Our “port” today is Raiatea, Society Islands. With a population of around 12000, it has beaches, agriculture, tourism, and a small airport. (that small bit of very flat land right along the shore between the beach and the mountain.)
Again this was a tender port – at least for a ship this size. We were warned ahead of time that the tender ride was about 25 minutes each way.
It was interesting to check a couple of the cruise port tracking sites. All of them listed the two Windstar Ships which come through once a week, of which the Wind Spirit was in port today. It must have been around the island in the same direction as the tenders headed toward because we certainly couldn’t see anything larger than jet skis, some sailing vessels and the usual annoying speed boat. Of interest – our ship was not listed as stopping here on any of the sites OTOH, this was a fairly late addition when one of the islands nearer Australia wasn’t interested in having a large ship dock.
I thought about it for a vanishingly small number of seconds. Deal with the tender, hang out in a crowd – many of whom don’t wear masks, for about half an hour, wander around for a few minutes, stand in line for an equally long ride back. I took the ship on the water photos yesterday. I might like to see the Wind Spirit (we sailed on her in 2009) but it simply wasn’t worth the investment of time.
Instead – I stitched the Ogre…
and put some time into the frame as well….
On our last cruise we were again eating in the little Bistro on the promenade deck when a large mast drifted past the window on the far side of our ship. It was followed by another mast and another until I lost count.
I went outside and saw a lovely four master park just behind our behemoth.