Day 33: Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Today started out so perfectly. In fact, at one point this morning, I told G that this was the kind of day that a person was lucky to experience even a handful of times in their life. 

Then it all changed in a minute. 

We ate breakfast and were on the very first guest tender to Mystery Island. It was a gloriously beautiful day, another day of clear skies and low humidity, in the high 70s. We packed for a beach day, but were uncertain exactly how the day would unfold. In the past, we’ve hired a boat for a snorkel trip, snorkeled on our own, walked around the island and had lunch there. 

From Wikipedia:

Inyeug island, also known as Mystery Island, is a small uninhabited island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. "Inyeug" means "Small Island" in a local language.

Inyueg is also called Mystery Island by the cruise ships that regularly visit the island.

The island was visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1974, with the name "Mystery Island" coined to generate a more interesting headline of the report of the visit.

The island has an area of about 15.9 hectares and is located only 1 km south of the island of Aneityum. Inyeug is flanked to the west and south by the coral Intao Reef, that extends further south, and, albeit submerged, is the southernmost point of Vanuatu.

The island has the airport for the neighboring inhabited Aneityum Island. The airport is basically a grass airstrip, which gets small plane flights twice weekly from Port Vila via Tanna Island.

Back to me…

We’ve actually been on the island when that twice weekly flight landed, deposited packages and a few passengers, loaded up and left again. When you see the pics of nearby Aneityum Island, you can see why they used Mystery Island for a landing strip. 

Aneityum Island

We chose to first walk around the island, about a 40 minute stroll, but were so preoccupied taking after photo after photo of the beautiful water in a hundred shades of blue that we finally just settled in the shade under a palm tree to savor the scenery while there were few people around. In fact, we slept on the beach for a bit (I put my ear buds in to listen to an audiobook and that’s better than taking an Ambien for me).

My view

The sound of people yelling finally woke me up and I looked up to see two women yelling for a lifeguard and emergency help. I looked out onto the shallow water to see if I could see anyone struggling- I’m not a lifeguard but I am a strong swimmer- and didn’t see anyone. But when I looked slightly to my left about 50 feet away I saw a small group forming around someone on the edge of the beach. 

A fellow guest came running by saying she was a nurse and it didn’t take long before l could see her doing chest compressions and I couldn’t believe this was happening. G woke up and was soon running over (he was an instructor) but at that same time life guards started to arrive with an AED and soon after that the ship’s medical personnel started showing up and…they all worked so hard for a very long time but to no avail. 

I was just glued to my spot on the beach trying to pray the Hail Mary (it’s what we Catholics do at times like these) and I couldn’t remember the words. I’ve prayed a million Hail Marys in my life and I couldn’t get past the first two lines. Over and over again…it wasn’t working. I was shook, and even more so when a couple of guests near me were talking about their plans for the evening. Right there, within sight of it all. And another took a photo.  Cold. 

We eventually left to return to the ship- that joy I had felt just an hour or two earlier was obviously gone, and it seemed wrong at that point to have any more fun. 

When we got back to the ship and had walked up the stairs to Deck 4 from the tender pontoon, I could see the hatch on the opposite side was wide open and more medical personnel were there waiting, so I knew they’d be bringing him back that way.  We went directly up to the Lido Deck for grilled chicken sandwiches, used a hot tub on Deck 16 and then returned to the cabin in time to get cleaned up for the evening. 

When Captain Traverse made his usual departure announcement just before 5pm, he started out by acknowledging that a passenger had died on the beach about noon and asked for a moment of silence. That was all he said, that was all he needed to say. To those of us who had seen it all, this wasn’t a surprise, but that closure was appreciated. We know that on the average transpacific crossing, three passengers die. It just doesn’t usually happen on a beautiful beach surrounded by fellow guests. But then, while this was going on, I looked out at the water and decided that this really was a perfect gateway to the afterlife. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was Irish-Australian vocalist Peter Byrne doing a tribute to Neal Diamond. I know the timing was purely coincidental but his was exactly the show the guests needed to see tonight. He was funny, it was basically a huge sing along and I’m guessing I’m not the only one among us who felt the heaviness in my heart lift a little. 

Laundry I’d sent three days ago was finally returned tonight. Robert had told us that Fijian discharge regulations put them a day behind. I’ll need to keep that in mind for our return cruise. 

