Cruising On

Friday, after our exciting time ashore, we returned to the ship and dined on deck as we watched the lights that rimmed one edge of the tiny lagoon which held Taiohae fade into the horizon. We could clearly see the small space occupied by these pleasant people. No lights strayed up the mountainside or topped the mountain peak. More of just a big hill with a welcoming harbor. Carol and I opted to watch the movie under the stars, poolside. With our popcorn and Cokes we enjoyed Walk the Line. An oldie but goodie. Deck chairs and headphones make it perfect for everyone. Saturday was another sea day. It is more than a thousand miles from one island to the next. Not a surprise since all of the dry land on earth could fit into the perimeter of the Pacific ocean. It is 64 million square miles! 25,000 islands break its surface, more than half of all the world's current islands. We did not pass over the Mariana Trench which drops some 25,797 feet deep. Also we were not affected by the volcanic eruption off the coast on Tonga...lucky for us. We are far South of there. We had several good lectures in Viking University today. A new speaker, Dr. Sherry Hutt, discussed the French in French Polynesia. She is excellent. I hope our library has some of her Cruising Through History books. Dr. Goodson is always informative and funny but Mr. Greenberg was disappointing as well as dry and off topic. Going to learn about Going Native and hearing about American Indian and First Nations practices just didn't work. Also he had the worst Power Point I have seen in many years! He must have used Office 0.0!! DR. Duller on Polynesian Art and our favorite Patrick Goodson did not disappoint. I went to the Explorers Dome to watch the 3d story of Whales and Dolphins. It is very n ice but Daryl Hannah's voice can certainly make one sleepy in those recling chairs! Food theme was Greek. Before dinnerThe Explorers Society (past guest) celebrated our return to cruising with a champagne toast and musical entertainment. The show was a very good Musical Journey titled The Tops of the Pops. Carol especially enjoyed Motown! The day ended with us laughing about some of the people we met and the outfits the Future Cruise Consultant wears. Some of us go by her office everyday just to see the 1950's style of the day! Sunday we seemed to sleep late. Last night we turned our clocks back only a half hour. But I woke with the sunrise, wrote to you, and got dressed. When Carol got up we went to breakfast and to the 9:00 talk by Dr. Hutt. Today was about the life of Paul Gauguin. I was wishing Elva was here. She would have loved it! Dr. Hutt is so warm and friendly. Stopped to speak to several people on the way to the podium, sort of circulated through the room. Very informative and added lots of little bits of information I had not yet heard. We did pretty good at Trivia, had a nice lunch. I had only half of a cuban sandwich because they were so big. Sherry Hutt stopped to chat again. I spent some time on the deck writing. Our Port talk for tomorrow's arrival in Tahiti let us know what to expect. Dr. Goodson entertained with his tales of the personal lives of the islanders. We dined in the restaurant. No matter where we choose to eat the food is delicious and varied. Except for there always being two choices of pizza, we have not had the same offerings twice yet --- and except for breakfast! The lounge singers put on a a very good performance and we headed back to the cabin. Tomorrow we have two excursions. In fact each of the next four days we have two. Starting off with a bang at 9:00am tomorrow we will be snorkeling in Tahiti! I want to have everything sorted, and packed up ready to go. Also putting out laundry tonight so I will have plenty of clean clothes when we get back from our island visits.