We were really looking forward to our pre-booked river trip here. The Faaroa River is the only navigable river in the Society Islands, and we were hoping to take a canoe ride along the river, enjoying the lush vegetation, and with any luck, have an opportunity for a little swimming at the end of the canoe portion of the excursion. But it was not to be.
Captain Albert explains the situation far better than I can!
We've long looked forward to a cruise when we'd be on the ship he was captaining, thinking it would be fun to read, the following day (as the blog is published "the day after"), what had happened on the bridge and behind the scenes of our very own cruise. We were not disappointed in this, and when there were so many weather-related issues regarding our ability to visit some of our intended ports as happened on this cruise, it was especially helpful to read more than the Captain could present in loudspeaker briefings. We've listed the links to all of the blog entries while we were enjoying this cruise. It's
HERE.
Onboard the Statendam one can read the blog on a personal computer/tablet, use a ship's computer (access is free as all Holland America website pages can be accessed for free) or read a printed copy. The Captain had a very nice frame built that stands in the Lido. The frame holds a copy of the cruise navigation map and there is space for the printed daily blog entry to be posted there as well.
George's Blog: On Dec. 9th we were scheduled to visit Raiatea but that stop was cancelled due to high winds and ocean swells which prevented the ship from entering the small opening in the coral reef around Raiatea to enter the lagoon and dock. Instead we headed on to Tahiti to stop there a day early. We arrived around 6 pm and had an extra overnight in Tahiti. Along the way we had essentially scenic cruising by several Society Islands in French Polynesia.
