east of the line, which is why Brazilians speak Portuguese and most of South Americas speaks Spanish. When it was discovered that the world was a sphere, there was heated discussion about where the line would be 180° from the line established by the treaty, but it was never settled. Explorers from Spain, Portugal, former Spanish territory that was now Dutch, English and French were looking for eastern spices and riches and the great southern land - Australia. Many explorers mapped parts of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea through the centuries. The Dutch in 1602 established the VOC - Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) which held a monopoly on Asian trade. In 1616 Dutch explorer Jacob le Maire visited Tonga many months after rounding Cape Horn, named after his home town, and mapping part of New Guinea. Other Dutch explorers followed in the first half of the 17th century. English explores continued the search for the great south continent. In 1688 William Dampler, an English privateer like Sir Francis Drake, sailed around South America from 1577 to 1580. In 1764 to 1766 John Byron, grandfather to poet, Lord Byron explored near Australia. English explorers Willis and Carteret, claimed Tahiti, as King George’s Island, and Pitcairn Island and Solomon Islands, respectively on a voyage from 1766 to 1769. Willis advised Tahiti as a site to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus.
Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti (Point Venus) for the Royal Society on a scientific voyage to help measure the solar system. The transit occurs every 120 years. Included in the expedition were also Charles Green, astronomer, mathematician and chief observer of the transit and Joseph Banks who sponsored botanist Daniel Solander.
At the same time, 1769, French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville claimed Tahini for the French and was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the world.
At 3 p.m. also in the World Stage, Berny returned with a port talk on Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands and Luganville, Vanuatu. In 1942 and 1943 there were naval battles for the island of Guadalcanal. At war’s end more than a million dollars of army equipment was ditched into the bay, now called Iron Bottom Sound. One Canadian dollar can buy 5.84 Solomon Island dollars. One Canadian dollar can buy 87 Vanuatu Vatu. Vanuatu also accepts Australian and American currency. He said to take mosquito repellant in Vanuatu ports.
We went to Happy Hour at the Billboard onboard before joined our stablemates for dinner, followed by coffee at the Library Café before tonight’s show in the World Stage.
The stunningly costumed singers and dancers performed another amazing show called “A Swing Thing”. Then at 8:30 p.m. on Deck 9 in the pool area, passengers were invited to the Lido Fair. The pool roof was slid open to the 89% humidity and 29°C outside elements. The area was set up with fair games like corn-hole targets, ring toss, hit the bottle plus there was ice cream and bags of popcorn and several bars were set up. You won tickets to qualify to win other prizes if your ticket was the lucky one to be pulled from a draw drum. There were several hundred people lining up for the different games.
Total steps. 9,580
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