Less Than Meets the Eye and an Eyeful of Liquid Sunshine

Wednesday, 16 January 2013 - Papeete, Tahiti Nui

Nobody is delighted with Papeete, the only city in French Polynesia. Overpriced Air Tahiti Nui is the dominant carrier from Los Angeles. Everyone not coming and then going out again on a cruise ship flies in or out on Air Tahiti and because of the kind of inconvenient schedule finds time to kill in this somewhat dirty, slightly threatening if not actually dangerous, traffic laden touristic place. It's also usually very hot and humid. The shops selling essentials are characteristically overpriced and under supplied. We attempted to have a Timex watch battery replaced and found that the common battery type required was not available. C'est domage. We still had a nice interaction with the equally characteristically friendly locals, the scenery (other than the constant rush hour traffic laden streets) is quite lovely, and a few architectural gems are worth seeing. The Eiffel design inspired market has colorful fish, the cathedral is quite lovely and has a stained glass window of apparently a saint (or maybe muse) playing a ukulele, and the waterfront is kind of pretty from the top of the cruise ship anyway. We returned to Silver Whisper for tea just as the sky opened up and dropped considerable "liquid sunshine" and enjoyed the sight of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free boarding Oceania's Marina mass market cruise ship on the adjacent pier. They had to have killed time all day since their early morning arrival after their overnight flight on Air Tahiti Nui. They looked it as they queued up on a very long line to board.

Papeete was a turnaround day as well for Silver Whisper. Thirty of so folks left us—actually we left them —to cool their heels for their 10:30pm flight to Los Angeles on Air Tahiti and 80 or so new guests arrived. As these people are regular cruisers on for one or two segments rather than the 120 day World Cruise passengers, the atmosphere in the bars and dining rooms on board Whisper was considerably livened. These folks came on for a vacation, not for their annual winter home on board! Despite the ship now at capacity with 370 or so revenue guests, this over 5000 mile Tahiti to Sydney 19 day segment promises to be quite fun.

Thursday, 17 January 2013 - Bora Bora

This island is the archetypical Paul Gaugin south seas fantasy island. That is to say, there's a lot one can imagine based on the spectacular huge blue lagoon, the wind looking eroded volcano in the center of the island, and the lovely white sand beaches. Those things are indeed real as are the even more over priced and under supplied shops, the trash on most of the beaches which are marked, "Plage Privit", which is French for I believe "Welcome All to Our Hospitality", and the endless traffic jam of smiling (that's real, too) locals trying to run you off their sidewalk less only road on their way to do their standing windsurfing on the Marina tenders' wakes. The Marina had followed us to this idyllic but soggy island and arrived shortly after we did.

We walked about a mile from the tender pier dodging traffic and taking a few pictures before the liquid sunshine started big time. It rained heavier and heavier all day until it became clear that the Observation Lounge was as good a place on the ship as any to enjoy a defacto sea day. Promptly at 5:30pm we watched our sail out and glimpsed the famous blue lagoon which was distinctly gray but with a slightly blue color nevertheless. This matched our moods, well until cocktail time anyway.

We changed for dinner and retired to the bar only to be greeted by the Food and Beverage Manager and the Executive Chef, the bosses of the majority of the ship's crew. They came over specifically to me to thank me for my "kind comments" in this blog and to incidentally inquire as to my knowledge of the increased food budget. Odd in that I have made a point not to disclose this blog's URL to ship's personnel since years ago I found the Hotel Director with yellow marker highlighting phrases on a printout of my then current blog. But I have been truthful, more or less, on this blog. The service is fantastic on this cruise.

Friday,  18 January 2013 - At Sea about 250 miles west of Bora Bora and 250 miles east of Roratonga, 19S 156W.

We are tooting along at a leisurely 14.5 knots on a 236 degree southwest heading . It's still raining dolphins and albatrosses, and the ship's video GPS/weather display is showing 78 degrees and an unlikely 106% humidity. (Less fortunately than a few day's ago when it was showing an unlikely 108%.) The unsettled weather is due to a large clockwise rotating low pressure system (29.8"); the swell is a noticeable  3.5 meters, and many of the new guests who embarked in Papeete and not yet having gotten their "sea legs" have chosen to retire to their suites, hang their "Privacy" signs on their doors (one couple brings along an embroidered small cushion that says, "Go Away", my kind of people), and enquire about purchasing the ship and making the motion of the ocean stop. I know--literary allusion warning--you can't stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky. You can't stop the beat. It's not really that bad and according to the Captain's customary noon announcement, the sea and weather will improve later today. (Ed note: it's 6pm now as I'm writing this and the seas have calmed quite a bit and the sun is about to peek out of the clouds). At lunch I shared the Captain's optimism with an elderly couple at the adjacent table.  I had met them in the forward elevator shortly after they joined the ship in Papeete when they were riding up and down searching for the elusive restaurant on 4 Deck which isn't accessible from that elevator. Today the woman said, "How does the Captain know it will get better? Does he have a direct line to God?" I answered, "No, he has the weather forecast." I guess they are not my friends yet. Some new guests do take a few days to relax. At least neither of them decided to share their beliefs regarding our President's country of birth, his "secret" religion, or the apparent death of democracy in America. I am now convinced that such statements are a greeting (or at least secret handshake) among some of the World Cruisers on the ship. Not all, by any means. We are sharing tables at dinner and so far have had a number of quite delightful conversations.

Tonight's a formal night—the second "Welcome" reception for our itinerary—so Barbara and I have booked the alternative food and dress code Italian Terrazza for dinner.  I suspect it won't be crowded. A matter of fact, early this afternoon there seemed to be only about 35 guests and few crew members visible on the entire ship. I guess it's a good day to lay low. In my ambulations around the ship I met only the Head Bartender who greeted me and told me that he, too, was enjoying my blog. Wish I had actually provided the URL to someone. It would have saved them all the trouble of trying to find it. At least our butler isn't mentioning the blog, and as a result I am not mentioning him except to say that he somehow was able to take Barbara's new glasses that had an essential screw seriously loose and returned the "specs" shortly afterward fully repaired along with a Silversea logo eyeglass cloth and case. Maybe I'll ask him to repair my brand new electric razor that snapped its driveshaft this morning or maybe find a new power supply and cord for Barbara's laptop. We believe same is still riding through the x-ray machine at Denver International Airport's TSA screening area. (Barbara just informed me that the computer room manager has already ordered her a new cord to arrive in Auckland.) The good life at sea continues.