Last night in Bora Bora, G rode a tender back over to the island, took some photos of the ship all lit up at anchor in the lagoon, and came back to the cabin...and I slept right through it. But that extra rest allowed me to be on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet early this morning, to watch as the Pacific Princess navigated Pai Pai Pass through the oh-so-shallow lagoon surrounding Raiatea and Taha'a. Since the distance the ship had had to sail overnight was only from Bora Bora to Raiatea, it must have done some large loops around the islands, allowing it to desalinate water for use on board.
While either approach to Raiatea is picturesque, I think that Pai Pai Pass is my favorite. It never fails to amaze me that the passage through the reef is very narrow and curving, and on either side of the ship we can see markers designating shoals that are so shallow the reef touches the surfaces of the water. And yet the Pacific Princess gracefully curves her way through it. When Douglas Pearson announced to me that I had missed the most spectacular display of dolphins at the bow of the ship this morning, I was able to assure him that he had missed the most spectacular display of navigational skill as evidenced by the ship's wake at the back. ;-)
The Pacific Princess pulled bow first against the pier in Uturoa, positioning it for an easy departure this afternoon.
It was still not 7:30am, so I sat for awhile on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet drinking coffee and, frankly, expecting G to appear. When he didn't, I imagined he had been one of the first off the ship at 7am and was running up Mt. Tapioi. I would not put that past him! A misty rain began, barely reaching the ground, but it made for a beautiful rainbow in front of the mountain, and I knew that, if G was climbing it, it would feel pretty darn nice.
I went to breakfast in the Club Restaurant at 7:30am, and was surprised to hear "Sir G!" from the waiters behind me. No, G wasn't climbing Mt. Tapioi; instead he had viewed our cruising through Pai Pai Pass from the bow of the ship. We had breakfast, discussing only one firm plan for the day: to stay out of the sun! (And to get money from an ATM, 'cause we were broke!).
We left the ship and first verified some plans we have for Raiatea during our next visit on November 1 (can you believe it's almost November? Can you believe we only have five weeks left in our Polynesian Odyssey?). I walked to the ATM and withdraw the cash to make a small deposit to secure our reservation, and, in that short distance had already lost G. No matter; in a tiny town like Uturoa, it's hard not to reconnect somewhere along the way.
Suddenly free to go exactly where I wanted to, I first walked through the market, which is not nearly as large as Papeete's Le Marché, but is still very nice. There a fellow passenger staying on back to Los Angeles was selecting a beautiful tropical flower arrangement for her cabin. I came out of the side of the market building and walked right up to a pareo tying demonstration. While I've seen a few of these in the past, a little local girl off to the side caught my attention. She wanted a pareo tied around her, and, try as she might, her mom could not tie it in any way where it wouldn't drag on the ground and trip her. But, oh, she was ready to be a pareo model, too!!
I launched the Maps.me app on my iPhone to determine where the post office was. In a town the size of Uturoa, it couldn't have been far, and it wasn't. We have a series of post cards we're mailing to Mom from different islands, and were smart enough to buy stamps for them while in Papeete so all that is required is dropping them in a mailbox. (But I was sad to hear, when I spoke with her over Vonage later today, that she hasn't received a single postcard from us!).
It was getting hot by then, and my sunburn was letting me know all about it. I crossed the main street back to the maritime wharf and that is when my sunglasses broke right off my face. One lens fell out and dropped to the street where I immediately stepped on it, rendering the sunglasses irreparable. Following the bad luck I'd had with a contact two days ago, this was even more discouraging than you might imagine. Sunglasses are easily replaced; bifocal sunglasses with a 2.5 reading prescription are not. I know myself, and brought two pairs with me on this trip, as well as one pair of standard polarized sunglasses. The first pair of reading sunglasses disappeared somewhere in Rarotonga, but I wasn't worried; I had a backup. And now there are none (but tonight I found one pair in the shops on board that are 3.0 strength. Beggars can't be choosers, and I considered myself very lucky to find them).
Still, I took a seat at La Cubana restaurant on the waterfront to buy some water and use their WiFi. And that is where G found me (he knows me sooooo well!). Doing the best I could wearing broken sunglasses with just one lens, I logged onto WiFi and tried to address my other issues du jour. I had not been able to access my business Hotmail since I left Papeete nine days ago. Hotmail in French Polynesia gives me nothing but grief. Everytime I log in, it sends me a warning that I am accessing it from somewhere different. And sometimes it just refuses to let me in at all. I needed to reset my password, and that required the fairly stable WiFi of La Cubana, and 156 emails suddenly appeared.
The other issue of the day was that I received what I thought was a phishing email, confirming my Canadian $94 iTunes purchase this morning. Right...buying iTunes movies while on French Polynesian Internet. I might as well just burn my money. That was eventually straightened out, too, by verifying there was no new activity in my iTunes account nor on my credit card. Simple things, both of them, but not easily done when so far from home.
I took a few minutes to do some texting and to upload photos to my blog posts for the past few days (so you might want to check them if you're interested), and then G and I returned to the ship, adequately cooked for the day. We went to lunch in the Panorama Buffet but sat inside...it was just so hot on the deck. We followed up with some time on the shady side (the pretty side facing the lagoon) of the Promenade Deck where some air conditioned air blows out of the ship, but eventually moved into the coolness of our cabin. There we took care of some housekeeping (and a haircut) before G, who didn't get as red as I did on Matira Beach yesterday, went to a hot tub. I got cleaned up for dinner and packed our bags for tomorrow's planned excursion during turnaround day in Papeete.
Sailaway viewed from behind the Panorama Buffet was the perfect end to our day in Raiatea. We took a few minutes and went to the Pacific Lounge for the last Elite Lounge of this cruise. We could easily see the island of Huahine just ahead of the Pacific Princess; the Leeward Society Islands of Bora Bora, Taha'a. Raiatea and Huahine, as well as Maupiti and Tupai are all within sight on a clear day like today.
A table mate (at the next table) shared a bottle of Merlot tonight, so I chose my dinner right from the children's menu: garden salad and spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs on this cruise have been out of this world good, and I've had them twice for dinners and once for lunch, a first for me. We left before the Baked Alaska parade to attend Lanie Gullickson's 7pm show. Though it was understanbly poorly attended (everyone is busy packing up), Lanie certainly gave it her all. She will be leaving after next cruise as part of the cast changeover and we will miss her.
We are tucked into bed early tonight; Captain Ciruzzi said we'd be arriving in Papeete at 5:15am, and even if we don't get up to see that, we do have plans that, if they work out, will have us taking an early ferry to Moorea. A sunny day is forecasted (we've been so lucky with weather this cruise!), and, covered from head to toe, we'd like to spend the day on and in the water.
One final note about today: Cruise Director Maraschal had to leave mid-cruise, and Deputy CD Jen, aided by Company Performance Manager Alex and the rest of the cast have really stepped up to the plate, doubly hindered by a broken soundboard that prevented the performance of more than the first production show, Stardust. Maraschal's replacement, Sammi Baker, is arriving in Papeete tomorrow, accompanied by repair parts.
Anyway, Jen and Alex were doing the Wake Show today and going over events in the Patter and commented on our MTP photo in the bottom corner of the front page. They also said that we'd be glad to autograph the photo and all that passengers had to do was ask. We were completely unaware of any of this, but couldn't figure out why we were repeatedly asked to autograph fellow passengers' Patters (after being told that they wanted to grow up to be us...even those passengers 15 years our senior!). Finally, late this afternoon, we were filled in on what had been said on the Wake Show. Harious. Thankfully, we become completely anonymous again on turnaround day tomorrow, when a new batch of passengers arrive.
