STRAIGHT RHUMB LINE SAILING ~~ March 3

WE ARE “STRAIGHT RHUMB LINE SAILING” ~~ WEDNESDAY, March 3

ARTICLE FROM THE SHIP’S NAVIGATOR AND PRINTED IN TODAY’S “PRINCESS PATTER:”

Throughout the day, Golden Princess will maintain a steady west south westerly track navigating in deep waters with an extended depth well below 5000 meters (15,240 feet.) We all know that the shortest distance from “A” to “B” is a straight line. This is true for flat surfaces, but on a sphere such as the Earth, however, a line that follows the curvature of the surface is the shortest distance. Straight line or “Rhumb Line Sailing” is acceptable for most navigation, especially coastal or short distance navigation, but when traveling vast distances like the Oceans, ‘Great Circle Sailing’ is used. A “Great Circle” is defined as any line depicted on the surface of the Earth by a plane which passes through the centre. When a ship or an airplane follows a Great Circle track, during long transit, she continually changes course to compensate for the curvature. In this occasion, Golden Princess is following a straight rhumb line to avoid excessive high latitudes and poor weather conditions.

5:00 a.m. Awake! We are now just to the halfway point of our cruise to Hawaii. We are so much enjoying the ride.

7:30 a.m. Headed for our buffet breakfast. We’re a tad hungry as we haven’t eaten since “Afternoon Tea” at 4:00 yesterday. It’s good to skip a meal every now and then. I had a delicious and healthy breakfast: bran muffin, bowl of oatmeal, and an assortment of fresh fruits. Instead of coffee, I had a cup of hot tea and drank a glass of water. I’m going to think “healthy” at mealtimes today. It’s too easy to go overboard (oops…. That wasn’t a good word to use while out in the middle of the Pacific for another 48 hours!) with all of the delicious food available 24/7.

8:15 a.m. We are back in our room to collect our stuff and head over to John Maxtone-Graham’s lecture at 9:00 in the Princess Theater. Today’s subject: “THE ONLY WAY TO CROSS, PART 2” as Mr. Graham continues his discussion of North American liners. He is a wonderful story-teller and makes it all come alive. You know if I am enjoying THIS subject, he has got to be a good speaker. HA!!

8:20 a.m. Just saw these stats on the Ship’s TV station:
We have sailed 1,239 miles from LA
We have 906 more miles to make before reaching Hilo o Friday morning at 8:00 a.m.
Ship’s Position: 24 degrees 03.26’N, 139 degrees, 16.80’ W
Skies are cloudy but sun is expected with a high of 60. Slight breeze from N-NE at 15-17mph

11:00 a.m. We are back in our stateroom from hearing the Maritime Lecturer again and then staying to hear the portside talk on Kauai, the Island we will visit on Sunday.

11:30 a.m. We elected to have lunch on the desk of the Calypso pool at the Trident Grill. We both got a “veggie” burger which wasn’t good. We got a slice of pizza each to augment what we were unable to finish of the burger. We came back to the room to freshen up and then went back out to the same area (which is very close to our stateroom) for the Ice Carving Demonstration. It was interesting to watch the two men carve their ice sculptures. One turned out to be a fish and the other was a swan. The two men worked up quite a sweat working on their sculptures for our enjoyment. I made pics and hope to be able to post a couple of them with this blog article.



1:00 p.m. We are back in our room before we go to the 2:00 Naturalist’s talk about Hawaii’s bird life. I thought about going and laying out on a deck chair and the pool to read for a bit but decided I had better post what we have done thus far today before I forget. HA!

4:15 p.m. We are just now back from a turn around the entire ship’s desk after attending the bird lecture which turned out to be watching the movie “UP” instead. Somehow we messed up the timing and was sitting there awaiting the arrival of the Naturalist when the movie started. It was real cute, and we have no idea why it was rated PG.

Anyway, we are back in our stateroom to catch up on news, sit on our balcony in the late afternoon sunshine, and prepare for dinner a little later on. We have had a glorious day and thank the Lord for His gracious blessings upon our trip this far.

Everyone take care and we’ll hopefully be back with a post tomorrow which will be our last full day at sea as we arrive in Hilo on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m.

Love to all~~