Kim found a phone, we have not had service for over a week.
After a very wonderful day at Anaa Island, we made it to Tahiti for our 3 day stop. At Anaa Island, we were treated to a Polynesian Dance and songs along with tasty treats served on a banana leaf. There was a vanilla bean grower that sold her fresh vanilla beans,we saw them growing, cool.
We’ve had a very busy 3 days here in Papeete. The first day was an Island tour where we saw many historic sights, a beautiful waterfall, a light house and a black sand beach.
Yesterday, we took a catamaran trip to the Island of Moorea where we snorkeled with sharks and stingrays. Followed by a delicious lunch, prepared by the locals on their special Island. This trip was all day and rather tiring.
Today, 147 passengers debarked the ship and 168 new passengers embarked, we now have 238 guests on board.
On the final day in Papetti, we did some shopping. I took this opportunity to do some Black Pearl shopping. I think I did a good job of picking out some that looked great, but weren’t too pricey.
The reason for the long stop in Tahiti was, as you may recall, to repair the stabilizer on the starboard side of the ship. I was excited because I should have a great view from my balcony. After seeing no activity the first day, I asked the captain what was going on. “The water is too murky, and they cannot see well enough to make the repairs”, was his answer. Finally, the last night, some work was getting done. I haven’t seen the captain again to ask if the repair got completed or not. With this being an expedition ship verses an ocean liner, there are no more ports where the work could be done until we get to Darwin on May 9th. Also, while at port in Tahiti, they emptied all the ballast tanks which allowed the ship to rise and the crew was able to prime and paint all the scratches caused by running into ice in Antarctica.
This new group of cruisers has my hopes up for rekindling Cruise chronicles. I was going to use the elevator, but there was a couple standing right in front of the button. Staring at the floor directory, he says, “I wonder why the 9th floor is all faded out?”. He read each line item with a question in his voice, so I told them “Don’t worry, they’re all still there”. He replies, “I know, I’ve been on his ship before”, and walked off. At least I got them to move out of my way. So, about the directory signs, the area on the floor you are currently standing on are bold, assumably to help you know what floor you are on. All the other floors are not bold, pretty smart, ya think?
Then came the 4:00 mandatory safety meeting. I got there a few minutes early and had a margarita in hand. The group of guests next to me saw I had a drink and one of them said should we get a drink? Sure, but where? (There is a bar that you cannot miss as you enter the venue), seriously?
As we left our stop on another Polynesian Island, there are 118 islands in Polynesia by the way, we were treated to a lightning storm as the backdrop to Bora Bora at dusk, sorry no pictures, just burned into our brains.
For those that check regularly and don’t find a new post from me, I apologies, this trip is wonderful and completely stimulating to our minds and bodies. Hang in there, I’ll try to keep you up to date.
We have a nice, insulated ice bucket in our room, but the housekeepers keep putting it in the refrigerator. Out on the pool deck, they have uninsulated ice buckets that sit in the sun at 84 degrees.
We have a great black out curtain in our suite, but the part that comes together in the middle has a sheer trim about 6” wide. I know you all have been in a hotelroom and wished you had a clothes pin to make the 2 halves stay together. A clothes pin wouldn’t help here, who thought that would be a good idea?
We have this huge floor standing champagne stand that takes up way too much room, but they refuse to remove it, does anyone actually use these?
To decorate the only flat surface worth using for typing my blog, they have a very heavy shark on a stick decoration, why?
We are on a ship that offers free drinks 24/7, but they lock up the bars when they close, really why?
There’s a phone in the bathroom in our room; it’s on the wall about 5’ up and behind the toilet. Seriously, I can think of only two times I might use it. If I’m sitting on the toilet and it rings, what? I’m I going to stand up, turn around to answer it? The second scenario would be if I stepped out of the shower, slipped, and fell. It’s way up there on the wall, totally out of my reach, who thought this one out?
There are no bathrooms near the pool, so if you are in the pool or hot tub and need to go, you must get out dry off, cover up to traverse the restaurant and walk over half the length of the ship to the nearest bathroom. Again, who designed that? The Club is a late-night entertainment venue, same thing, no bathrooms even close.
