HURRICANE LALA and VERY SLOW WIFI

The title above describes the reality of travel.  We're abut 5500 miles away from Hawaii, where something serious could be happening, and the location of the Azamara Journey off Greenland means that WiFi is really, really slow.  One video can take up to 24 hours to download.  Thus, I will for the next few days show that a video is there, but I probably won't be able to link it to You Tube until the ship arrives in Montreal.  Then, I can try to reload ten videos each day.  That is the limit.

The biggest news of the day, for me, is the coming of Lala, now a tropical storm, but projected to increase to hurricane strength, and make landfall over the Big Island of Hawaii tomorrow.

I know two hurricanes that badly damaged the island of Kauai, but don't think a hurricane has ever in recorded history made landfall over the other islands.  So I asked Google AI if the Big Island of Hawaii has ever been struck by a hurricane:

That is correct. In modern recorded meteorological history (dating back to 1950), no hurricane has ever made a direct landfall on Hawaii's Big Island. While tropical storms like Iselle in 2014 and Darby in 2016 have managed to make landfall on the island, true hurricane-intensity landfalls have not occurred. [1, 2]

Historical Context of Big Island Storms

No Hurricane Landfalls: Zero hurricanes have officially moved ashore at hurricane strength on the Big Island since reliable satellite and aircraft tracking began. [1]
Close Brushes: Strong storms frequently pass near the island rather than hitting it directly. For example, Category 1 Hurricane Hone passed about 50 miles south of South Point in August 2024, and Category 4 Hurricane Lane dropped massive amounts of rain nearby in 2018 without a direct center landfall. [1, 2, 3]
Rare Tropical Storms: Only a couple of tropical storms—such as Iselle (2014) and Darby (2016)—have crossed onto the island at a lower tropical-storm intensity. [1, 2]

Why the Big Island is Often Spared

The Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa Effect: The massive high volcanoes on the Big Island disrupt and weaken approaching circulation centers.
Prevailing Tracks: Most Central Pacific tropical cyclones approach from the east or southeast and tend to track just south of the island chain, steering clear of a direct strike on the massive slopes of the Big Island. [1, 2, 3]

You can review further historical tracking data via the Wikipedia reference or read analysis on regional patterns via Honolulu Civil Beat. [1, 2]

With that ominous beginning, on to our cruise on the Azamara Journey, where all is well.

• We did see the Total Eclipse of the Sun yesterday.
• The ship just entered the Prince Sound, and here are the first photos of Greenland.

Homes.

• We will cruise along the coastline and dock in Nanortalik tomorrow morning.

Lunch was again okay.

Dinner started with an Iceberg salad and mussels.

The main entre was Osso Buco.  I wanted only the bone with marrow plus meat, but not the accompaniments, so told my waiter to place the Osso Buco on another plate with creamed spinach and baked potato.  What came was fine, but no bone and no marrow.

Then went to see Chris Bannister singing John Denver.  Went well.

Then went up to the Living Room for dancing to the Shore Things.

To close, video going back to Vintage Honolulu when I was in high school, 1957, almost 70 years ago. And Part 2.  Found a United Airlines travelogue of 1950s Hawaii.

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