We had a second April 18 when we crossed the International Date Line between Lautoka and Raiatea so we had three full sea days before arriving in the first of four ports-of-call in French Polynesia.

April 19 was Tropical Night on board.At Raiatea, after the ship entered the reef the captain had to almost encircle the island to get to the port so we had a lovely slow sail and we spent the time on Deck 5 taking photos of the beautiful water. The two tours we were interested at Raiatea were fully booked so we had no tour.  Raiatea is only 99 miles around and you can do it by taxi in about 3 hours.  We considered making the trip with our table-mates Bill and Carol but we all felt disinclined to be crowded into a small vehicle with no AC for that long.

Instead we waited until the masses had left the ship then  walked into town. We walked the length of the main street and then back along the coast. Checked out a few shops, but, as usual didn’t buy anything.  It was a lovely, warm day and we enjoyed taking an easy stroll. The ship remained docked until 6 am then slowly sailed the 55 km over to Bora Bora, one of my very favourite South Pacific islands.