I have decided that there should be an age limit on Speedos and Bikinis, no matter how fit you are at 70, there is a time to trash the skimpy suits. Not everyone on board got that memo by the way.
We have been at sea for 4 days straight and yesterday I overheard a lady standing by the rail ask, wait for it….”I want to go to the Bow Lounge, which way is it”…. Look at the water lady, but I didn’t say it.
Is this a window or a mirror? Log your votes, I’ll let you know later.
Nothing I said here is in anyway a complaint, this is a beautiful ship and we are having the time of our life again.
For you science nerds and just those that want to understand how summer and winter works, this is a very easy to understand graphic. We are learning every day.
And I’ll leave you with a story one of our expedition leaders told us. “So, we went to this remote Island and everyone was very friendly, I visited the school, there were about 30 children there. After visiting with them, I ask if they would like to come aboard the ship and have lunch”. “After clearing everything with the ship and the school, we loaded the children and teachers onto the zodiacs for a ride to the ship”. “First thing I noticed, was they were all freezing, they had never experienced air conditioning”. “So, I put half of them into the lift (elevator) and the door closed”. When the lift returned for the remaining children, there was no way they were getting into that box that made their classmates disappear!” So, he took the rest of them up the stairs to see that their classmates were just fine.
We have reached French Polynesia tonight, more later………
There has been another Mutiny. It seems that the guests of the Seabourn Pursuit, inspired by the tales of the Bounty, have seized the ship and set Captain Steve off in a zodiac with the 2 faithful officers that still believe in him. The problem is, none of them have ever driven a zodiac. They crashed onto Pitcairn Island directly above the wreckage of the Bounty. Fortunately, though battered and bruised, they all survived. The wrecked zodiac was located and brought back aboard the Pursuit.
April fools!
Thank you all for leaving comments. It fuels my juices to write more. There has been some interest in life on Pitcairn Island, so I am going back to answer as many of those questions as I can.
But first, we were sitting on Deck 9 aft as we were leaving Pitcairn Island when we heard a man say that it had been his dream since he was 7 years old to visit Pitcairn Island. He said he was now 74 years old and just retired in February of this year. His sister is a travel agent and set him up on this cruise to get to the island. Okay, I’ll stop here, because if that doesn’t just make you pause for an emotional moment, I’m just sorry you don’t get it. This is real history from 1790. I didn’t get it, until I realized how much of a big deal it really is. There is some serious history in this part of the world, including the ancient Moai on Easter Island and only few fortunate mariners get to step in the footprints of the history makers.
Okay, now to the questions:
The island gets supplies every 3 months. The entrance to the very small harbor dock is very sketchy, they call it “sporty”. There is no way even a lifeboat from a cruise ship could enter and tie up, so only ships like ours that carry Zodiacs can even think of landing passengers there. Basically, boats ride in on a wave and hope to get back out between the waves. The tide must be timed out for the entrance and exit.
There is one store, it is stocked by a small cargo boat and the residents buy what they need for the next three months. They grow vegetables and fruit. They fish in the local waters, they have one boat, the “long” boat, pictured here. Pitcairn Island is also known for producing honey. Their major source of income is tourism (really). When a cruise ship comes in, either they load up the long boat with their wares and set up a market on board, or in our case the lucky cruisers get to experience the island itself, I told you we were the only ship in a year that got to land passengers. I can’t tell you how many t shirts and hats I saw today aboard our ship that were purchased from the residents of the island. Kim bought a T-shirt and a jar of honey.
There is a Doctor and a Nurse among the 42 residents, but for anything serious they must go to Papeete Tahiti, 1000 miles away or New Zealand. There is no airstrip, so transportation on and off the island is by the cargo ship that comes every 3 months.
They have a diesel generator for power, but they have been installing solar panels and storage batteries for the last few years. Currently 80% of their electricity is solar and they expect to be totally solar within a few short years.
