April 26, Day Two in Mo’orea (Third Day for French Polynesia)

Today was our second day in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. This was also our last day of excursions and ports of call, until we reach Honolulu, Hawaii next Tuesday, May 2nd. In between, we will cruise and enjoy relaxing on the ship again.

Today we took an eco-tourism boat ride to see the spinner dolphins who inhabit the lagoons around Mo’'orea. Our ship had anchored in the lagoon two nights ago, just outside of the Opunohu Bay near the Tareu Pass. The pass is the natural route to the deep water of the ocean. Today, we spent the entire morning on a motor boat with 25 of our closest friends and a PhD in dolphins and whales (Mike), who was our tour guide. He was quite a fascinating individual. He has a Master’s Degree in Whale Science to go with his PhD in smaller members of the whale family as we discovered today. In fact, we learned that orcas or “killer whales” are really members of the dolphin family. They are all a part of the same family of marine mammals, the difference being the shape of their mouths and the nature of their teeth. (whales are divided into baleen whales and toothed whales. Toothed whales are further subdivided into whales, dolphins, and porpoises.)

(A portion of the reef, protecting the lagoon and shore from the energy of the large waves)

(A tender transporting passengers from ship to shore)

(Michael, our tour guide, an expert in cetaceans, especially humpback whales and spinner dolphins)

For over three hours, we were mesmerized by stories of dolphin behavior, their basic characteristics, how long they live, their anatomy, etc. We also saw plenty of spinner dolphins in the wild behaving as dolphins do. The pack was swimming together and leaping into the air periodically. This is the only type of dolphin that also spins, when it is in the air, hence its name spinner dolphin. It is still not clear to scientists, exactly why they spin. Still, we saw juvenile spinners coming out of the water and spinning frequently.

Here are some photos that we took along the way. Unfortunately, most of the action sequences are in video format which we cannot upload onto the blog. Therefore the pictures of the dolphins are missing. I'll show some photos of the lagoon. You will have to wait to get the live show, which will include video, in order to see the dolphins in action.

(Dolphin observers in Opunohu Bay)

(Views of Mo'orea from the bay)

(Michael explains the dolphins they have named and know by their dorsal fin silhouettes [left]. He shows pictures of a dolphin killed by a shark bite [right].)

The pod that we were following had about 20 dolphins in all, including three babies. The babies have pink stomachs. The scientist was very excited to see so many babies. These dolphins stay in the lagoon during the day for safety, because there are no sharks in the lagoon. However, at night they venture out beyond the coral reef to the deeper water to feed, and there they have to take their chances with sharks who lurk in that area of the water. The spinner dolphin population in the waters around Mo’orea number about 162 all year long. This has been the population size for over thirty years, plus or minus twelve dolphins. Turns out that these dolphins like the dolphin populations around other French Polynesian islands, stay home. One or two of them may visit a different nearby island, which enables the pod to avoid the traits of genetic inbreeding; however, they always return to their home lagoon. After this tour, we returned back to the ship because the captain wanted to leave the area before noon. Here are some of our parting views of this beautiful island, as seen from Opunohu Bay.

(The original St. Peter's Catholic Church [l], the Vagabond sailboat [c], the new St. Peter's Catholic Church [r])

When we returned to the ship, we ate lunch in the Coastal Kitchen and retired to our room to attempt to sleep off the heat and get some rest from the energy that we had exerted this morning. Around 4:30, we again went to the Concierge Lounge to have hors d’oeuvres and see other travelers. Today, Patrise made a deliberate effort to sit down next to Tony and Liane, fellow suite travelers from Australia who had been approachable. We chatted with them a while and learned that they had both retired 2 months ago, prior to coming on this voyage. We found out that we had a lot of things in common regarding our love of traveling and one member of the couple enjoying a cooler side of the suite than the other. (Smile)

(Liane and Tony Gill of Sydney Australia. Our Concierge Lounge friends and cruise mates.)

After we concluded our visit with Tony and Liane, we decided not to get too fancy and just stayed dressed as we were, and we ate at the Windjammer Restaurant. Patrise loves the Indian food that they serve and she had curry chicken, padaman, dal and roasted eggplant. She added these tasty delicacies to the salad and later she added plantains: all for dinner. Doug had roasted chicken, some pieces of curry chicken, salad, some plantains, and bread. We both tried some sweet potato pie that looked good, but it was horrible. We took a forkful then left the rest alone. After dinner, we retired to work on the blog entries – we were three days behind – and then settle in for the evening.

Tomorrow there are no excursions or places that we have to be. We will be sleeping in and being very laid back all day tomorrow.