Seeing as it took me approximately two months to get used to life on board the Launcher, it is only suiting that it will take me at least that amount of time to get used to life onshore again, right? Today's adventure began at the Airbnb we are staying at in the North Shore of Oahu - quiet enough beginnings for a holiday. Well, my friend and colleague Deborah and I have been traveling together since we got off the vessel, which has led to more funny moments than I thought possible - most of which relate to the realities of living life like a normal person again. For one, money is a concept that pretty much ceased to exist for me offshore. I bought candy and chips from the "shop" on board, but the idea of carrying cash slipped my mind for almost two months. Which brings us to today. Deb and I left the Airbnb with some cash between the two of us, leaving our comfy pad behind for the wonders of Waiamea Bay including a turtle, surfers everywhere, and HYDROFOIL SURFBOARDS!!! We wandered the beach for most of the morning, enjoying the sand between our toes and the crashing waves on the sand without too much difficulty. All this changed when we went back to the market for lunch food. Together, we had enough cash on us (using some of our emergency gas fund) to buy food for the week. Which left us both with $14 total. No problem - we were going back to the Airbnb! Side note: the eggs we picked up from the market were totally excellent. They were packed in styrofoam which is totally lame...BUT when I dropped them because I am an absolute butterfingers apparently, ONLY 2 OUT OF THE DOZEN BROKE!!! WHAT?!?! Anyway - good job on the eggs and their packaging Oahu! After lunch we immediately raced back out to the car for more adventuring and stopped at a macadamia nut farm...upon our arrival realizing that we still had exactly $14 to our name. We picked up nuts and coffee, because that's what you do, and had fun chasing the roosters around in the front part of the farm. Another important sidebar to this tale - did you know that in different parts of the world they have different noises that animals make? We learned this on the Launcher, and specifically we talked about roosters because they make the CRAZY noise in the States of "Cock-A-Doodle-Do!!!" - which one of the Navigators found really funny. So naturally today Deb and I spent a lot of time chasing roosters on the island trying to film them for our navigator friend Rasmus. Cock-a-doodle-do Rasmus (I hope you're still reading). Anyhoo...on our way back from our after-lunch adventure, Deb turned to me in the car and was talking about how we should totally buy pasta to make for dinner! To which I had to remind her, "Deborah...we have 3 dollars" which was of course followed by peals of laughter from the both of us. So adjusting back to normal life has been both totally awesome (I haven't fallen over putting my clothes on in at least a day) and really confusing (why is money so important???) - more updates on the adventures of two grudging seafarers making their way back into the non-boat world. **Edit: Deb has pointed out that 4 eggs were broken...2 were very obviously broken and 1 other had to be thrown away for fear of E. coli BUT we got 9 eggs to cook with DESPITE my clumsiness and I think that's a win.
1 Comment
A trusty navigator
10/30/2018 03:39:50 am
Cock-a-doodle-do! Still here! Seems like you guys are having fun on Hawaii? The ship, or in your words “the boat”, seems so empty without you guys on it. A trip like this was most definitely a once in a lifetime experience! And wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world!
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AuthorBree Gibbs, here. I'm a recent Master's Grad just trying to share what it's like to be a trash scientist (for those who aren't in the know, I'm a marine biologist). Categories
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