Still at Sea

Late yesterday we heard that we would skip the Pitcairn Islands due to a medical emergency on board. We have no more information about that, but we continue sailing with nothing but a lot of Pacific around us. After a couple of overcast, drizzly days - still hot mind you - the sun has returned today, so the pool deck and balconies are getting lots of use. Now for some interesting trivia about the Pacific. The largest body of water in the world, the Pacific covers 1/3 of the world’s surface. You could put every continental land mass on earth in the Pacific and there would still be room left over. By the time we hit Lima, we will have traveled over 10 000 km of it. The ship has been a little rocky for three days now, due to the trade winds into which we’re sailing. Dawn’s OK but she’s been wearing her sea bands. Many are not feeling quite as chipper and have been confined to cabins. The waves today are 3.5 metres, but it’s the wind that’s really keeping the ship rocking and rolling. Today I’ll visit the various watering holes onboard. The largest, is Horizons located on the 15th floor at the front of the ship which as the name suggests really does give one a good look at the horizon. This is our favourite spot for Happy hour and it’s also where the dance band hangs out and they have afternoon tea. There are three bars on the 6th floor, the Grand Bar where the string quartet entertains, Martini’s with its piano bar and what we call the Psychedelic Bar, which is really an offshoot of the Grand Bar. Tomorrow we’re still at sea and I will show you some of the artistic highlights of Marina.

Oceania Cuisine

Since we’re still at sea, I thought this would give me a perfect opportunity to go into some more detail about the cuisine on this ship, because, let’s face it, after you’ve looked at nothing but ocean for the entire day, dining definitely is the highlight of the day. I’ve already outlined some of our meals, but I have to say that each time we sit down for a meal we are impressed by the variety of choices. Then, when we actually have the meal, our general reaction would be something in the nature of, “Oh, my God, that was fabulous!” If you’re not into fine cuisine, booking Oceania would be a mistake. Dawn & I have questioned how they manage to pull off such consistently wonderful meals and then serve them with aplomb. They certainly have a winning formula! Generally, we start the day off with a visit to the Terrace Cafe, the ship’s buffet restaurant. If we are starting with an early excursion, or if we just feel lazy like we did this morning, then we get room service. We almost never revisit Terrace Cafe for other meals, but for many aboard the ship, this is where they eat every meal. For lunch, our choices are generally the Grand Dining Room with it’s impeccable service and changing menu or Waves Grill, if we don’t want to stray too far from the pool. Dinner could be in any of the specialty restaurants requiring reservations or back in the Grand Dining Room. For us, the greatest advantage of the latter, is that each day offers us a new menu, whereas all specialty restaurants have a fixed menu that never changes, even over the years. Below, is a painting of Executive Chef Jacques Pepin found outside his namesake restaurant, Jacques. Our favourite of the speciality restaurants on Oceania’s larger ships like this one, is Jacques, with it’s classic and also avant-garde French cuisine. Some of the items that appeal to us are: the artichoke salad over thinly sliced foie gras with Perigord black truffle vinaigrette; sauteed jumbo shrimp with garlic, parsley and tomatoes; encrusted lamb loin with pistachio stuffing and Cabernet Sauvignon sauce; and of course duck a la orange with potato gratin and braised red cabbage. Our second favourite would be Red Ginger, also only on the larger ships. The cuisine here is Asian/Thai and a few items not to be missed would be: spicy duck and watermelon salad; crispy ginger calamari; assorted sashimi and sushi rolls; miso glazed sea bass; and lobster pad thai. Toscana, the Italian themed restaurant, is on all ships. They have the typical multi courses found in good Italian restaurants. Favourites here include their oso bucco Milanese of course and their veal Marsala. Our least favourite of the bunch is Polo which, found on all ships, is basically your steak house, not that you won’t get an excellent steak here. It’s just that we don’t find the cuisine here that unusual. The final specialty restaurant on the ship is La Reserve, which seats only 20 and offers a multi-course meal with wine pairings by Wine Spectator. Depending on the menu, La Reserve will run you around $100 per person because you’re paying for six or seven different high end wines. We ate here on our Baltic Cruise with Tony and Jackie and found it amazing, but don’t plan to do it this trip. Most nights we eat in the Grand Dining Room, mainly because of the constantly changing menu choices. It is also, let’s be honest, a gorgeous dining room. To give an example of a typical meal here, last night Dawn started with Oysters Rockerfeller, chicken consommé and fresh Fakarava Mahi-Mahi followed by Samba, a chocolate mousse cake. I had foie gras ravioli in a leek cream sauce followed by a green salad with apples and almonds. Main course was the same as Dawn and my dessert was a banana flambe cake with peanut butter crust. We accompanied the meal with a Castle Rock Chardonnay from California. Especially on these at sea days, we feel obliged to start the day with some form of exercise, walking or a visit to the gym or both. We would be the absolute minority on this ship. On at sea days, they typically have loads of programs offered to keep you out of trouble, including art auctions, trivia contests, cultural lectures, cooking classes, wine tasting and of course casino and shopping time, but a dining experience remains the highlight. They also have regular cooking demonstrations like the one shown above in the Marina Lounge. News Bulletin! We just discovered that Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands won’t be our next port of call. We have a medical emergency on board - that’s all we know - and due to the fact that the Pitcairn Islands have absolutely no services, we are making a beeline for Easter Island with not only a hospital, but also an airport. Since it’s the 25th today and we still won’t arrive at Easter Island until the afternoon of the 28th, we may be fortunate to make it to Easter Island in time. So much for the Pitcairn Islands.

