We looked at our daily Oceania Cruises Currents that lists all the activities and so forth that took place on those days, and we did not find one single thing that we attended, and our memory concerning how we occupied our time on these two days is blank.
We did see an interesting cloud formation and took a picture of that which is the photo that heads up this post.
Cathy had a very tasty dessert and we took a picture of that:
And because Steve is so far behind in this blog, he can’t afford to share what shipboard life is like here on Insigniauntil such time as he catches up, which hopefully will be before we reach Los Angeles.
But there is one subject that Steve is becoming obsessed about: the phenomenal size of the Pacific Ocean. But I will not bore you with too many statistics, because these enormous numbers such as square miles, distances and so forth mean nothing without a comparison with something to which we can relate such numbers.
Today and tomorrow, we are heading for the island of Bora Bora, which is 1,106 miles away, which is akin to the distance from Wallingford CT to Davenport, Iowa.
Bora Bora is in French Polynesia. French Polynesia is a collection of 118 islands and atolls that is referred to as a “collectivity” of France. The land area of French Polynesia is 1,609 square miles, which is slightly more than that of the State of Rhode Island, the smallest state in the United States.
But these islands are spread out over 2 million square miles. How much space is that? Well, Steve fed his obsession by researching a valid comparison that we all might be familiar with. Please take a look at the map below: French Polynesia occupies an area that is greater than all of the states east of the Mountain States region. That includes the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and South Dakota and every other state east of those.
And French Polynesia is just a small portion of the Pacific Ocean. In fact, just over 3% of the total area of the Pacific Ocean, which is 63,800,000 square miles.
That’s why there are a dozen Sea Days between our stop in Pago Pago yesterday and our arrival in Los Angeles CA on June 15th.
This ends today’s geography lesson. I just wanted to share my sense of awe at discovering firsthand just how big this ocean that we are traveling through truly is.
Pat Kohl
June 11, 2018Wow! Thanks for the geography lesson. I think most of us never stop to think just how big our world really is. It’s really not a small world, after all.
Steve and Cathy
June 12, 2018Yes, and as I answer you, we are on day two of five straight Sea Days going from Hawaii to Los Angeles. There is nothing between these two points, and we were told that the Hawaiian island chain is the most remote spot on the planet. The Pacific is amazing!
Eddie
June 12, 2018Today you are at N27’01 03.13 W 141′ 25’37.20, smack in the middle of the pacific ocean, massive huh? I’ve been wanting to ask, have you run into or seen some of these floating plastic dumps on the high seas? I’ve read and seen pictures of them as they continue to kill sea life. Safe Travels
Steve and Cathy
June 12, 2018Hi Eddie,
We have read about the garbage patch too. It’s farther north than where we are, I believe. The lowest estimate is that it’s the size of Texas. What a mess.