Current Coordinates: 19 44.10 N 155 4.38 W
Unable to find an adequate night’s sleep once again: I inelegantly stumbled out of bed this morning as “The Voice” of Laurie Casteen blared over the PA that the ship had been cleared and that we could all begin disembarking.
Hopping into my pants and pulling my shirt over my head I half jogged out the door to meet up with my friends Christy and Ed who I planned to share the day’s adventures with on our bright and sunny Hawaiian Thanksgiving.
Spilling out onto the streets of Hilo from the port it was clear that we were entering a ghost town. Barely a mouse stirring from the ramparts of the closed shutters, shut windows, and locked doors – yet hundreds continued to pour off the ship. Flooding the streets with pounding feet spreading out in all directions.
Heading towards the old town of Hilo we hiked our way to our first destination: the farmer’s market. We heard conflicting information on whether or not it would be closed that day – but decided that we wanted to find out for ourselves as well as get some exercise on the way there.
A hike that would follow the lip of Hilo Bay west along the coast hugging the barrier between the ocean and the cloud swept mountains beyond.
Luckily for us the farmer’s market didn’t disappoint as many stalls were open: spreading their variety of wares before us. Exchanging Aloha’s with the locals we made our way through the vendors enjoying the atmosphere of the variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
There was even one stall selling Hawaiian shirts. Awesome.
But everywhere we went we always saw the same familiar faces from the ship.
I didn’t really know what else to expect – about 600 new people landed in town for the next eight hours. A short shore leave before departing for another nine days at sea.
Where else were they all going to go?
Our target for the entire day had been Walmart but after asking some of the locals about it – they were unsure whether or not it would be open during the holiday. Their own stores would have been closed had they not known about our ship pulling in. But we decided to sojourn on in search for the truth – after all we wanted to sightsee.
But I didn’t want to risk being unable to resupply so after finding a local open grocery store I stocked up on the essentials:
16 Cans of Coke
4 Bags of Cheetos
2 Bags of Trail Mix
2 Cans of Gatorade Powder
1 Bag of Oreos
Yes, vital supplies indeed. Necessities due to the hit or miss nature of our cafeteria.
Also valuable bargaining chips when it came to the on-board junk food commodity market.
After re-packing my duffle with the numerous sundries – Ed donated some time on his cell phone for me to call home and wish the family a Happy Thanksgiving. A strange concept for me as this has always been a holiday of lazily lying at home; consuming the errant turkey leg; and watching the dog show on network TV. Not because I like dog shows – but because I was usually too food comatose to find the remote and change the channel.
But in a day filled with new things – I shouldered the now 40 lbs worth of groceries and continued our hike towards our crusade’s final destination: Walmart. It’s blue roof beacon shining brightly as we approached it in a thickening drizzle. Having purchased everything I needed I took the time to wander around such a familiar sight – taking comfort that I didn’t have to do some split second arithmetic in order to determine the price of something.
They take USD here.
That was just grand.
But walking around we were always seeing the same faces: students, faculty, and staff from the ship. All on the same mission as us. All of them with shopping carts filled to the brim. Even the in-store McDonald’s was crowded: all of its seats full of Filipino crew members chowing down on a diverse variety of fried foods.
After discovering that there was not only a shuttle waiting for us outside – but a FREE shuttle back to the ship waiting for us outside we quickly gathered our purchases and joined our salacious and jaunty Hawaiian bus driver. Sporting a brown size 5x Hawaiian shirt and RayBans his brown hands nimbly plotted us a course back to the docks.
Completely fulfilling the mental image of what I thought a Hawaiian dude should look like.
And while I would have liked some more time in port – this was one of my duty nights and I stood by: radio in hand for the next two hours prior to on-ship time. Helping security sort through all of the students in the fray attempting to escape the now downpour of liquid sunshine deluging us.
Yes there were drunk students and yes I spent more time than I would like to admit in the medical clinic. But while I have often dealt with a surprising variety of intoxicated students before: today’s happened to contain the most violent and malevolent yet. Seemingly making up for their distance from home this year by consuming an amount of alcohol that could easily fell a hippo.
Fighting, yelling, pushing, and shoving – it was not a pretty sight by any definition. Not the worst our voyage has ever seen – but somewhere in the top ten.
And as I sat in the medical clinic and felt the starting engine vibrations through the deck below I knew that:
…this was at least the most unique Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and to all a goodnight.
TL;DR half asleep got out of the ship as soon as I could; hundreds of people flooding the empty streets; not much open; walked west to the farmer’s market enjoying the view; it was open and the locals said that Walmart might be closed; stocked up at local grocery store in case; eventually made it to Walmart and it was open; saw so many students, faculty, staff, and crew there; all doing the same thing; took free shuttle back with awesome Hawaiian bus driver; was on duty so spent time in the drunk tank; most violent and malevolent yet; this was a unique Thanksgiving
davengisonaboat 
Leave a comment