It’s been a while since we wrote and we have a lot of sea miles under our hull since then.
It’s good to be back in the Pacific. Each ocean we have traveled has it’s own personality, except in storms when they are all a great ride. The Caribbean is like a lake; we have to look outside to ensure we are on a ship. The Atlantic is always choppy; like a teenager jumping up and down. The Sea of Alaska, Tasmanian Sea, and Med always seem to be holding back and waiting for you to drop your guard. The Baltic is just angry all the time. But the Grand Lady of them all, the Pacific, always shows her power in long swells, rocking the ship side to side. A few days out of Lima we begin to pick up the rolling gait of seasoned sailors as we walk down the passageways. Noreen loves the Pacific as it rocks her to sleep every night. We’ll be with our old friend until we wander into the Indian Ocean.
Our stop after Easter Island was Pitcairn Island, home of the descendants of the HMS Bounty mutiny. We were here on the last world cruise so you can get the full story at .http://thegreatadventure01.blogspot.com.au/2011_01_01_archive.html Here are some new photos. This is the whole island.
Looking at all the homes on the island. You are looking over Bounty Bay from the ship to land. The HMS Bounty was sunk in the Bay and lies on the bottom between us and the shore.
The boat ramp where they launch the long boat. This is the only place to land on the island and the only way on or off by long boat.
A table setup for one of the Fletcher Christian descendants. There were lots of them and many other names you can recognize from the original mutineers.
Loading the long boat after the visit. You can see cases of Coke and barrels of ice cream. They get a lot of stuff from the ship. If you are wondering, they get a resupply ship from New Zealand every three months.
The population on the way home. The population of the island is declining and they are looking for new residents. Something to think about if you are considering relocating. And we are off to Tahiti.
It was Bahia d’Opunoha, Moorea the next day. Same as before, I spend the day underwater and Noreen explored ashore. Here is our dive boat.
And my beauty on our veranda as we sailed away.
Our next port was Bora Bora, French Polynesia. Again we’ve been here before and you can find all kinds of details at the same site as Tahiti http://thegreatadventure01.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/tahiti-bora-bora-january-26-28.html. Here we are approaching Bora Bora and the King Kong Plateau.
It was time to spend the day enjoying each other so we wandered ashore to see our old buddies, the sleeping dogs.
Here is Noreen roughing it.
and here she is in her natural element.
This is coconut oil for sale in an old Coke bottle.
We crossed the International dateline on February 2nd and, poof, we lost February 3rd. So for a while we will be one day ahead of you.
Now we were on to some new ports on this trip. Our first was Pago Pago, American Samoa on 2/5/14. The islands of American Samoa make up the eastern part of the Samoa archipelago. It consists of five volcanic islands and two atolls. The harbor is actually in a former volcanic crater that has opened to the sea. You can see the high terrain all around except at the entrance. Housing is built up on the sides of the terrain.
This is a picture of the opening to the sea taken from the land.
A familiar sight as we sailed in.
With a famous tree in the harbor area.
A custom of the Samoan's is to bury family on the property. These are graves in the front yard.
A famous offshore sight are the rock formations called the Little and Big Flower Pots.
The island has one main road that runs all the way around it. The two bus system is simple. You flag down a bus, get on and give the driver a dollar when you get off. A selfie on the bus.
Ready for the Tsunami.
Did you known that Pago Pago was the home of …………Charlie Tuna!!
And the Starkist tuna factory.
This is a view from the water side of the tuna boats and processing plant.
Some other familiar brands.
Of course there was a market setup by the ship. Can you find Noreen in this picture?
As we sail away from Pago Pago another look at the Flower Pots.
We are spending a lot of days at sea as we cross the Pacific. I’ve mentioned the jigsaw puzzle group. This is the kids table; up to 1500 pieces.
This is the adult table; 2000+ pieces.
We also have a library a little bigger than on ships with shorter length cruises. According to the librarian there are 4,986 books currently on the selves. The library covers three rooms. This is the main area on a sea day. 
I think that is all for now. We have stopped at several other ports such as Fiji and some in New Caledonia. We’ll save those for the future. Tomorrow we’ll be in Sydney and I should be able to send at an his at an internet cafe. If you are reading this we were successful. Not sure what we’ll be doing in Sydney. Noreen mentioned something about Opals……whatever that is.
Upon docking in Sydney Harbor we have sailed 10,971 miles.
Keep us posted on how things are going. We enjoy hearing from you. Ken & Noreen
No comments:
Post a Comment