DAY 25---RANGIROA, FRENCH POLYNESIA

 THIS IS TUESDAY'S (JANUARY 31ST) POST AS WE HAD NO INTERNET AGAIN YESTERDAY

We are anchored today off Rangiroa atoll.  Mostly sunny skies and 82 degrees already at 7am.

Historical/Background Info:

        Rangiroa is the largest atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of which there are 78 coral atolls scattered over several hundred miles of the Pacific Ocean.  It is also one of the largest atolls in the world.  Tahiti is 220 miles to the southwest.  An atoll is a “ring shaped reef, island, or chain of islands formed by coral”.  The Rangiroa atoll is a flattened elliptical ring of land 50 miles long and a width ranging from 3 to 20 miles with a big lagoon in the middle.  The lagoon has a maximum depth of 115 feet.  The population is over 2500.

        The economy is based on black pearl farming.  In the lagoon, black pearls are produced from marine cultured black lip pearl oysters.  Tourism is also important as scuba diving is world class here.  Fishing is also done mainly for local consumption but they do export some to Tahiti.  Believe it or not, some wine is produced here in two grape harvests per year.  There is no water here so the people living here have to collect and store rainwater in tanks.

        We visited the island when on our 2017 world cruise.

YESTERDAY EVENING (MONDAY, JANUARY 30TH 

 L to R:  Buddy, Karen, Eddie, Exec chef John, Lyn, then us.  The two other couples live in the Ft Lauderdale area.

                                                         Executive Chef John Pugh

          Chef with Eddie & Lyn Zito.  We've cruised with Eddie and Lyn several times before.

They gave the chef a recipe for this crab stuffed lobster.  Chef John personally made it for us last night.  I can't tell you how delicious it was.  Rebecca and I could only eat half of it however.  Fried calamari was our appetizer.  Again delicious.  Great evening!!

They called this "Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie".  Certainly not like the grandma you and I know.

                     We have front row stage right seats for "Blazing Boots" production show.

Orchestra's drummer, acoustic guitar, and bass guitar were on raised part of the stage next to us.  They accompanies the sound track recorded for the show.  Great job!

This is our favorite show and have seen it on several other cruises several times per cruise.  The cast was great.  One of the singer/dances, Page, was a cast member on our 2022 world cruise.

TODAY

 

This is the Aranui 5 half cargo/half passenger ship.  It came out end of 2015 and can carry 256 passengers with a crew of 64.  It's home port is Papeete and sails around the Marquesas Islands.

                            Today's tender gangway is set up forward of our balcony.

                                              This is where we spend most mornings.

             I just got off the tender and heading to meet my tour, "Discover the World of Pearls".  

                                    Head on look at Mariner anchored in the lagoon.

                                                    Usual little shops on the tender pier.

                  Beautiful colors of aqua and blue of the lagoon waters near the shore line.

                                     Here is another tour available today.  "Glass Bottom Boat".

    Shore line here is mostly volcanic rock but there are some nice beaches on the atoll.

                                                          My unair-conditioned tour bus.

              Philip gave us a very good explanation on how the black pearls are cultured.

This man was implanting a very small pearl seed and then a small part of the shell in the pearl sac of each oyster.  A very delicate procedure.

They are then hung in these wire cages and placed on a long wire in the lagoon.  It takes 18 months for the pearl to mature and be harvested.  The wire cages are taken out of the lagoon every two months and cleaned before replaced back in the lagoon.

                                              This shows the oysters in the wire racks.

LAST EVENING (TUESDAY}

        At 6pm there was a Krew Kappers show in the theater.  This is where some of our talented crew members do a show of singing and dancing.  We did not go to this one but will go to the future shows as there is one at the end of every segment of the world cruise.  Our first segment ends in Papeete, Tahiti, on February 2nd.  Anyway, Rebecca had to go at 6pm down to the doctor to get some more cough medicine.  She was only one there so that did not take long.  We then had cocktails at the Mariner Lounge bar.

                        We both started with this cream of cauliflower and potato soup.

          Here is our special order veal parmesan that we split and still could not eat all of it.

                                                    I loved this pecan pie cheesecake. 

        There was no show.  They had a "Beatles Night" dance party in the Horizon Lounge which we never go to.

DAY 24---FAKARAVA, FRENCH POLYNESIA

                                 

We are anchored just off the Fakarava atoll today.  Internet is still iffy.  It is mostly sunny and a balmy 85 degrees here this afternoon.  I HAVE MADE TWO POSTINGS TODAY--DAYS 23 & 24!

Historical/Background Info:

        Fakarava is the second largest atoll in the west Tuamotu Archipelago in the French Polynesia and is 267 miles from Tahiti.  It is roughly rectangular and is 37 miles long and 13 miles wide.  Its population is 844 and largest village is Rotoava.  It has some of the most pristine and undisturbed coral reef ecosystems in the world.  In addition to tourism around diving, the economy is based on mother-of-pearl farming and copra (coconut oil).        We were here in 2014 on Mariner from Miami to Papeete, Tahiti.

