Paying It Forward

I've been pretty productive on this cruise. I made 3 blankets, 2 caps, and 1 cape. I'm out of yarn, and the cruise will end in a few days, so I could have brought one more project...next time I'll be better prepared!

To that end, only one of the blankets had a "designated baby" so I finished that blanket first.

Then, Ketut, our wonderful waiter, announced that his wife was expecting a baby in September, so I made the second blanket for him.

A few days later I finished the matching cap for the blanket...and gave it to Ketut for his baby in Bali.

Yesterday I gave the third blanket to one of the ladies with whom I play Trivia. She was overwhelmed.

So the third blanket is going to a baby in British Columbia. Passing it forward is just too much fun. I wonder what will happen next! The three blankets will go to babies in Pennsylvania, Bali and British Columbia. I think that's a kick!

 

Nuku Hiva Part 2

That's the view from our balcony. A perfect little island.

Our ship from the shore. 

A beautiful black sand beach.

Tikis, and 

...more tikis. 

No matter where you are, there are kids on smart phones.

Local women sitting in the shade, as it's far too hot to be in the sun.

Fellows working -- frankly, I did not see too many people working on this Monday morning.

A typical "boonie dog" resting in the shade. 

Nuku Hiva is a pretty place.

Nuku Hiva

We are parked off the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas today. It's a tiny place and very beautiful.

We are having perfect tropical weather too...sunny, hot and humid. I just returned from the island and I can attest to the humidity! We were expecting all of our stops to be like this stop, but sadly, this is the only one we've had that is not marred by rain, wind, or turbulent water. 

Marvelous Mo'orea

An unsung gem in the Pacific is Mo'orea, sometimes known as Bali Hai.

The volcanic spire than tops the island is nothing short of magnificent. 

It's mesmerizing. No matter where you are on the island, your eyes keep coming back to the spire. 

There are no bad views, some might be better than others. There's more to the island than the view too. It's quiet unlike it's neighbor Tahiti. There's little traffic and that makes it a "lazier" place to just be!

Like most of the islands out here you can rent a glass bottomed hotel room and have a private view of the fishes in the deep.

A fellow on an outrigger canoe might come by...or the 

Tender will take you ashore--it's about a ten minute ride in the calm waters of the lagoon.

No matter where you are, there's island beauty--from grass shacks, to palm trees

...to what passes for town. You can see why folks live here and commute to Tahiti.

I wonder if this is a "sub-division"...could be?

But the eyes always go back to the spire...

The wonderful spire that was the inspiration for Bali Hai in the musical South Pacific.

In Papeete

The capital city of French Polynesia is Papeete, Tahiti. It is not a backwater town in the middle of the ocean...it's a thriving city in the middle of nowhere!

There is a busy yacht harbor as well as a commercial port with containers, container ships, 

and the French Navy.

Then there is this ship, the Aranui 5 which is a combined, container/cruse ship that takes 14 day cruises in the Society and Marquesa Islands delivering goods while serving as a vacation vessel.

At the pier, we were given a traditional Tahitian greeting with music and flowers...then we walked to the world beyond; the city.

...and we were met with traffic...

...and shops. Notice the paint it is covered with mold. It's endemic in the topics as the climate is never dry. Mold is. 

Island dress is casual

...but I really liked this man's fashion statement the best. 

Papeete is a city with just about everything.

Tahiti

We found the sunshine! It is in Tahiti! We docked here this morning and soon we went for a walk. Papeete is a BUSY city. Think Honolulu only a bit smaller and without the high rise buildings. There's traffic...there are stores...there are crowds...the only difference between Papeete and a mainland town of this size, is the humidity, which is about 1000% give or take a few percentage points. 

We are here until 1 AM then we will move 13 miles to Moorea. 

Moorea is a gorgeous gem that has not been discovered (read that as not over-developed). There's a ferry that goes between Moorea and Papeete. Some folks commute between the two islands. Living in Moorea and working in Papeete is a good thing.

After experiencing the bustle of this tourist city, I would think about living in Moorea too. 

Bora Bora--part 2

We are having our share of poor weather...yet the cruise is still good. We are parked about a 10 minute tender ride from Vaitape, Bora Bora. 

