Tag: World Cruise
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Neither Flat Hal nor Flat Halena has been to New Zealand before!
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #newzealand Our arrival in Auckland (a day early thanks to cyclone Urmil) started with a chance to walk around the city center (downtown)/ central business district or CBD as the locals call it. Auckland is a great city for walking! We were amazed how many intersections let us go diagonal across the street.…
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The Flat Friends Are Looking At The Map…
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #cruising #southamerica Appreciating where we have been, the waterways we have sailed, and some of the amazing discoveries we have made. The Flat Friends have been having a lot of fun trying to understand the international dateline, but it was a real brain bender when a friend explained there is a period each…
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Dodging a Tropical Storm at Sea
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #tropicalstorm #tonga The Flat Friends made an art challenge out of trying to visualize where the storm we are avoiding is… and why we are avoiding it. 12 meter waves are more than our cruise ship can handle—now we are trying to imagine Captain Cook, or Captain Bligh facing seas like that! We…
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Sea Day Discoveries…
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #internationaldateline Sea days can be a fun time to look back at where we have already been, as well as looking forward to where we are going. Flat Hal and Flat Halena each have friends and family back home who want to know they are staying safe and healthy as we travel. There…
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Have you ever read a time travel story?
#flathal #timetravel #marktwain There are lots of really famous ones, but one of our favorites is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It mixes the fun of time travel with the “magic” of Camelot. There are some fun movies inspired by Mark Twain’s book, like A Knight in Camelot with Whoopi Goldberg, or A…
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Adventure! Sometimes Adventure Means Adapting and Changing Plans…
#flathal #tonga #tropicalstorm Today, the Captain announced we are adjusting our course to avoid a tropical storm. While we could get to Tonga, we would be hit by 30-foot waves leaving, because of the storm by Fiji! Fiji is approximately 500 miles from Tonga, which sounds like a long way to the Flat Friends. However,…
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Nim’s Island — Our Next Flat Friends Book Club Destination!
#flathal #nimsisland #bookclub Flat Hal and Flat Halena wanted the next book they read to feel like it took place on one of the islands we visited. Nim’s Island has something very special in common with Pitcairn Island— Nim’s family calls it home, but they don’t have lots of neighbors. They aren’t part of a…
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SOLAS — Safety Of Life At Sea
#flatstanleyproject #flathal #SOLAS At the beginning of every cruise, and once every 30 days after that on epic voyages, passengers take a few minutes to review safety procedures. On some cruises most of the information is shared through a video, like the ones airlines show at the beginning of a flight. At least once every…
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Flat Friends read Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World by Bill Nye and Gregory Mone in Book Club
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #billnye Flat Halena found this library book, and Flat Hal agrees it was a great book club choice! Kids not only have a fun life, but they go on an adventure to Antarctica. So much fun to read a book that took place (in part) where we recently traveled!
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But, where in the world are the Flat Friends?
#flathal #pitcairn #marktwain Flat Hal and Flat Halena feel like they are in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, seemingly a million miles from anywhere, but that can’t be true. No matter how far away “civilization” (other communities) feel like they are, surely there are other noteworthy landmasses within reach, right? Living on such…
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The Flat Friends Saw Pitcairn Island
#pitcairn #flathal As much as things change, some things stay the same — supplies have always been brought in to Bounty Bay, and still have to be taken up the Hill of Difficulty to the community of Adamstown. The residents now have quad bikes, and machines to go up a concrete paved road, but the…
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Pitcairn Island Greeted The Flat Friends With A Dynamic Sunrise
#pitcairn #flathal Our visit to Adamstown, Pitcairn Island is an unusual one. Instead of passengers going ashore, more than half the local population (28 people) came onboard our ship! Imagine how our 1,000 passengers would have overwhelmed this community of 44 people — 6 of whom are government representatives, not residents. They set up tables…
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Most Readers Don’t Know Tom Sawyer Went Abroad!
Mark Twain captured the magic of youth, particularly the antics of boys discovering the world at large, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Much of the world considers the two books to be for young adults, but Mark Twain actually said he wrote them for adults. There is joy,…
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A Little Easter Island Reading…
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has captured the imagination of the Flat Friends, just like it has for millions of other people around the world. Its remote location means we have sea days before our next port. Sea days are proving to be a great time to find answers, and dig deeper into the history of…
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Easter Island = Rapa Nui, Chile… Learn Something New Every Day
A Moai Statue stood sentinel over the tender pier where we first arrived on Rapa Nui — like it was waiting to greet us! The Rapa Nui say the Moai were carved to honor someone (a chief or leader) who had died. The Moai were set up on a platform, looking out over the clan,…
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4 days in a row at sea? Where are the Flat Friends going?
Our Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Timeline 1722: Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to make recorded contact with the island! Because his ships arrived on Easter Sunday (April 5th), he cleverly (?) named the island “Paasch-Eyland” (Easter Island). He reported seeing great statues standing (Moai) and the inhabitants living their lives. 1774: Famous…
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Ferdinand Magellan and The Age of Discovery!
Flat Hal and Flat Halena feel like time travelers bouncing around time. Events make a lot more sense in order, so let’s slow down a moment. Ferdinand Magellan — 1520 — Discovered Magellan’s Straits between the Atlantic and the Pacific. (He saw a species of Penguin, named Magellanic for him!) HMS Beagle — 1831 to…
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The Flat Friends have been making stickers for the first segment of our grand adventure.
(As a side note: the Flat Friends had a lot of fun sharing the stickers we designed with our fellow passengers! Everyone enjoyed having a fun way to remember the amazing places we visited.)
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Ernest Shackleton did NOT reach the South Pole First
#flathal #ErnestShackleton #Antarctica He did NOT achieve his goal of walking across the frozen continent. It would be easy to look at his four expeditions and see where he fell short. But remember, he didn’t just a take journey or go on a grand adventure. He might have had fun along the way, but he…
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Bridgetown, Barbados… No Real Pirates in Sight
#flatstanley #flathal The pirates and privateers of the 1700s would be shocked! Flat Hal and Flat Halena sailed from Florida to Barbados in just 3 days. On the ship, these young travelers spent their time playing games, making friends, and reading. Pirates didn’t have much time for fun. They spent their days pulling heavy ropes,…