Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 25 - Mo'orea, French Polynesia - we swim with the fishes
We were up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning because we're in Mo'orea - an island a few miles from Tahiti in French Polynesia. Why up so early? This is a tender port, meaning that we can't dock here and have to take tender boats to port. Our tour operator requested that we get on an early tender. Princess starts handing out tender tickets at 7:00 AM, so that meant we needed to be in line by 6:30 AM to ensure getting on that first tender. Arlona beat me down to the Crooner's Bar and got in line at about 6:20 AM. She was quick enough and we scored tickets for tender #1.
The day didn't look very good. A low overcast obscured the hills and a steady drizzle dampened the mood. The plan today was to take a catamaran and do some snorkeling. We would be getting wet anyway, so no matter.
We hopped the tender just after 7:00 and made the short ride to port on the island.
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| A little island music welcomed us to Mo'orea |
The rain continued and we waited for our ride, a catamaran named Taboo to arrive.
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| A catamaran named Taboo |
The catamaran was small with just enough room under the roof for the eight of us booked on this tour. The two workers, a guide and a boat captain snapped on side curtains to protect us from the rain. We were off for our adventure just after 7:45 AM.
Our first stop was a shallow area known for sharks and rays. The rain had stopped so that was a bonus.
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| Arlona, looking snorkely |
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| Ready to go |
In short order, the sharks and rays came for photo ops.
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| Sharks? ☑ Rays? ☑ |
It was awesome being so close to these magnificent creatures. All too soon, it was time to head to a coral garden.
There were multiple coral clusters, all teeming with sea life. It was fun swimming around and seeing all the activity.
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| On the way to the coral garden |
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| Looking professional |
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| There were so many of these little iridescent blue fish around the coral |
They gave us banana pieces to help attract fish.
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| We sailed past these cool over-water bungalows |
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| Unfortunately, they were a Covid victim and they were abandoned |
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| We even got some partial clearing in the sky, adding to the beauty of Mo'orea |
There were eight tikis installed, but only six remain.
This was the end of our tour so we started motoring back to port.
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| Sapphire Princess at anchor |
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| That orange roof is our port |
We briefly walked around the port area, looking at a local church where Sunday services had just let out.
Our tender took us back to the ship where we grabbed a burger lunch and then took some additional photos of Mo'orea from the ship.
After lunch, I worked on editing these photos and videos as Arlona wrapped up a crochet project. I'll report on that tomorrow since it will be a sea day.
It was then time to join our trivia team for afternoon trivia. We finished one point out of the winner's circle due to these questions:
- How many countries are in Europe (33, 44, 52, 29)?
- We thought 52, but it is 44
- Who is the biggest distributor of toys?
- McDonald's - think of all those happy meals!
- Who has won more singles Grand Slam tennis titles than anyone else (there are now two)?
- Novak Djokovic (got him) and Margaret Court (we said Serena Williams)
As we wrapped up trivia, the tenders were loaded and the anchor (yes, we actually dropped anchor today) was raised and we bid farewell to French Polynesia.
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| More over-the-water huts - I have no idea if these are still in business |
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| Sailing through the narrow deep channel through the very shallow reef |
We got ready for dinner and Arlona donned her new Tahitian pearls.
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| Beautiful pearls on a beautiful lady |
After dinner, we went to the theater for the show. Tonight's show featured comedian Michael Joiner.
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| He was modestly entertaining - we had a couple of laughs |
We were going to go for a nightcap but decided that between the early morning and the snorkeling, we could just as easily head to the room and call it an early evening.
Tomorrow starts eight straight sea days en route to San Pedro and the end of this cruise.
Questions: was the dive equipment yours or furnished? What was the underwater camera? The face mask were unusual to me as I dove using what I would call a normal mask, be it 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey would finish, but we brought our own Tribord masks. They're awesome.
ReplyDelete