The clouds lifted for a few minutes and I took this picture. Bora Bora is a rocky volcanic island that might even be the mythical Bali Hai. See the buildings around the periphery? Those are hotels and they  own the beaches. Bora Bora has been developed! There is one public beach on the backside of the island, but all the other beaches are private and if you want to to use them, you need to pay a fee. On another note, the airport abbreviation for the island is BOB. We are here for one moe day, then on to Moorea, which is just a few miles away.

Bora Bora

There are "magical" place names in the world. Mombasa, Kota Kinabalu, Montevideo, Pago Pago, Bora Bora, to name just a few. The names bring up images of the mysterious; the beautiful; the unusual; and they are all wonderful places to see in our world. Tonight we are "parked" outside one of these magical places: Bora Bora. We will spend the next two days here.

Also "parked" in the road stead is a WindStar yacht. She's a different type of ship and one we rarely see. She's a four masted, fore-and-aft rigged, motorized sailing yacht. I hope she will be there in the morning so I can take a closer look at her beauty. 

Bora Bora is a small circular island and it is a tender port. Tenders will start taking pax to shore starting at 7 AM. Sometime tomorrow I'll be one of the pax. More later.

Raiatea

We made landfall on Raiatea. We are at a real pier. 

That's the view from our port side verandah...the dock is starboard. It's a gray, rainy, windy day. I have a shore excursion on a river...I wonder how that will go. Stil, it's nice to be on land. More later.

Later

The shore excursion was canceled due to rain and wind. We left the ship on time for our excursion and we were greeted by friendly islanders singing and dancing. 

There were dressed for the occasion wearing fancy flowered hats or head-dresses. The music was fun and happy, but the weather was horrible. 

The "Welcome Center" was a bit of a madhouse as folks were entering it and leaving it. Excursions were called off as the winds were blowing off hats and ponchos. The best thing to do was to go back to the ship where it was warm and dry. I'll go back later if the storm eases up. 

This is the view of the Welcome Center from the Crow's Nest on the ship. The grounds are really pretty even in the rain. 

When traveling you get the weather you get, not the weather you want. 

Rarotonga, Nonotonga

As predicted last night, we did not make landfall at Rarotonga. After trying for more than an hour to maintain a steady anchorage, the captain called off the attempt. The passengers were ready. Hundreds of us were seated in the Vista Lounge with our shore excursion tickets, patiently waiting for the captain to secure anchor. Instead, we heard the anchor chain being dropped and pulled many times. For folks who have cruised a lot, we knew this did not bode well.

We came close to the island, but that's as far as it went. If you look at the center of the picture, you'll see a "break" in the shoreline...that's the inlet that the tender boats are supposed to enter. It's narrow and almost always rough. Today was no exception to the rule. 

See the white water splashing over the sides of the little tender boat?

Here's another view of one of the tender boats. It's never good to see that much white water when you are at sea. I saw four tenders in the water and they were bouncing like corks. When the tenders bounce, the passengers need to stay away. 

As a farewell gesture, the captain circumnavigated the island and then headed for the open ocean. We are on our to Raiatea. We will be at a regular port facility there (not a tender port) and if all goes to plan, we should get there by 2100 on Monday.

Forty mile per hour winds caused the problem. I did not see any rain per se, but the wind was rocking us around too much. As an aside, Rarotonga is always a difficult port as it is windy and that causes a cross tide in the narrow inlet.  We have now blown off 2 tender ports on this cruise; I hope we don't blow off Bora Bora and Nuku Hiva which are the next 2 more tender ports we are supposed to reach in the near future.

Just Hanging Around

Tonight our towel critter is a monkey,  and he's hanging around near the door to our patio. Outside the door is a storm! Tomorrow we are supposed to make landfall at Rarotonga, but I don't think it will happen. The storm started this morning, right after my walk and breakfast, and it's been with us all day. That's about a 150 mile storm. It might be blown out by the time we reach our tender port near the lagoon, but I don't think the prospect is hopeful. It saddens me to write this, as we are looking forward to seeing this beautiful island again. Other folks are looking forward to walking on land as we've been onboard since Kona, and that's a week ago. 

So like the monkey, we are just hanging around trying to figure out what will happen next.