Day 16 – Saturday, January 29, 2011 Papeete, French Polynesia

We moved from Moorea to Papeete last evening.   Our dolphin watching was not very successful…we only saw ONE dolphin.  Dr. Poole was in New Zealand and one of his son’s was our guide.  He was worried about the single dolphin as all of the crew said they had never, ever seen just a single dolphin.  He was going to let his Dad know and go back to see if it was still there by itself.  He thought perhaps something was wrong with it as it was a young one without any distinctive markings.  They identify the individual dolphins by their dorsal fins and this one had a completely unmark fin.  He said that meant it had not encountered it’s first shark bite yet.  Once they receive their first bite, they never get another one – or if they do, they don’t survive it.  In all their research, they have found that once the dolphin fin is marked by a shark attack, it never changes.  We did sea two turtles and flying fish on our trip back to the ship.

Captain Scala sailed the ship as far into Opunoho Bay as possible then did a graceful turn to exit the bay and sail to Papeete.  The Paul Gauguin sailed into Cook’s Bay as we were docking and was docked next to us in Papeete.  She looks as good. 

Morning in Papeete – we had a couple of things we needed to get and Papeete seemed like the best place.  Fred’s watch had stopped working just after we left Hawaii so we need to find a watch repair shop to replace the battery.  And, he wanted a new Polynesian style shirt.  After looking through the market, we found a much better quality at a shop just across the street…and he bought two shirts – both approved by Jan.   The lady at the shop told us where to go to find a reputable watch shop and we found it easily with her directions.  Battery was replaced quickly and now Fred knows what time it is!

We walked back to the ship for a quick bite of lunch and a bit of time for Fred to put his feet up.  We booked a tour with one of the agencies on the dock for noon and it turned into a very nice afternoon.  The other couple with us was the couple who entertain nightly in the Voyager Lounge.  They are from Poland and it was their first trip to French Polynesia so they were very cute and excited about everything.

We did a circle around the island stopping at several points, i.e. Point Venus Lighthouse, Blow Hole, Paul Gaugin’s Museum, the Marae de Arahurahu.  It took about 4 hours to make the trip around the Island.  Luckily it was Saturday, because if it had been a weekday our drive said it would have taken us most of the day because of the traffic.

A local dance troupe, Toakura, came on board for a pre-dinner show.  They had lots of energy, were beautiful young people, and it was a fun show.

We had made plans to meet another couple who was on the Discovery Cruise with us, Ken and Shirley, along with Tom and Martha for dinner.  Our first task at the table was to toast Beth and Crystal!