Setting sail in French Polynesia

So after Hawaii we went to Tahiti. We did both before and after the cruise at the same resort and that will be the next blog post. For now you get my trip on the Wind Spirit, a masted small cruise ship on Windstar cruises.

This was our ship and the day we boarded her.

This was a spec sheet of the ship. On our voyage we had 102 passengers and 106 crew for our 11ish day trip.

We set sail that evening at 6pm on August 11

They unfurled the sails, though we only went under sail power a bit of the trip as weather was not for it.

The guys were all ready to go and excited for the trip.

The 12 of August was our first full day on the ship and it was a sea day.

I had a rough night sleeping that first night

So the guys and I left the cabin so Dale could sleep and went up to the lounge. We started a book, a sci fi. We spent from about 4:30am to 8:30 am there writing.

We were on the lower of the two cabin decks. As they waves came to the ship they splashed the window, some times covering the whole window.

The next day, August 13, we were at the island of Fakarava.

This day I ended up staying on the ship. Dale and I were scheduled to go snorkeling, but they canceled it. Dale rebooked an e-bike tour, but after my last e-bike mess up, I opted out of that.

The guys and I spent a good portion of the day writing again.

The next day we anchored at Rangiroa.

Again there were some problems with our excursions. Dale went snorkeling with Jan and Bob, while Laura and I went the Gauguins Farm, which was a pearl farm. We learned about growing the oysters,

 seeding them

And what parts of the oyster do what in the pearl making process

Of course they had a shop, but the cost was to rich for my pocket book. They told us how only a percentage (round 50%) of the oysters they seed product a pearl that is sellable. And then there is breakage even before they are seeded with the shell beads the pearls are formed on, so it is an even smaller percentage of the oysters they start growing that actually product a sellable pearl. The first pearl isn’t harvested until almost five years after the oyster growth process starts. It is possible to product more than one pearl from an oyster, but it is complicated.

At the dock, while waiting for the tender to take us back to the ship, I bought a pair of earrings from a crafting table for twenty five dollars. Much more my price range, they may not have been perfect, but they were cute.

After lunch that day, the group headed down to the swim platform and played in the water. Dale and I took out a tandem kayak for a while, then just swam and relaxed on some floating things they had secured to the platform by a rope. 

That evening we had a BBQ on the back deck and then when it started to rain everything was moved inside for a dance party.

That brings us to August 15th which was another sea day.

After a leisurely breakfast, I checked the time for my massage 

The morning was taken up by a cooking demo by the ships chef. 

All of the things he showed how to make had popcorn somewhere in the preparation.

It was really fun, I might even get his ebook, if it is not expensive, just for kicks.

I scheduled my massage the day we boarded. I had a very nice massage, ate tons of food, and wrote more on my story.

The next day we were scheduled to go to the island of Tasha’s, but due to a storm we ended up skipping that one and moving on to the next island.

August 16th, we actually docked in Raiatea. It was the only stop beside Tahiti that we did not need a tender to get between the ship and the shore.

Dale and I were supposed to go on a kayak tour with Jan and Bob, but that was canceled, so we just went into town and walked around. We did make a couple of stops. We bought vanilla, I found a reasonably priced pearl pendant, and we popped into a grocery store just to see what it was like. After about an hour we had seen what there was to see, so we headed back for lunch. 

As it was raining, we opted to stay aboard  in the afternoon. Mid afternoon they had a group come on for a cultural enrichment session.

They sang songs and played music 

Did some dancing

Showed different ways to where the pareo and how to make assemble flowers for wrists.

They also gave hula lessons and involved several people from the watchers.

After this there was a story teller.

We were planning on going to Bora Bora overnight, but the seas were bad, so we overnighted there tied to the dock and they sailed early the next morning.

Bringing us to Bora Bora on August 17th. We were supposed to have two days there, but because we skipped one island, we were there for three. 

We did not have any excursions booked for this day as it was our extra day. Even though it was raining, the three couples all headed into town. It is a small town, there are twelve pearl stores within a few blocks. Dale and I wander a bit more than the other. I got a top and saw some pearls we decided to think about. This day after we got back was pretty much spent writing as I was in the flow.

The next  day was August 18th. This was the day we originally were supposed to get to Bora Bora. 

