It’s April 16, 2025

Samoa, locally pronounced Saam-ooh-ah.

This is the first stop that we have duplicated on last years cruise.  We did the Island tour and Kim complained that she didn’t have time to climb to the tomb of Robert Lewis Stevenson.   This time it was offered as an excursion, and she did it.  I stayed aboard as the other tour was exactly what we did last year.  Kim climbed through a rain forest and the ground was uneven and slippery.  It took over an hour longer than was advertised.  She loved it and was glad she did it.  Once back aboard, a fantastic hamburger on the pool deck revived her.

We are now headed south to Tonga.  We will follow the Tonga trench, the second deepest water in the world, almost 7 miles of water beneath our keel, the deepest is the Mariana Trench, but only by 400 feet.  With that comes the opportunity for us to see ocean mammals.  The depths of the ocean create updrafts that bring nutrients to the surface, this brings fish that feed on them, that brings bigger fish, and even bigger fish, even mammals.  We saw flying fish tonight, I hope we see more.  This trip has been pretty fish free so far. (sadly, no joy).

The chef sat down with me at lunch today and told me he went to the market and bought several fresh fruits and fish, he said he found one fresh caught ahi tuna for our special ceviche lunch tomorrow.  Wow!  On the sea day between Samoa and Tonga, we had our ceviche lunch.  We found out after we ate it, that the chef himself prepared it for us.  Kim said to me after he told us that, “ I didn’t think he actually did any cooking himself”, we feel very special.  Kim enjoyed the Pico de Gallo. Yes, that’s cavier on top of the ceviche.

On Tonga, we signed up for a 3-hour excursion that included a botanical garden tour, a traditional Polynesian tradition demonstration, and a free time at a beach.  First, I’ll tell you that in the end we really did enjoy it.  The botanical experience turned out to be a 1,5-mile hike through the jungle.  At times, we were wondering if we would ever find out way back to the buses.  I of course said I wish we had brought breadcrumbs….  The description said that we would walk through the garden and and end up at the beach.  We were all questioning if this was some kind of trap in which one of us would be sacrificed in some sort of religious ceremony.  Someone said, “I hear the ocean, so I think we are going in the right direction”.  I of course stated that we were on an island, no matter which direction we go we are walking toward the ocean.  It all ended well and no one was lost. 

We moved the ship to another place in Tonga and went snorkeling.  Kim saw some stuff we have never seen before, including some blur starfish, giant sea cumbers, and someone saw an eel. 

Tonight was Indian food night in the dining room, so that meant I had sushi!      

For whatever reason, my last 2 published blogs did not go out.  Thanks to my webmaster, Steve Carson, he was able to fix whatever it was.  Sorry for the long wait, I hope I didn’t lose too many of you.

We are seeing more and more of the China influence as we sail further west.  I’m not going there so far.  Please keep me silent on that front.

I promise you more soon…….