Magnificent Desolation

We had some excitement on board last evening just as we were about to cast off from Fakarava. Our Cruise Director was taken off the ship and flown to Papeete with some kind of medical emergency. We also lost our comedic entertainer since he was the Cruise Director’s husband. So now we wait for a status report. We’ve been sailing into fairly brisk winds today so everyone has that drunken sailor walk, trying to walk in as straight a line as possible. The swimming pool has been transformed into a wave pool, which has kept most people out of the pool, but that makes it a whole lot more fun than the regular pool for the few of us who ventured in. Sitting staring out at nothing but water tends to make one wax somewhat philosophically. Like, what’s better, being stranded in the middle of a desert or and ocean? The sun is going to get you in both places, but at least you can cool off in the ocean as long as you don’t get eaten by the denizens of the deep. You might find drinkable water in the desert, whereas the ocean is “Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Fortunately, the ship is up to speed and we have lots to eat and drink on board. Enough blather for today!

Fakarava

We spent all of yesterday at sea. We find these days a great tonic after the multiple stops with lots to see and do. We ate in the Grand Dining Room all three meals, after a much later rising, because we had the time to do it. We hit the track and visited the gym and spent a good part of the morning and early afternoon sitting around the pool in 32 degree, sunny skies. We were told the the ocean temperature, despite its depth was still 30 degrees. This was the evening for the meeting with the Captain and his officers, which is always crazy busy due to free booze. In talking with people on the cruise, we’ve discovered that the people on this ship are extremely well travelled, many having lived abroad while working. Then we heard from the Captain that over half of the passengers onboard have been on 5 or more Oceania cruises. We found this remarkable, given that on our last ship, albeit one of their smaller ones, that number might have been 20. Today’s destination is the last of our French Polynesian stops, Fakarava - great name. It is an atoll - that means it’s our first non-volcanic island, being a coral shaped ring - that boasts an ecosystem that is so unspoiled that the entire island has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. I’m surprised they even let cruise ships stop here. I’m driving Dawn nuts by always working on being on the first tender to shore. Up to this point I haven’t failed, but despite having tickets for the first tender, we ended up being the first couple on the second tender today - almost as good. As we exited our tender at the main village of Rotoava, one of the island’s 855 inhabitants greeted us with the little white flower of Polynesia. As we strolled through the village we were greeted with smiles and waves in a very friendly manner. This I suspect will be the last time we’ll receive this kind of greeting. The atoll is a 60 km long rectangle but from shore to shore it is a mere 300 metres. The windward side is the beach which consists of crushed coral while the leeward side is where the homes are found - makes sense. When we first sailed into the lagoon, we noted a pyramid shaped structure on the beach. We’re not sure whether it was a lighthouse or a landmark of some kind, but we also found one on the other shore. The rich ecosystem is home to rare birds, plants and crustaceans. Don’t know about the birds and plants, but we did see some pretty cool crabs scurrying in and out of crevasses along the beach. I didn’t take us long to see both shores around Rotoava, but it left us with the impression that there was a degree of home pride here with homes simple but well cared for. Every home had a water catchment system, since fresh ground water is once again non-existent. I wonder if they have to bring in water in the dry season, or if everyone just resorts to bottled water. The catchment tanks in this photo double as water pressure tanks. We were already back on the ship by midmorning and so off to the pool we went. We have eight more days at sea, so I suspect we’ll be hanging out here a lot. We were back at the French styles Jacques restaurant tonight and once again loved their cuisine. We sat with a couple from New Mexico tonight and had the usual fabulous cuisine: artichoke foie gras, grenouilles, and lamb for Bill and fillet of beef for Dawn.

