Day 91. Tomorrow, the United States.

In just 5 hours or so, something will occur aboard the MV Explorer that I have never witnessed.

When we get nearly 90 miles off of shore, the deck hands will "run up the colors," that is, raise the necessary flags the ship must maintain while sailing into a working port. Many of them, we have no idea what they mean, and they change sporadically. However, two flags always mean the same thing:

At the aft of the ship, the flag of the Bahamas, the country to which our ship is registered, will fly... as it always does when we are in port. On the main staff, however, the flag of the host country will fly... in this case, the United States. Having been in East Asia just 9 short days ago and around the world before that, It's amazing to think that I will be entering my own country tomorrow...

At logistical pre-port, we joked about how the currency of choice in Hawaii is the United States dollar (which, as they told us, is equal to 1 USD). The language is English, and the emergency numbers is 911. These are things that have changed so often in the course of the last 100 or so days, and now they are so familiar that they're foreign.


In any event, we will arrive to the Island chain of Hawaii at 0600 tomorrow, and I plan on having a great time. My friends and I plan to hike through the island of Oahu and hang out on Waikiki Beach. It should be a great break from all of the studying and all of the rocking that the past 9 days have been... even though I am NOT complaining, I love the ship! It will be cool walking around with a wallet and not a money belt, and recognizing the wonderful cultural establishments like KFC and Taco Bell :-) .

Alright, that's enough writing for today. Talk to you in a few days!


Greg