Auction and Hawaii

On April 17th, it was finally the day for the long awaited charity auction. I was on the committee and we had weekly meetings for the past two months to plan the auction. There was a silent auction during the day between 2pm and 7pm and a live auction in the evening between 8pm and 11pm. All the student, staff, faculty, crew and lifelong learners had donated various items to put in the auction. We had everything from peanut butter, t-shirts, artwork, trips, and season tickets to the captain’s hat in the auction. There were lots of great things in the auction which we knew would raise lots of money. The silent auction raised $2700 and we headed off to get ready for the evening auction. All of the committee members got dressed up for the occasion. I was to be recording all the winner’s information and handing out their prizes. The auction went smoothly from start to finish with the most desirable items going for above $1000. It was a huge success and we ended up raising over $20,000. It was a great evening and felt good to know that all the hard work we had put into it throughout the semester had paid off. I met some great friends on the committee and turned out to be really fun!
So after a long 8 days at sea we finally arrived in Honolulu at 5am on April 22nd. We were docked by 6am and started the disembarkation process at 6:15am. Because my ID number is 058 out of 800, I was called first to meet with immigration officials. I woke up to the announcement and quickly headed upstairs to the lounge where the process was taking place. I collected my passport and gave it to an official. They asked me some questions before stamping my passport. The whole process was done in 5 minutes and I headed to breakfast with Lauren. Breakfast didn’t open until 6:30 so we sat outside on the deck for a few minutes with Kim, Zach, Gabe and Collin. When the kitchen finally opened we got our food and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful morning. It was slightly overcast and cool, but we knew it wouldn’t stay this way for long. We ate breakfast quickly and then headed back to our cabins to get ready for the day.
The ship was entirely cleared by about 8:15 and we disembarked soon after. Lauren, Kim, Gabe, Collin, Melissa, Valerie, Ben and I were headed to Pearl Harbour. We arrived at about 8:45 and waited in line. To my surprise we didn’t have to pay and we received a ten o’clock time ticket. We had lots of time to kill so we explored the gift shop and the museum. After this we bought some Doritos, vitamin water, and tootsie pops (we were all so excited to have normal food again) and then went to sit in the garden. It was now beautiful out so we sat overlooking the USS Arizona memorial. It was great to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts after being in Japan and China where it was jeans and sweaters. We looked at some of the displays in the garden and observed the memorial until it was time for us to begin our tour.
First we watched a half hour long movie about the history of Pearl Harbour and the war. Before this I didn’t have much knowledge of what happened in Pearl Harbour besides the fact that it had been bombed by the Japanese in WWII. It was very hard to watch for a lot of people who were there and I found it very sad. After the movie was finished we boarded a boat to head out to the memorial. The memorial was built on top of the USS Arizona which was bombed and sank on December 7th, 1941. When it sank, it took with it the lives of over 1100 American service men. When we arrived at the memorial we were asked to be silent out of respect for the soldiers who were laid to rest in the ship below the monument.
The monument was not very large, about the width of the vessel below. It was like a tunnel with many opening on the sides, bottom and ceiling to look out of. The first thing that I noticed is that there was still lots of oil floating above the sunken warship. Even after almost seventy years, there was still oil being released. I just stood there for a while trying to imagine what it would have been like to have been bombed when just going about your daily business. It was a somber atmosphere. Also in the monument is a list of names of those who perished with the USS Arizona. It was very hard to see how many people were killed on this one ship alone, let alone the other vessels that were bombed as well.
After about fifteen minutes we were told to get back on to the boat to head back to the mainland. We hurried to get a taxi and head back to the ship. When we arrived there I got changed quickly into comfortable shoes and shorts before heading down to meet with Ben, Lauren, Kim, Todd, Nicole and Kerry. We got off the ship and waited for the skydiving company to pick us up. When they arrived we hopped into the van and began the long drive to the North shore of Oahu. Along the way we were asked to fill out some extensive waivers. The rest of the way we looked at the scenery we were passing and some people slept.
When we finally arrived at Dillingham airfield we were all very nervous. We were to be jumping with the Pacific International Skydiving center, but there were about 3 different companies that operated out of the same airfield. When we arrived we watched a short video about liability and also about the jump itself. This made us all even more nervous. There were many groups of semester at sea students so we had a long wait until it was our turn. Our appointment was for one o’clock but when we arrived it was clear we wouldn’t be taking off until long after that. We watched while many plane loads of people took off and then came floating back down a few minutes later. At about 3:30pm the first three of our group were called. They were to be jumping in load 9. They suited up and then boarded the small plane. About twenty minutes later they glided smoothly back down to the ground.
Shortly after then returned Ben and I were called in group 11. I was to jump with George(who had done over 18000 jumps) and be videotaped by Ash. First they put the harness on me, which was very tight and uncomfortable. I didn’t mind though because I knew the tighter it was the safer I would feel once I was in the air. Next George explained the positions I would need to be in when we jumped and later in the jump. Before jumping out of the plane I would need to have my arms crossed on my chest with my head back and back arched. He would then push both of us out of the plane. When he tapped my shoulder I was to raise my arms in front of me (a little like the butterfly stroke in swimming) and relax. It was all very well to be doing this on the ground but I knew I would forget it all the moment he pushed me out of the plane.
