Pulling up anchors is a nice analogy for how it felt while we were on the ship. Even though I “cheated” by bringing a satellite modem with us, it seemed like we were between worlds when we were en route. We had no address, no phone number, no job, no face-to-face contact with anyone besides the crew, nowhere to go besides the ship. So I found it funny that our first order of business after we found a place to stay in Auckland was finding a SIM card for our cellphones.

Let me back up and say that I did some research on international cell phones before we left, learned a little bit about the various GSM bands, and eventually found a sleek GSM quad-band flip phone online for only $40. It was branded AT&T all over, but it was unlocked. I got a gray one, Stephanie got a red one. We threw them into our bag of electronics without so much as turning them on.

Suffice it to say, I was completely ignorant of the world of SIM cards. Does a SIM card come with a phone number? Are all SIM cards the same size? Do they cost money? How do you add minutes/dollars to it? Thankfully we got a little coaching from Jeoffrey on the Cap Cleveland, who has SIM cards for every port (so he can call home). We even bumped into him at the mall, and he accompanied us to the Vodafone store to show us the ropes.

A pre-paid SIM card does come with a phone number (we now have NZ phone numbers), SIM cards are all the same size, Vodafone’s SIM cards cost $30 NZD, and we add money to the card (aka “topping up”) by buying “top ups”, which have a code that we text to a customer service number (for free) to add to our account. We both started with $20. It appears to cost 89¢/minute to make calls with it, which seems outrageously expensive, but when we call international landlines, it’s a $2 flat fee for up to 60 minutes, which seems outrageously cheap (for all calls over 3 minutes). Go figure. Text messages are 20¢ a pop.

Originally, we figured the phones would be most useful for the two of us to coordinate with each other if we were ever off doing separate things. That may eventually be the case, but so far they’ve been most useful for the types of things they’re useful for at home—calling family, calling local businesses with inquiries, and receiving calls from people who are trying to coordinate with us (while we’re out and about).

At long last, after 28 days aboard the Cap Cleveland and 6,785 nautical miles logged across the Pacific Ocean, we are docked at the Port of Auckland, New Zealand. Final latitude and longitude: 36° 50′ 31.41″ S 174° 46′ 59.51″ E.

Last night the pilot was supposed come at 10:30. When we felt that we weren’t moving at 11, we went up to the bridge to check on the status. The time had been moved back to 12:30am due to a broken crane, and there’d be at least an hour of piloting. We wouldn’t be docked until 2am at the earliest. We could see the lights of Auckland on the horizon, but we were still quite a ways away. So we went to bed.

Just after 7am this morning we were woken by the phone ringing: customs was on board. We groggily pulled some clothes on and went down to the Poop deck with our passports. We filled out arrival cards, declared our surplus of Mojo bars, and were given our three month visa stamps. That was it, we were good to go.

The ship will be docked all day. The crew is looking forward to some much needed shore leave this afternoon, so we’ll say our final goodbyes and head out with them after lunch.

Monday 4:30pm: Panorama from the starboard wing of the bridge as we round the Coromandel Peninsula. Auckland is still out of sight.

We are currently at 36° 23′ 30″ S 175° 35′ 45″ E, approaching Auckland, New Zealand

The chief engineer took us on a tour of the Cap Cleveland’s engine room after lunch today. We had to wear earplugs because it’s so loud, thus the tour consisted of a lot of pointing followed by mumbled, inaudible words. In most cases there was a label on the piece of equipment that described what it does, and we’d nod in partial comprehension.

The main engine is a Hyundai B&W 7 K 80 MC-C, comprised of seven cylinders that pump out a whopping 25,228 kW of energy (34,300HP). In addition to the main engine, there are also all the other mechanical subsystems of the ship, such as water production and treatment, sewage treatment, air-conditioning, generators for electricity, pipes, pumps, and valves, oh my!

We are currently at 33° 53′ 41.45″ S 177° 24′ 7.38″ W, en route to Auckland, New Zealand.

At some point the voyage has to come to an end. Tomorrow we will be arriving at the port of Auckland. It will probably be very late at night. I don’t know when we’ll be docking. We’ll sleep on the ship, nervous with anticipation I’m sure. The next day we’ll be disembarking from what has been our floating home over the last month. Once we’re cleared by New Zealand Customs, a whole new journey begins: land-based, unplanned, no itinerary.

We’ve been very comfortable on the Cap Cleveland, almost surprisingly so. We haven’t had any unmet needs, whether it be food, or activity, or conversation, or personal space. We’ve been living in the present, from day-to-day. Even when we passed Tahiti (a wonderful event that punctuated the long transpacific crossing), I didn’t have any angst about not setting foot on land.

Today, however, we’re starting to get excited.

We are currently at 30° 30′ 35.74″ S 169° 58′ 12.93″ W. Last night we gained an hour, making the ship’s time the same as Auckland’s—but on different days! To compensate, we had to advance (or lose) a day, skipping Friday, October 1st entirely.

In technical terms, we went from UTC -10 to UTC -11 and then all the way around to UTC +13—as a consequence of crossing the International Date Line. We haven’t officially crossed it yet, since that happens at 172.5° W longitude, but we’ll be there soon enough.

Also, for those who aren’t already following Stephanie’s blog, she’s been doing a whole series of posts on the various projects we’ve been entertaining ourselves with on the ship. So far she’s blogged about the books we brought with us, crocheting stuffed animals, and painting from a “container ship’s eye view”. Her latest is about cooking on the ship.

I would even go so far as to say that the abandon ship drill was a form of entertainment. Deadly serious entertainment.