We were greeted at the dock with music.

The water was a bit choppy, but not too bad. For the first time on our trip, we had no problems with the tour we booked. It was an 6-7 hour one. 

We started out by spending some time in the shallow area with some string rays. Most of the group snorkeled, but the equipment the ship supplied for me was not useable, so mostly I relaxed on the boat and took pictures.

Dale is the guy on the far left of the picture snorkeling.

We did have on black tip shark swimming near us.

Next we motored over to the coral garden where most of the others on this tour again snorkeled 

While the others snorkeled, the guys and I just hung out in the shade of the boat and enjoyed our time.

After everyone was back in the boat, our guide motored over near the reef. Here was where the black tip sharks hung out. Everyone decided with the strong current, that they would for go swimming with these guys.

We got several impromptu mini concerts. He was a real Elvis fan, but added his own words sometimes.

We were then taken to an island and served a yummy Polynesia lunch.

It tasted as good as it looks

This is what you call waterside dining. Or is it just water dining.

You did not have to worry if you dropped anything, there were those there to help. They loved the rice.

The guys loved watching all the many colored fish swim under the table.

This guy was like a water kitten. He loved to swim by us and rub against our legs. He also liked to be petted it seems.

There were three of these sharks swimming about 20 feet away, but the ray kept chasing them off and if one of the guys waded towards them, they swam further away.

The guys sat on the dock near our boat while our guide was giving us some native crafting demos

We heard some stories, and learned to make leaf plates, open coconuts, make coconut milk, and shredded the coconut insides with just a stick.

That day when we got back to the ship, we found that they had a power outage going on. Luckily the toilet and showers worked even though the lights did not. We had some light through the potholes.

Dinner that night was another BBQ on the rear deck. After dinner the six of us ended up playing Splendor in the library area. They had gotten power back on, so they were throwing another dance party.

Our final day on Bora Bora was Aug 19th. We had a 4x4 expedition scheduled. 

This adventure featured steep ups and downs on dirt/mud roads

It was worth it to get the colors

This is an example of the roads. Though it doesn’t show how steep it was.

One of our stops was at an old WWII cannon.

Here is how long it was

We also stopped at an artist shop where they were hand painting pareos

The had a ancient native ruin of a holy place

Also a wonderful view

We did spend a bit of time there kidding around

That evening we took a boat to a small atoll and had a luau 

Before we started eating, we walked around the little island and took some pictures of the sun going down.

We had a local group performing 

The way those girls can shake their hip

They also did some slower hulas

Even some solo dances

And what Polynesian review is complete without fire dancers

As we took our small boats back to the ship, I snapped a picture of our ship that night

The next day on August 20th we were in Huahine. Again we were on a extensive tour of the island.

They have the honor of having the longest bridge in French Polynesia, which was a couple of minute stroll to cover the distance side end to end

Next we went to feed the freshwater blue-eyed eels

One of the guides got down in the water feeding and petting them

Then it was off to another pearl farm, this one also sold pottery

This is where they fire and finish their pottery

Our next stop were to look at the 400 year old fish traps that are still used today.

Next we stopped at the ruins of one of the scared sites. It was used for births, proposals, weddings, deaths, and most everything else. They also had many medicinal plants around in this area.

We then arrived at the vanilla farm.

Tahitian vanilla has to be hand pollinated. Vanilla is of the orchid family. The flowers bloom in the morning and have to be pollinated before they close and die that same afternoon

After many months the beans are ready to dry.

We were even able to buy some homemade vanilla ice cream there.

As we sailed away that night, I was able to snap a great sunset

Our final island before returning to Tahiti was Moorea. We went on an eco dolphin watch. It was a great way to see different parts of the island from the sea

It was also whale season. We were lucky enough to see eight different ones including a very young baby with it’s mother, a juvenile and a few others. A total of eight.

We also found a group of spinner dolphins that swam all around the boat. We saw green sea turtles but I could not get any good pictures of them 

As we ended our trip and leave the island, the sails were set to head off back to Tahiti

We sailed off across the short distance to dock overnight in Tahiti before disembarking the next morning. The morning of August 22.

I am sure I missed some things, but inspite of a few problems, we had a good time. Spending it with family was what made it so special