Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 19 - Dravuni Island, Fiji - An island visit and a more locked-down ship
Today, we found ourselves locked in a dynamic positioning hold off the coast of Dravuni Island in Fiji. The island is too small for a proper cruise ship dock so today's activities were conducted by tender boat.
Dravuni Island is south of Fiji's main island. It is less than two miles in length and only a few hundred feet wide. Inhabited by somewhere between 120 and 200 people, it is quite remote and undeveloped. The village is similar to the one we visited yesterday with modest construction but modern conveniences like solar panels.
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| The dock |
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| There is a nice beach right where the boats dock |
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| A tender on the way to the island |
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| And one returning |
We opted to let the masses go first so we relaxed in the morning and met up with our teammates for trivia. We won the morning session but failed miserably in the afternoon session. Here is a summary of our misfire.
- What is the national fruit of Pakistan?
- Mango - we had no idea
- What is the study of the structure of the universe?
- Cosmology - we guessed physics
- Who is the Polynesian god of the sea?
- Tangaroa
- What year did the US develop the H-bomb?
- Everyone guessed in the 1940s - that was the A-bomb - the H-bomb was in 1952
- In what year did Broadway get established?
- 1750, but we checked online and found a variety of answers all earlier than we thought
- In which country did the band AC/DC form?
- Australia
- In Greek mythology, who was the messenger for the gods?
- Hermes
- How many eyes does a bee have?
- We've had this before, but couldn't remember it has five eyes
- When was Nike formed?
- 1971
The tender operation was in a word, slow. Even with tenders running continuously, it took several hours to get folks to the island. We caught a tender over to the island at about 11:20 and were in group #47.
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| The view from the tender as we approached the dock |
When we got to the dock, we had to wait in the crowded tender with no air moving for ten minutes. There is only one rolling gangway on the island and they were loading another tender. When they finally finished, they rolled it over to our boat so we could unload.
We walked through the village area. Locals had a few crafts for sale as well as some imported textiles. They also sold coconuts and beer.
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| There is an elementary school there - several passengers brought supplies to donate to the school |
We headed to the beach to snorkel.
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| The water was clear and nice |
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. We only saw a few fish.
We did speak with some folks who hired a boat to take them to a better spot. They saw more marine life. We decided to call it a day and head back to the ship.
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| I saw this little guy wandering the beach |
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| As expected, there was a huge line for the tender ride back to the ship |
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| After we turned the corner, there was still more line |
Princess did have a water station set up with fresh, cold water. They also had a medical tent set up and it turns out that was a good thing.
On our return tender, the medical team rolled a patient into the boat in a wheelchair. We have no idea what happened. After we returned to the ship, the Captain came on the speaker letting everyone know we would be slightly delayed in departing as one passenger was being airlifted off the island. Again, we have no details. Another passenger said there was one more medical emergency when a patient had an apparent heart attack in the water and had to be resuscitated. We don't know if that was the patient evacuated by air.
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| We said farewell to Fiji |
The Captain had additional comments about the ongoing health situation on the ship. We knew that it kept getting worse as things changed. At the buffet, workers now dish out the food so passengers can't touch the serving utensils. All of the casual food venues have had similar changes. They are disinfecting all common surfaces constantly. The Captain said there are currently 22 passengers in isolation for gastrointestinal issues. It seems to run its course in 24-48 hours. A total of 87 people out of the roughly 2,500 passengers have reported feeling ill. We know of some who felt ill but just rode it out in their room and didn't report it. The Captain emphasized that regular hand washing was the best way to prevent contact-born viruses and reminded everyone to do so.
Princess seems to be taking appropriate steps to help protect the passengers for the rest of the cruise.
We enjoyed drinks in the Explorers Bar and dinner in the International Dining Room before heading back to the Explorers Bar for conversation and games. There was a music game and a yes/no game where you had to answer questions for three minutes without saying yes or no. It's harder than it sounds and I failed at about 2:40.
We hit the room a little early as we begin our reverse time travel tonight by losing an hour. It is the first of five hours we will lose on this second half of the trip. The next four days are sea days and tomorrow night, we make our final crossing of the International Date Line, returning to the same day as the US.
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