Today We Had Mora Mora Bora Bora

Thank goodness a second day was planned for Bora Bora! Yesterday we had the water fun and views and today we rattled about in a 4X4 Land Rover on steep rutted paths as well as the good peripheral road of the island and because we did some climbing in the 4X4, we had some great vistas. It didn’t hurt that the day was beautifully sunny and still up around 30 degrees, but we did enjoy the breeze in the open-back truck. We were supposed to have a tour with Vavau Adventures booked, but despite having a chat with them yesterday, found ourselves tourless. We stood around looking forlorn and asking if anyone else had room for us. A Vavau driver, Tamara, ended up sneaking us on her vehicle adding 2 more to the maximum of 6. This was money in her pocket and we were very grateful we didn’t miss the experience. We paid 1/3 of what Oceania was charging for the same excursion. Their prices are really out of line for this cruise and as a result, we have used none of Oceania’s trips. In a 4X4 you expect to go on some pretty rough roads, but we started off today trying to climb a slightly muddy steeply rutted road, which in the end, after about 1/2 km, we could go no further and had to back down. We were introduced to much of the flora of the island like the banana flower and fruit above. We also learned the usual trivia, like, there are 9000 people on Bora Bora and 6000 dogs. Kids start school at 3 and have to go to another island for high school. There is no fresh water so they have to desalinize. There is no hospital, so serious accidents or illnesses get airlifted to another island and pregnant ladies leave the island at 7 months pregnant to have their babies elsewhere. Everyone must plant on their property one lime, one breadfruit, one mango and one coconut tree. And, there are no graveyards so people are buried on their property. Not sure how I feel about that last one. As part of our excursion we were given a demonstration of pareo dying - pretty much batik - with patterns placed on the freshly dyed material for 15 minutes where the exposed material dries in the sun leaving the pattern imprint. Then we took the steep road up to the remaining American canon, which afforded photo ops and great lagoon views. Despite the fact that it was Sunday today, there was a national election in French Polynesia. As usual, they were using schools like this one for the voting. Most of yesterday there was cloud obscuring the summit of Mts. Pahia and Otemaru. But today, there were some fabulous views. One of the last attractions on our tour today was Bloody Marys bar/restaurant. Now, I know my musicals and I’m pretty sure the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific was actually set on the north Pacific island of Bali and environs, which is closer to where the military action in the Pacific occurred. Nevertheless, Bora Bora’s most famous restaurant continues to be Bloody Marys. Since it was Sunday, it was closed, but we did get a look inside. Today was really about the lagoon and volcano views around the island and they were magnificent. In this photo, Dawn is clearing controlling the destiny of the Marina. Tonight we went to out first Happy Hour - hard to believe I know and sat with the couple with whom we had dinner last night. It was Canadian night in Horizons and although we didn’t set out to meet any Canadians, we did meet Ted Irvine, former New York Ranger, now living in Winnipeg. Dawn asked him why on earth he would be in Winnipeg and he said it’s because he didn’t wear a helmet. Dinner tonight was in the Grand Dining Room where we met two couples from Detroit. Dawn ate the health conscious Canyon Ranch menu consisting of crab salad followed by herb crusted lamb, while I had a frog leg vol-au-vent and prime rib. We have said Bya Bya to Bora Bora and will be at sea tomorrow, arriving in Fakarava the next day. There probably won’t be a post tomorrow as a result of the lack of destination pictures.

