“Today has been a great day in what has been for the most part a pretty good life.

Moorea has to be one of the world’s most beautiful islands. We left Papeete at 5 AM and sailed into Cook’s Bay (3 points for guessing who it is named for) at 6:30 AM. It isn’t very far. This is the island “Bali Hai” in the musical South Pacific, which they are showing on the ship’s TV channel tonight.

In the morning I took the tender ashore and wandered along the road. Nothing special there, the usual small tin roof houses and chickens and dogs wandering around. I did hear sounds of happy children at play, but only saw a couple. I stopped at a roadside bar and had a cold Hinano. The owner was a Frenchman without even a word of English. He actually complimented my French, which is only slightly better than his English. Translated for a couple who were trying to order Diet Coke. The problem is it doesn’t exist here! However they have something called Coke Zero which seemed to do the trick. I translated that as “Coke Zero”with a French accent!.

I went back to the ship to change into my bathing suit for my afternoon adventure, a “Snorkel Safari” booked on board.  I would try our Olympus camera underwater for the first time. I worked quite well.

We went out in a catamaran about 30 feet long, with 2 big outboards, to a gorgeous lagoon with a white sand bottom.  What I took to be corals heads, began to move and I realized they were manta rays, lots of them. We swam with them,petted them, than several sharks came along to join the fun. I didn’t touch any, but I was closer than I have ever been to any shark without plate glass in between. The biggest one (see photo) was about 3 feet long. Not big enough to bite your leg off, but he could give a nasty nip I suppose. They obviously were not hungry as lots of little fish swan right fast them unafraid and untouched.

I enjoyed this tremendously.Later they took us to a small Motu (coral island) with a private beach. More rays, and great scenery including topless locals.

When I got back to the ship I stepped in to the shower complete with sandals, bathing, suit, tee shirt, sunglasses, watch and camera, to wash the salt off everything.

Then went up on deck to enjoy the steel band music as we sailed out of Moorea bound for Bora Bora at a leisurely 10 knots to arrive at 7 AM tomorrow.”