Day 32: At Sea

We were up ridiculously early this morning. I mean, we did go to bed before the (new time) of 7pm last night, so it wasn’t a surprise. And the ship’s webcam showed it started to get light about 4am. But, thank God for the International Cafe in the middle of the night. G went down and got us both coffees and I was able to drink it in bed and mindlessly scroll the webz…

…until 6:30am when I was in the Terrace Pool for my workout. I checked our rec centers’ (at home) schedule of activities online today. We sign up for classes two weeks in advance, so it is too early for me to do that, but I was making sure nothing about my water fitness classes has changed. Nope; same instructors, same classes, same schedule, same rec centers. I miss them!  On of my instructors is such a dear and sent me off on our cruises with several Spotify playlists with imbedded intervals, and pages of workouts in a ziplock bag. She knows I was determined to keep it up. I realized I would face rough pool water on the ship some days but didn’t expect the changing water depth and temperatures I’ve encountered. All part of the experience!

I met G for breakfast in Sabatini’s, and was delighted to see we’ve taken on more blueberries and raspberries. We had cleaned them out (I definitely played a role in that), but obviously the ship loaded more in Suva. 

We attended the port lectures for Vanuatu (disappointing, really) and returned to the cabin where Monday Night Football was just starting. Naturally, that kept me occupied midway through the afternoon. We didn’t go to lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room but I did run to the Horizon Court for watermelon and since the French fries looked fresh and crispy, too, I brought back two plates of food and we shared that.  We went to dinner with some appetite, always a good feeling. 

The Princess Theater entertainment tonight was two ballroom dancers. We had seen ballroom dancers on a cruise last winter, and I must Renee the costume changes she did right on stage, like she was wearing multiple dresses and just kept peeling them down. These were not the same, but were still entertaining. 

We sat on the Terrace Deck for a short time and called it an evening. 

Day 31: Dravuni Island, Fiji

This island was one of the key decision factors in booking this cruise. The stop here on our Crown Princess return was the other. 😉 I love this place. 

Dravuni Island is only 75 miles from Suva (which is why we didn’t leave Suva until midnight last night), still part of Fiji but a different island group 

As much as I love Dravuni, I don’t love the sun I knew we’d inevitably get today if we stayed on the island too long. For that reason, we were up and at ‘em early and went to breakfast totally packed for our time ashore. This enabled us to be on the very first tender over to the island. I did not take my new iPhone over (check out my blog; I have lots of photos from our several past visits) and G said he was going to take his since he wasn’t planning to snorkel.  Unfortunately, the built-in USB-A ports in our cabin aren’t always reliable and they weren’t last night. He had exhausted his battery in a quick minute. So the photos we have are few, but it was a beautiful day and we’ll be here again in a couple of weeks. 

Just a note:  there are no umbrellas and loungers for rent here. This is a very basic, but beautiful beach. 

We claimed a spot on the beach in as much shade as was available and I was immediately in the water with my mask and snorkel. These are both recent purchases. McGee asked to borrow my snorkel gear for his trip to French Polynesia and I discovered my mask apron had ripped since I last used it (2021), which was actually a good thing since I had enough time to replace it before our trip. 

Dravuni Island had some of the best snorkeling we’d seen in this part of the world (on a cruise itinerary), but we hadn’t been here for nearly 7 years, and cyclones and tsunamis can take a toll. Well, I’m happy to report that it’s still superb. I found several Nemos, and lots of other tropical fish. I remembered that the coral were so healthy here and they are still looking good, too. 

I wasn’t certain how I’d do snorkeling. Since I was last here, I started wearing glasses with prism for double vision. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that I was scheduled to have surgery in February to correct it (but that got changed the day we were in Kauai, a whole ‘nother story). With my contacts, without my glasses, I knew I would be able to see the fish, but I also knew I’d see twice as many as were actually there. Well, that’s not such a bad thing. It was like swimming in an aquarium, and almost took my breath away. Of course, finding G on the beach afterward was a little tricky (which one of him do I aim for?) but he wore his yellow shirt and that always helps. 

I snorkeled for a few hours, taking breaks only long enough for G to do some exploring, and we caught a tender back to the ship shortly after noon. We ate lunch on the Terrace Deck, and I should have done a water workout but I was tired after battling the waves and walking on the beach. Instead I watched the last of the football games being shown in the cabin and rested. 

After dinner tonight, we spent time on the open decks watching what was left of the sunset and sail away. Captain Traverso made an announcement telling us we were returning to Suva for a medical evacuation by boat, and would arrive there about 8pm. We crashed early in the cabin, watching on the bridge cam as the lights of Suva in the distance grew closer, but were asleep early. Really early, actually, when you consider that we moved clocks back for the final time last evening and are now on Sydney time.  