They are a territory of Great Briton and receive $5.2 million pounds per year from them. There is a treasury office and a post office. They said most of that money goes to keep the island operational, there is a monthly stipend for each resident. When something needs to be built or repaired, they all work together to do it. Satellite tv and cell phones keep them connected to the world. Ham radio is still their method of choice when contacting others.
They have 4 new residents this year, but as I said earlier, there really aren’t any young people to increase the population, no babies anytime soon.
So, I told you earlier that I don’t really prepare for these trips as much as I should, my bad. I knew where we were going, but the impact of standing on the ground that explorers like Robinson Crusoe, the ancient Moai statues and Captain Bligh first explored and settled is incredible. We have all probably seen Mutiny on the Bounty once or twice, but we are here! Right where Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers, with some Polynesians from Tahiti decided to settle down and live their lives. We passed right over the burned-out wreck of the Bounty. How amazing is this? On top of that, the mayor of Pitcairn Island came aboard and welcomed us. He said the last 6 cruise ships (like a year’s worth) were not able to bring passengers ashore due to the seas and tides, but we did it, we got ashore. The local residents were as excited as we were that we came ashore.
The population of Pitcairn Island is 42, they just lost the oldest citizen of the Island a couple of weeks ago, she was 96 years old. So, when our 200 plus passengers descended on them, there was a population explosion for a day. They were all happy to host us. There is a school in town, but they have no children to attend it. There are two high school age kids, but for their benifit, they shipped them to New Zealand for a better learning experience. The future of the Island is certainly in question.
Kim, with her guide, the mayor, hiked to the St Paul’s pool, which was an amazing place. Once again, due to adverse conditions, people can seldom swim in the pool because of the tides and currents, but you guessed it…. We hit it just right and several fellow passengers were able to swim there.
This trip is over the top of what I expected. We are having a fantastic time. Again, I have no desire to brag about what we are doing, I just want you to join us in this adventure. If I can lift you up in any way by describing our experiences, I have met my goal.
As for the “pool Chronicles”, they might have to wait until next year when we are on a regular cruise ship. These people for the most part are quite savvy.
That said, the other night there was a “star gazing party” planned on deck 10. I overheard a lady tell another passenger that there is no deck 10. When pressured for more information, she said she checked all of the elevators and there are only 9 decks. I passed the Captain and told him that he lost deck 10. He said that the home office would be very upset because when they turned the ship over to him, there was a deck 10. According to her elevator theory, I didn’t even bother to ask what her what happened to deck 1 and 2, I just figured it was a fuel saving measure on the part of Seabourn, there would be less drag if those floors weren’t in the water!
So, how’s the weather?
Three sea days ahead, see you in French Polynesia………
Another great thing about small ship sailing…..dinner was us, a couple from Austrailia and a couplle from San Francisco. Captian Steve is a young man from Scotland, Married for 24 years and has 2 boys, 13 and 8. He met his future wife while working on a container ship a few years before they married. He now works 3 months on and 3 months off as Captain of the Seabourn Pursuit, so he does get to spend half the year with his family in Scotland. When asked if his family ever sails with him he answered no because the Scotish government fines the parents if their children miss school. The area we are sailing into will be a first for him, so we will get to discover this part of the world together. We had a wonderful visit and just like that, it was 9:30, the time just flew by.
In bigger news, the ship has a broken stabelizer and will have to stop for repair. We will now spend 3 nights (instead of 1) in Papeete, Tahiti. Damn the luck, stuck in such a beautiful place. We were there a few years ago and Kim was there several years ago. Seabourn has added a couple of complementary tours for us and refunded everyone on board $1,000 for the inconvience. Tough life, but we are up to the challenge. Unlike all of our other stops. we will be at a dock the whole time, so we can come and go as we please.
Hey, we are on pacific standard time today. So, we have gained back the 4 hours we lost flying to Chile and will now start lagging behind our west coast friends. Slowly, hour by hour. It takes about 2 days sailing due west to gain an hour.
Well, it’s time to go to a lecture on Coral. Bye for now……….
