Hello again,
Our next port, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, is always a questionable port because of an unprotected anchorage and big swells. Getting the tenders loaded and unloaded from the ship can be difficult. I’ve heard that more times than not this port is passed by. Thankfully our brave and experienced Captain, after thinking “long and hard” decided to go for it. The crew did an amazing job of assisting everyone on and off the tenders and it was challenging. And very much appreciated.
We took the shuttle to Muri Beach, which is about a twenty-minute drive, and walked to Sails restaurant to have a beer. After gawking at the beautiful surroundings for an hour or so, we caught a small shuttle back to town that was driven by a delightful young man. He dropped us off at Trader Jacks, which I missed last time here as it was closed.
We got a table right next to the water with a view of our ship and what’s left of the Yankee. I thought there would be information about her grounding but the only photos of a shipwreck nearby were of one that happened in 1949. Later we looked it up and the Brig Yankee was lost in the 60 ’s. It was a beautiful vessel and was lost only because the crew and friends were having a big party, weren’t paying attention and wound up on the reef. Very sad for us sailors because she was a famous and much-admired ship. There’s hardly anything left anymore.
We had a great lunch of chicken wings and green papaya salad, which I LOVED. Joyce took a cab back to the ship but I opted to walk through town. I took lots of photos and bought some dice. We’ll be wanting to play Zilch for sure. In fact, after we met up back on the ship, we went up to watch the beautiful sailaway and ran into Marshall and Don. I went down and got our brand-new dice and we played a few games. Still haven’t taught Mike the game but I keep threatening.
We had plans to go to the piano bar for an Australia Day sing along at nine so went to dinner earlier than usual. Mary and John had saved us a seat and all the Aussies were there. Also a lot of other folks who knew and loved our guest entertainer for the evening. Glenn is Australian and is a mere passenger these days. His wife works on board and he was a very popular piano bar entertainer for Holland America in the past, with lots of fans. He’s very good and had prepared sing along sheets for everyone. It was really super fun.
We, of course, stayed and chatted with the group of Aussies that stayed after and chatted. We already knew Robin and Cynthia and Marilyn and Rodney and we always have such a great time with this bunch. As an aside, Glenn is working for Holland America once again and will be the piano bar guy on the World Cruise 2019. If things go as planned....he told me this himself!!!
The next day at sea we had the first of many Wines of the World tastings up in the Crow’s Nest. You pay $25 and drink all the wine from a huge selection for an hour, from 1 until 2pm. Marshall met us and we were soon joined by John and Mary. We could see Donna and Mike sitting nearby. Ahhh, the wine brings us all together. We managed to stay until 4pm drinking the wine we’d stockpiled. We got even better at this as the weeks went by.
Tonight we had dinner planned with the eight of us who had sailed on the Farewell to Statendam cruise about 18 months before. John and Mary, Bonnie and Don, Michelle and Eli and us. That cruise was thirty days from Seattle to Singapore. Fun to all get together and reminisce. The Statendam is now known as the Pacific Eden and circles Australia for the P and O Line.
Next stop is Niue and on to New Zealand.
Aloha, Gayle
No comments:
Post a Comment