This day, much like our day on Lifou, reminds me so much of that Norman Rockwell painting of that family in a station wagon on a beach day. The left side shows the family in the morning, all happy and clean and excited at the prospect of their day. On the right side is the family coming home that night, dirty and tired. That is exactly what the tender ride was like today. Going over, except for the heat (I’ll get to that later), everyone had their snorkel gear clean and nicely packed, folded beach towels and big smiles. Coming back on one of the last tenders, we were all dropping sand everywhere, with wet, sandy towels around our necks, hair stiff from salt water and snorkel gear shoved into tote bags willy-nilly. But we had so. much. fun.
We learned quickly why, when we took our breakfast out to the Open Deck Behind the World Fresh Marketplace, there were several empty tables. It was HOT out there already early this morning. Hot and humid. Too hot for coffee hot. It was immediately obvious that today was best spent in air conditioning or in the water.
We returned to our cabin and packed for a major beach day. Metal water bottles in the beach cooler to keep G’s beers cold, beach tarp, two floaties, snorkel gear, and the last of the beach (mineral-based) sunscreen. I knew I’d be spending some serious time snorkeling, and covered up as much as I could with board shorts and a long-sleeved rash guard. I have had too many serious sunburns over the years from hours spent snorkeling with my back and legs fully exposed to the sun.
We were last on Dravuni Island in November on the Ruby Princess, and what a difference two months had made in my ability to walk on the sand. I had no trouble at all walking far down the beach to the right, where I remember the best snorkeling was from our previous visits. We found a spot in the shade and set up for the day. The heat was unbearable. We had a thermometer and the temperature inside the tender had reached 90F with at least that much humidity and no breeze while the tender was loaded. We wasted no time at all getting into the water, which had to be at least 86F. It felt divine.
Once we had both cooled off and G was happily consuming his first beer, I headed into the water to snorkel. I was out there a long time, nearly two hours. I lose track of time when I snorkel, but usually one of two things limits me: Either I get chilled or G waves me out of the water. Today, neither happened, and I happily went from coral head to coral head. I knew there were Nemo fish there- I had seen them in November- and finally found them in two different areas, but mostly I enjoyed the variety of fish and the pockets of really colorful coral.
Finally, I rejoined G, and he took a floatie out and was gone at least an hour, and then it was my turn again and I snorkeled for another hour or so, and we used both floaties together. It was a beautiful day... if one was either in the water or wet from having been in the water. As soon as we dried off, it got oppressively hot again. In fact, it was so hot that G never once even mentioned climbing that hill. That’s a first!
Francesco told us yesterday that the dining room was going to be open for lunch for the rest of this cruise. That’s very unusual! Here was the menu for today:
Day 8 lunch menu, page 1
Day 8 lunch menu, page 2
A nearly empty beach at 4:30pm
The water around Dravuni Island is gorgeous
The primary school
We took our Elite toiletry bags to the teacher
We were among the very last to leave the beach, and took a tender back to the ship about 4:45am. G’s beach dog du jour (we named him Dravuni Louie) followed him all the way down the tender pier and tried to board the tender with him. Security got very excited about that. I finally had to get off the tender and call him away, and someone else enticed him back down the tender pier. I think he thought he could go home with us. We were back in our cabin just after 5pm, and somehow were showered and in the Concerto Dining Room by 5:35om. Of course, we both still had wet hair, but at least we were clean.
Money laundering again ;-)
Day 8 dinner menu, page 1
Day 8 dinner menu, page 2
Day 8 dessert menu
Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was Aussie Patrick McMahon, who we’ve seen a few times this year in the Ruby Princess. We love his show, but it was a testament to how tired we are that we skipped it tonight. Besides, we still had to wash out our gear. This may have been our last beach day of the season; everything (floaties, beach tarp, snorkel gear, metal bottles for ice) needed to be scrubbed well before being packed away.
Day 8 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 8 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 8 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 8 Princess Patter, page 4