	*Hawaii 2003 ~ Memories in Picture ~ Shipside*

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	Because of the medical emergency, the captain was high-tailing the ship back to Honolulu. So the ride for the duration of the day and into the next was pretty rough. It was definitely too windy to sit deckside without some kind of covering. Apparently the next day, word came in that a military transport plane was dispatched from Honolulu to rendezvous with our ship on Christmas Island (aka Kiritimati) in order to pick up the injured crewmate. Now Christmas Island was in the opposite direction of our travel, and even further south than Fanning Island-- being only 100 miles north of the equator. It was not an interestng detour, and we only saw Christmas Island from a distance. The one (and most important) piece of good news out of all this is that the crew member's life was saved. For us, it was time to get back on itinerary, and we headed for our next port of call on Maui-- still a good 24+ hours away... (Somewhere in all this we crossed the International Date Line, and got a certificate for doing so... and because of that, I don't think I officially experienced a March 12th this year... so maybe I'm still 42 years old?)