The Pacific
Today is our last full day at sea. Tomorrow we reach the French Polynesian Islands and will be getting off of the ship each day to explore a different island.
The Pacific Ocean was named by Ferdinand Magellan. The story goes that when he found it the seas were extremely calm and therefore named it "Pacifico" - which translates into English as "Peaceful". As we have seen from the waves crashing into South America, Easter Island and Pitcairn, the ocean is a lot of things but peaceful is probably not one of them.
The total area of the Pacific is over 169 million square miles. All of the land masses on the planet could be placed in the Pacific Ocean and there would still be room left over. The beautiful blue color is just magnificent. Every time we have sailed before we have always seen and passed other ships and an occasional airplane. Since we left Pisco, Peru - 10 days ago, we have not any airplanes nor have we seen another ship. Yesterday we saw an uninhabited atoll that was actually the only land mass we have seen other than Easter Island and Pitcairn.
Travel in the South Pacific has changed over the years. In the past, many islands were reachable by sea planes and airlines like Pan AM flew frequently to them. With the advent of large passenger jets much of the travel to smaller Pacific islands has diminished and increased to the areas that have large airports. This has made travel to the South Pacific much more costly.
The cruise has been very peaceful and with the smaller size of ship we have been able to really relax. Also, James Grant-Peterkin has provided very informative lectures on Easter Island, Pitcairn and the French Polynesian Islands.
We are approaching the French Polynesian Islands, which are roughly the size of Europe. Later today we must attend a face-to-face meeting with French Polynesian officials to complete forms and have our passports returned. Tomorrow we will visit Fakarava.
The Pacific Ocean was named by Ferdinand Magellan. The story goes that when he found it the seas were extremely calm and therefore named it "Pacifico" - which translates into English as "Peaceful". As we have seen from the waves crashing into South America, Easter Island and Pitcairn, the ocean is a lot of things but peaceful is probably not one of them.
The total area of the Pacific is over 169 million square miles. All of the land masses on the planet could be placed in the Pacific Ocean and there would still be room left over. The beautiful blue color is just magnificent. Every time we have sailed before we have always seen and passed other ships and an occasional airplane. Since we left Pisco, Peru - 10 days ago, we have not any airplanes nor have we seen another ship. Yesterday we saw an uninhabited atoll that was actually the only land mass we have seen other than Easter Island and Pitcairn.
Travel in the South Pacific has changed over the years. In the past, many islands were reachable by sea planes and airlines like Pan AM flew frequently to them. With the advent of large passenger jets much of the travel to smaller Pacific islands has diminished and increased to the areas that have large airports. This has made travel to the South Pacific much more costly.The cruise has been very peaceful and with the smaller size of ship we have been able to really relax. Also, James Grant-Peterkin has provided very informative lectures on Easter Island, Pitcairn and the French Polynesian Islands.
We are approaching the French Polynesian Islands, which are roughly the size of Europe. Later today we must attend a face-to-face meeting with French Polynesian officials to complete forms and have our passports returned. Tomorrow we will visit Fakarava.
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