Rangiroa

We have a sea day from the Marquesas Islands back to the Tuamotu Island of Rangiroa.

We went to the stretching class at 7am and then breakfast and relaxed until our galley tour at 10am.

The kitchen has 34 staff members. Wait staff is above and beyond that. There are four restaurants on board, three use the main kitchen on deck three, Basil and Bamboo on deck six has its own kitchen. The other two restaurants are on deck seven and eight, but there is a dedicated elevator for food deliveries, and small staging areas near the restaurants. There are 9000 dishes washed per day.

They restock every two weeks for perishable, every month for dry goods. Pantry is owned by suppliers, chef pays when pulling from pantry, not when loaded on ship.

There are three pastry chefs. They bake all the breads and pastries daily, and there is quite an assortment.

In the afternoon, I worked on the puzzle and got two blog posts published.

We went out front at sunset and saw the Green Flash again, but didn’t get a good photo of it.

The ship arrived inside the Rangiroa atoll around 8 am.

Got off on the first tender at 9:30. There was a small band playing

We walked over to the public beach and went snorkeling.

Donna and I took turns in the water and watching stuff on land. Walked the 1/4 mile to the outside of the atoll and saw a wandering tattler.

After that we came back to the ship for lunch. The black noddies were lined up on the dock railing.

Our afternoon tour is dolphin watching and a snorkel trip to the coral area in the channel nicknamed “the aquarium.” The dolphin watching was on the outside of the atoll through the channel. It was a bust for most people, I happened to see two dolphins for about 1/2 to 1 second each, but didn’t get a photo. They were surfing just under the waves with their dorsal fin sticking out. The boat bouncing from the waves made using a long lens impossible. Others didn’t see anything.

The aquarium area was great for snorkeling, I was the last back on the boat. Lots of fish.

We had supper at one of the specialty restaurants, Basil and Bamboo, which don’t cost extra, you just have to make a reservation. Donna had the spicy chipotle lamb. Steve had salmon.