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As we make our final preparations, you might give some thought about how you would have managed your life on shore. If you had five days of leave in Hawaii, what would you have done? Now that you are experienced seamen, what would you take along for the next month at sea? Remember, once the lines have been cast off, there will be no second runs to the store. Plan carefully. A large part of the success of any program is planning. Unfortunately, ships have an unpleasant way of making poor planning painfully obvious.
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We have also been given a mission by the city of Honolulu. In the early years of trade between China and Hawaii, empty ships leaving China carried granite blocks as ballast to keep the vessels upright as they sailed across the Pacific. The blocks of granite were offloaded to make room for the cargo of sandalwood lumber that was transported back to Asia. Since we have no actual cargo, we are taking a granite block to serve as ballast - and as a symbol of the early contact between China and Hawaii - on our journey to Asia. If this speckled granite stone could speak to us, it would be interesting to know: the story of its origin, its first journey to Hawaii, where it has spent its time since its arrival here around 1800, and what it is like to be going home almost 200 years later. Grab a pencil. For those of you with an imagination, there's a story there somewhere!
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