Mora Mora, Bora Bora

As we awoke this morning, our ship was gliding into the lagoon of Bora Bora. This island is 230 km northwest of where we started in Papeete and is surrounded by a lagoon and barrier reef. The dominant feature is the twin peaks of the extinct volcano. It takes on a different look as you sail its circumference, sometimes appearing as one peak and sometimes as two. Every hotel on the island uses the over water bungalows for their rooms, making our ten at Le Meridien appear a little insignificant. However, in this part of the world they are vulnerable to hurricanes and tsunamis, both of which have done their share of damage on the island. The Marina anchored in the lagoon opposite the principle town of Viatape and shortly after 8:00 this morning, we were ashore checking out the company with whom we thought we had reserved some excursions. We were greeted by lovely Polynesian ladies and the local boys in the band. We found our company who didn’t seem to know or care about reservations and we quickly booked a snorkeling expedition which would take us by boat around the entire island. Because we weren’t sure what we were doing for the day when we set out, Dawn opted not to take a bathing suit, but she was OK with not going in the water. So off we went in our long power boat equipped with outrigger, with our singing Captain, Mari and his son - we think - Ari. He had loads of personality and was especially kind and helpful to a few of the more elderly ladies on the excursion. The size of the creatures in the water had increased significantly from Tahiti. The first stop got us swimming with stingrays. Because all tours came to the same spot and fed them, they were extremely gregarious and loved to be handled and petted by the tourists. They had had their stingers removed, by the way. In the same water, we quickly discovered two metre reef sharks who were a little more shy, but still were interested in the food being handed out. We also had a small assortment of colourful tropical fish. Our next stop was deeper water and the reefs. Here there were large schools of fish as well as multi-coloured coral and clams. The little black and white guys seemed to like to keep you company on your swim and my favourite fish from Tahiti, the playful striped guy, made an appearance. The coral and clams were the highlight here, in shades of bright neon colours. The clams freaked me out the first time I went close to them because they quickly closed up and initially I thought they were coral features. Continuing our circuit of the island, we stopped in the middle of the lagoon, a good half kilometre from either shore where the water was brilliant turquoise and about waist deep. Here, the sand was the finest I’ve ever experienced and it was quickly used for an exfoliation treatment. Further along the shore we noted some homes on stilts, that were the previous residences of Marlon Brando, before he bought his own island and Diana Ross. Once again, the twin peaks of the volcano continued to take on a different appearance, every kilometre with a variety of homes along the shore. We stopped briefly at one of the little islands along the lagoon, which actually had the classic deserted-island look. Here, Mari carved up some grapefruit and coconut for a little snack. Finishing our island circuit, we saw one of the original American canons set up on the island to discourage the Japanese in 1942, but never fired. It was a fabulous excursion for $70 a person and despite reapplying sunscreen and the covered boat we were in, we ended up with excessive sun again. Yikes! We were back on the ship by mid afternoon, threw ourselves into the pool and lunched again at Waves Grill. Dinner, tonight was in Red Ginger, another of the speciality restaurants, this one featuring Asian and Thai in particular, cuisine. We sat with a couple from California and had another exquisite meal, assorted shushi and lobster pad thai for Dawn and crispy calamari, duck and watermelon salad and sea bass for me. A great way to end the day!