Since I last wrote we’ve stopped in Papeete, Tahiti and Uturoa, Raiatea for a day each. We had tropical showers both days and the air was so warm and humid that I felt like I could cut it with a knife.
We were in Papeete on a Sunday and unlike many ports, in Tahiti they didn’t care that a ship was in; most stores and restaurants were closed. Even our chef couldn’t go to the market to buy some local goodies because it was only open for a few hours very early. I hadn’t booked a tour because none of them sounded appealing and I planned to just go ashore and walk around for a while. Had I known that things were closed I might have made different plans, but it wasn’t to be. I did wander a little and I did find a very nice shop that sold Tahitian pearls where I bought myself a memento of Tahiti.
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| Downtown Papeete |
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| Across and behind the red car was the shop I found open |
The most interesting sights of the day though were the two ships tied up on the other side of the pier from us. At the end was a massive, sleek black and white yacht (390 feet) and behind her was a ship I first thought was some kind of coast guard or navy ship. Not so! The big yacht was the M.V. Launchpad and the smaller (220 feet) was the M.V. Wingman, both owned by none other than Mark Zuckerberg. The Wingman is the support ship for the bigger ship and on its deck were a submersible, various water toys and a tender. Seeing the two has changed how I will perceive any comments made about climate by Mr. Z. His two vessels are having much more impact on the environment than I could in a hundred lifetimes. Our captain gave us a little information about the two ships when we were ready to sail. Evidently just the operational costs of the Launchpad and Wingman come to about $30 million per year!
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| M.V. Launchpad |
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| M.V. Wingman |
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| This was another interesting ship docked near us. The back half had balcony cabins for passengers and the front carried cargo containers. It evidently cruises between the islands bringing supplies as well as tourists. |
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| Sailing out of Papeete's harbor |
Yesterday we docked in Raiatea, the second largest of the Society Islands. Again I had booked no tours because they were once again sun and sand things – just not my thing anymore. From the ship I could see some of the coral reefs surrounding the island and through which we had to pass to get here. The contrast in water colors is amazing in the sunlight that we had in the morning. I went ashore to the little town of Uturoa with friends and we did a little shopping. In the evening we were having a Tahitian dance party on the pool deck and we each found a tropical looking dress to wear. Once again we had intermittent showers and it was very hot and humid, not at all conducive to lingering long. As we walked back to the dock the skies opened up and we just missed being drenched.
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| These are all pictures of the water around Raiatea. I loved the colors and can't resist including them. |
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| These are all of downtown Uturoa. |
In the evening four of us were all invited to the table of a new conversationalist who came on in Papeete. He is a fascinating man from Australia. He was that country’s ambassador to Russia and Germany and a Deputy Secretary in the Australian Defense Ministry. He also served in his country’s foreign service in the USSR before its demise and he had a number of meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev. He was a very interesting dinner companion and I’m looking forward to some of the talks he’ll give. After dinner I went to the Tahitian Party which turned out to not play a single Polynesian song. That was probably for the best because I don’t think we have many hula dancers on board. I did do a little dancing and met some new people that I actually hadn’t seen before. It’s funny how you can be on a fairly small ship with only a few more than 400 passengers for several weeks and just encounter new faces.
We are now on our way to the Cook Islands, about 650 miles to the west of French Polynesia. We have a sea day and then two days in the islands. It’s late here so I’ll close for now. Au revoir (since that’s the official language of the three islands we’ve been visiting).
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