Days 29 & 30: On the ship in Fiji

Our next two ports were Lautoka and Suva, Fiji, ports we have visited several times the past. They are also tough ports for us because 1) the ship docks in a city and tourist sites are not close by and 2) we’ve either already done or are not interested in doing the excursions that are offered. Excursion planning (which I tried, I really did try to do) came down to G telling me he would do anything I wanted to do and me asking him if he would be willing to go to a mud pool (no), orchid garden (no) Hindu temple (no), take a 40 minutes boat or bus ride to a beach resort (no), watch yet another cultural show (not really), participate in another kava ceremony (no), or shop for souvenirs (a hard NO from both of us). This is pretty much the list of likely things to do from these two ports. 

And just to be clear: all (actually, most…that shopping thing is always a no) of those things are wonderful the first time or two you do them. But there are things (like a beach day on Dravuni Island tomorrow) that are infinitely repeatable. And other things. like mud pools and Hindu temples that aren’t. Just sayin’. 

Of course, when we realize that the ship is stable, nearly empty and that food and coffees are at the ready, it’s quite easy to talk ourselves into staying on board. That’s the exact thing that older cruisers used to do in the Caribbean and we could never understand it. We get it now. 

In Lautoka, we lingered at breakfast for over an hour. I branched out and had a glorious avocado toast with smoked salmon, and I know for a fact what that would have cost me at a restaurant near our home (because I’ve indulged a few times, and, along with the frou-frou coffees, this was truly a deluxe experience). And I loved every minute. 

I’ve eaten all the blueberries on the ship!

With mushrooms and spinach. A thing of beauty.

I had the stable, not-too-full Terrace Pool to myself (of course I did) and had a fantastic workout while G watched from a lounger nearby, then I joined him to warm up in the sun. 

After a clean up, lunch was another yummy soup in the Horizon Court, and then we sat in the shade on the Promenade Deck. We hadn’t been to dinner with Libres and Sulton (autocorrect always turns that into Stilton. Which would be fine, too).  More soup for me, and the veggie stir fry. I’m sure I was short on protein, but I’ll make it up tomorrow. 

We had great entertainment options for the evening. First, ship activities director Liberty Pessoa did a show singing songs of 100 years, from the 20s to the 20s. We love to go to these sorts of shows, but sit in the “just in case seats”. Just in case. Well, we did NOT need those seats during this show. She was incredible, leading me to scratch my head (on the non-bump side) and ask what the heck she is doing as an activities director. She will no doubt be a singing cruise director soon and move on from there. 

Afterward we went to the Vista-less Lounge for comedian Jeff Green, an ex-pat Brit living in Melbourne. Funny, funny guy. He did mostly relationship humor with some tech humor thrown in, one laugh after another. We had again sat in the just in case seats and again didn’t need them.

Two great shows, live music everywhere. An abundance of riches. On-the-ship days in tropical ports with perfect weather are good days. 

Today in Suva (the capital of Fiji) was a “rinse and repeat” day, despite the fact that we stayed in port until 11:30pm. 11:30pm on a Sunday night in Suva. Suva pretty much closes down on Sundays, period. But I’m sure the late departure allowed people to linger longer at the beach resorts, which is good, because, again, they are quite a drive or boat ride from the port. 

Terrace Deck view this morning

One difference today:  being Sunday, it was Saturday at home. And Saturday means college football. Need I say more? I was up at 4am to watch Michigan lose to Indiana  (sometimes, it’s tough to be a Michigan Wolverine. The Whittingham/Beck combo is making that most of the time).  Another fantastic breakfast in Sabatini’s, breakfast #2 on the Terrace Deck (watermelon, natch), then back to the cabin to watch the BYU v UCF game. Whew, that was a game!!  So so much fun to watch. 

A pool workout followed, then I was bundled up in a robe watching more college football in the cabin. Because that’s what I do. G came and went, but we stayed touch via iPhone and I believe I may have actually napped, which is good, because tomorrow will be a full, fun day. 

Dinner with Libres and Sulton is such a treat. They know us and our likes and dislikes perfectly by now, and could probably bring our dinner without needing to order. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment took advantage of our very late departure from Suva. A local dance group called Vo (I think that’s the spelling) csme on board to do a folkloric show at 7pm and 9pm. But it wasn’t the usual “war fighter” folkloric show. It stated that way but changed over the course of the show to show the evolution of Fijian culture, including the Indian influence. It was all fantastic:  the costumes, the music the rhythm, the choreography. We loved it. 

We sat out on the Terrace Deck for a few minutes, enjoying the lights of the Suva waterfront before calling it a night. 

The back of the ship is so pretty at night