We were finally called to board the plane. It was tiny and only held about 14 people. There were no seats or seat belts, only a small beam that we all sat cowboy style on. We were not attached to our guides at this point. We began to take off and the plane was very rickety and loud. We began to climb very quickly and my ears were popping. As soon as we had taken off they opened the door so the photographers could take photos as we climbed. They leave the door open the whole way so the plane was blowing around! It seemed like we climbed forever! We finally reached our destination; 14000 feet above sea level at the edge of the breathable atmosphere (any higher and you need an oxygen mask because of the pressure). It’s hard to believe that is half the height that commercial planes fly at. Please excuse the language but quite frankly, I was scared shitless.
During the climb there was a beautiful view of the island. Once we passed the clouds is when I started to get very scared. George and I were the third pair to jump. When we reached our cruising altitude he gave the signal and the first pair was gone in a second.
I was trying hard to keep breathing at this point! The second pair was gone. We were next. I was now secured onto George (thankfully) and he practically pushed me towards the door. At this point, my legs were not going to do it voluntarily. I tried hard not to look down but couldn’t help it. The coastline below was like a distant memory. It seemed so far below we could barely make it out. George gave me the countdown- 3-2-1 and I think my heart didn’t beat during this time. First our photographer Ash went and the next millisecond later I was free falling at 200mph. As soon as my feet left the plane all the fear I had disappeared. It was the most amazing feeling. Although we were falling faster than I could ever imagine, it didn’t feel like we were falling because the wind was rushing up so fast. Ash was just below us the whole time filming us freefalling and he made faces at me the whole time. He was falling towards the earth but looking upwards. At one point he reached out and grabbed my hand and spun us round and round as we were freefalling. Somehow he managed to maneuver himself closer to us in order to get better shots. My face was probably very distorted and I know from the pictures that my ears were flapping and my hair was in poor George’s face the whole time. I still don’t understand how he was able to move horizontally and maneuver his body into different positions while falling so fast.
We freefell for over one minute but it seemed like a second. I was enjoying it so much and couldn’t stop smiling. When George finally pulled the ripcord to open the parachute it was like a shock back to reality. It jerked us upward and was quite painful as the harness dug into every conveyable place on my body. At this point Ash kept free falling in order to arrive on the ground before we did so he could videotape the landing and my reaction. Now we were falling more slowly and were able to talk to each other. George told me that I had done very well and I told him that it was the coolest thing I had ever done. And I really meant it. It was such a liberating experience and gave me the best natural high ever. I am so glad that I decided to do it even though I was so nervous. It was the best thing I have ever done and the adrenaline rush was unbelievable!
Now was the beautiful part. We were sailing through the sky high about Oahu and could see the whole island. It was absolutely gorgeous floating down over the Hawaiian coastline but the best part was coming through the clouds. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it felt so cold when the clouds touched my legs. Coolest thing ever! We pulled the ripcord when we were still in the clouds. On the video it looks as though we are shooting upwards because Ash is still freefalling.
Although it felt like we were descending very slowly we were on the ground about five minutes after we emerged from the clouds. It was so cool for everything to be getting bigger and bigger as we got closer to landing. George let me steer as we were sailing through the air. We were doing spins and things and it was so exciting. At landing, George told me to pull up my legs in front of me because I was much taller than him. It was a very smooth landing and as soon as we touched down I was so giddy and excited. Ben landed and we high fived. I was still on cloud 9 (no pun intended)!
After we landed there was only one load left to go and Lauren was set to go. She was very nervous but enjoyed it! Everyone had such a good time and we were so glad we did something huge like this together near the end of the voyage. I probably should have started with a lower jump and then worked my way up cus now no other jump that I do will ever be as exciting!
After everyone had jumped we watched the videos and still pictures on a tv. I bought and t-shirt and paid for the jump. It was a while before both groups were ready to leave so I had a bag of chex mix from the vending machine. We chilled on the porch with the guides for a bit before the van was ready to leave. We all slept on the way back to the ship. It was about 6pm when we arrived back on the ship.
Nicole, Kerry and I decided to head to the local mall to eat some taco bell. We had about an hour and a half there before we had to leave to go back to the ship. We basically got our food and then sat in the food court and had drinks. We also went to the grocery store and picked up some chips and salsa and some magazines. It was very weird being back in the US, it felt like I didn’t belong! They said that is to be expected when we get home tho! We left the mall about 8pm to come back to the ship in time to avoid the line. When we got back there was already a line. I ended up getting back on at about 8:30pm. We were supposed to be onboard at 9 and at about ten to everybody was a huge mob trying to squeeze up the gangway. Most of the kids were drunk so weren’t listening to the instructions. The situation got very out of hand and we all got a letter in our cabins about it the next day.
We now have 8 days to go until we get to Costa Rica. So far the pacific has been quite calm but not that warm. The ambassador’s ball is tomorrow night so everyone will be dressed up fancy. I can’t wait! Until next time …xo