LAST EVENING

I enjoyed this new appetizer.  It was a zucchini & sundried tomato frittata with a pecorino cream pesto.  It was delicious.  Then we both had a Ceasar salad.  We get the dressing on the side and I doctor it up by adding quite a bit of tabasco.  Of course I had my 5 anchovies.  Dara, our server, always laughs.

For our entrees we both enjoyed the pan seared veal liver with onions and baked potatoes.  I spared you by not putting a photo of it on the blog as know many of you would not care for liver.

I really enjoyed this apple croissant pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for my dessert.

TODAY

        The internet was almost non-existent again this morning until about 11am.  It is very frustrating.  Now Cus, our internet manager, is ill.  Not sure what his problem is but has not been available for a couple days.  Also not available was the ship's phone.  I could read part of an email from my sister saying to call her.  I couldn't so was worried something might be wrong with our 94 year old mother.  I finally got her on phone around 11am.  Mother is ok but she had eye surgery and a reaction to the phentanol they used to sedate her out.  She is ok now.

        We are not going ashore here today.  Tender ride to get ashore does not appeal to us.  Besides there is nothing to do here but swim, snorkel, or dive.  I don't go where fish are!

 Lunch in Compass Rose.  I started with these leek tarts with gruyere cheese.  Two were too much.  Next I had a spaghetti bolognese.

        Still no Dallas Morning News for 3rd day.  We will be raising anchor at 5pm and sailing to our next stop at Rangiroa where we will be dropping anchor again at 9am tomorrow.  Another tender port and I have a tour to a pearl farm.

        This evening we will be having cocktails and dinner with Eddie & Lyn Zito and another couple whom we do not know.  Eddie has requested the chef prepare crab stuffed lobster and some fried calamari for the six of us.

        Afterwards we do want to go see tonight's production cast show, "Blazing Boots".  This is one of our favorite shows.

DAY 23---LAST SEA DAY FOR PACIFIC OCEAN CROSSING

 

        Our position at noon on Sunday.  Mostly sunny day and 85 degrees later in the afternoon.  Still getting a great ride for the Pacific.  Unfortunately, there was no internet or phone all day.  Captain Avio said he was going to alter course for a couple hours in the afternoon so we could have internet for a while.  HE DID NOT DO IT.  Several of us were NOT  happy.  So this post is being published on Monday not Sunday.

        So for 10 days we have been crossing the Pacific Ocean, as you know.  The Pacific is the largest and deepest of the Earth's oceans.  It covers 64 million square miles representing 32% of the earth's surface.  That's larger than it's total land area.  The average depth of the Pacific is 13,000 feet (2 miles) but there is a area reaching 35,000 feet deep.  More than 25,000 islands rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

        French Polynesia is made up of 118 islands and atolls, of which 75 are inhabited.  It stretches for 1200 miles in the South Pacific Ocean.  Total population of the Polynesia islands is approximately 279,000, 69% of these live on Tahiti.  French Polynesia is known world wide for its diving and we are going to visit two of the most popular:  Fakarava and Rangiroa.

LAST EVENING

        We went down to the theater for the "Top Tier" cocktail party a little after 6pm.  When we got there the theater was full so we left and headed to the Mariner Lounge.  Then at 6:45 we headed in Compass Rose as Jason had reserved this table for 8 for our safari group.

                        Rebecca had the veal piccata with polenta which was very good.

I tried this new dish , Guinness & steak pie.  The crust was as tough as cardboard and I needed a knife to cut through it so I sent it back and got the veal piccata also.

I tried the Mississippi mud pie.  Well, it was NOT Mississippi mud pie that they make in the States.  It was basically a flourless chocolate cake.  I talked to the pastry chef last night and told him I would bring him a recipe for it.  He said if I did he would make it for me.  Roshan is very nice.

I went to the show for about half of it.  This is our orchestra leader playing several instruments.  He was very talented.

TODAY (SUNDAY) 

        Joseph brought me this huge serving of caviar.  I told him to cut it back next tme but I did manage to eat all of it.  I followed it with the omelet pictured below.  For some reason I could not get it up here.

        I went down for the Sunday champagne & caviar breakfast in Compass Rose.  Rebecca had room service as usual.  After that we did out treadmill time and got cleaned up before the 11am start of the Eagles/49ers game.  We will watch today's games in our suite.  I ordered a tuna salad sandwich with chips for lunch from room service.

        Well, we are without internet and phone service again today.  The Captain said he would be altering course again this afternoon for a couple hours so hopefully we get internet back so I can publish this post.

        Usual plan for this evening with cocktails in Mariner Lounge followed by dinner in Compass Rose.  Setter Mari will be transformed into a "Pan Asian" dinner venue tonight and tomorrow night.  It was very popular when they did it previously.  We will not be doing it.  In the theater at 9:30 will be the magician, Levent's second and last night.  Did not go to his first show so not sure about tonight as magic is not our cup of tea.

        At noon our Captain said we would be anchored at Fakarava by 8am tomorrow.  There is nothing here and no ship's tours.  This is purely a beach stop.  I don't think we have been here before.  We are not water/beach people.  I know Rebecca will not go ashore.  Not sure if I will either.  Hopefully, our internet will be back all day tomorrow.     

                                       Western omelet with extra cheddar cheese.  YUMMY!