Day Twenty Four January 29 As mentioned French Polynesia is in it's rainy season but we had another lovely day with only scattered rain showers with highs of 29C/84F. With this being the start of the second segment of the world cruise, all passengers were asked to take a covid antigen test. Good news, the whole ship tested negative. There are 3 nurses that are travelling on board who are exclusively responsible for the testing and monitoring.

Day Twenty Three January 28 Today's forecast again called for scattered thunderstorms with High of 29C/85F. We are docked directly in the capital of Tahiti, Papeete. The cruise terminal has sufficient space for our ship as well as two additional cruise ships- The Paul Gauguin and The World were also docked. The Paul Gauguin sails solely within French Polynesia on 7-10 day cruises. We cruised on this ship for our 25 wedding anniversary. The cruise included free...

Day Twenty Two January 27 Another beautiful sunny day awaited us on the island of Rangiroa which is part of the Tuamotus Islands with possible scattered thunderstorms and temperatures of 87F or 29C. The ship needed to sail a narrow channel before anchoring in the harbour. Like most South Pacific islands Rangiroa is basically at sea level and you wonder how global warming will affect these places in the future. In some cases, the sea temperature is the same o...

Day Twenty One January 26 French Polynesia is a collection of 118 islands that is divided into five areas: Society Islands comprising the Windward and Leeward Islands Tuamoto Archipelago Gamble Islands Marquesas Islands Austral Islands The islands stretch over more than 2,000 kilometers in the South Pacific with land area of 4,167 square kilometers. Of the 118 islands, only 67 are inhabited. The two official languages are Polynesia French and Farani ...

Day Twenty January 25 Today was the first sighting of land since we left Kona, Hawaii. Four sea days in a row before we reached our next destination of Nuku Hiva. This island is part of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia and is our first time visiting. For those interested, Nuku Hiva was used as a backdrop for season four of the CBS Survivor series. From the ship it looked like the island was sparsely inhabited. Upon entering the bay we noted another...