Our visit to Hilo was fine. Nothing more, nothing less. We took a tour which was pleasant though a bit disappointing, in part due to a spectacularly uninspiring guide. We went to Rainbow Falls which is a nice enough waterfall....though to this jaded north-westerner it was simply "nice enough" -- I suspect if I lived elsewhere in the country I would have been more impressed. Then we went to Volcanoes National Park where we saw some steam vents and then mostly explored the Visitor Center. Nothing wrong with a good Visitor Center -- and this was a fine one -- but I'd much rather see the park than the Visitor Center. Oh well, perhaps one day I will take the time to return.
The first four sea days were pleasantly uneventful. Apparently we unexpectedly got a new captain in Hawaii and the new one (Captain Paul) is quite impressive -- appears to be incredibly supportive of staff, very personable, great sense of humor and, (as we learned today) very capable when things go awry. Went to a few talks, played some trivia, got to meet some interesting fellow passengers, did a bit of writing (more for the book than the blog), finished a book or two. The first couple of days were reasonably warm, once we reached the latitude from a fellow passenger that there had been an overnight helicopter evacuation of a passenger earlier in the cruise.
Last night things got a bit interesting, and not in a good way, though not for us directly. At "stupid o'clock" (overnight) there was an overhead page for medical teams to go to a particular room. This morning about 7:30 the captain got on the overhead requesting that anyone with a blood donor card for a particular blood type who was willing to donate blood to "a critically ill patient" to make themselves known (neither June nor I have that blood type). An hour or so later the captain did yet another overhead, asking any general surgeon who was still practicing to identify themself ASAP. A bit after that was one more overhead letting us know that after consultation with the US Coast Guard, we will rendezvous with a helicopter about 50 miles off the coast of Portland -- we are going full speed ahead but it will still take 12 hours to get there (prediction was 8pm). Scary situation indeed, and it's safe to say we will not learn the final outcome.
Tomorrow we pack then visit Victoria (unless I decide to start packing today, which is a distinct possibility), and Saturday we disembark in Vancouver. This has been a very different cruise -- traveling with 1 person rather than a group, having so many sea days -- and while it's been very nice I've learned that I don't need so many sea days which is useful information.
Edit this evening: the coast guard was able to locate a C130 which could provide refueling, thus giving the helicopter greater travel range. The helicopter and fixed-wind craft came about 3pm, the helicopter had to circle try at least 5 times to land (I was on my deck so did not see it land but heard from another passenger that it didn’t just hover but actually landed), load the passenger (not sure if a medical crew member joined them), and flew to land. Although the pilot said Astoria, I assumed Portland (specifically Oregon Health Sciences University aka OHSU) and apparently it landed there by 5pm. Great cooperation from the ship, Coast Guard, et al….and great teamwork from the ship teams (medical, navigation, security, safety, the captain and I’m sure others).
Wow!
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