Here is our ship the Paul Gauguin and its captain.
Here are some of the islands we visited. With the exception of Tahiti none had ports where the ship could dock.
So we would anchor off shore and take the ship's tender to shore.
We were greeted by a couple of high tech outriggers at one island.
The pilot on this trip had a interesting necklace and tattoo.
Ohhh, Captain, that doesn't look like the ship will fit there.
We wouldn't have taken this trip if Priscilla and Ted hadn't mentioned they were going on an eclipse cruise.
They told us more about it and we decided to join them.
It was a fantastic experience, renewing old friendships, and making new ones.
We had not anticipated that everyone on board would be techies like us.
It made for great dinner conversations.
Every time we looked around The Gauguins were entertaining us.
On deck morning and afternoon, at lunch and dinner, shows nearly every evening.
The ships staff out on a carnival one day. Each offered a contest.
The bartenders tried to catch a ball you tossed.
The cooks were targets for whipped cream pies.
One day at lunch these waiters gave an impromptu demonstration of tray spinning, ending up with a game of catch with spinning trays.
When we visited Moorea a dance troupe famous all over Polynesia came on board for a show.
They were fantastic.
The Gauguins presented a fashion show one evening.
They showed more than two dozen ways that a Pareo could be worn.
They didn't have time to show all the more than 200 modern variants or any of the historic ones.
Other shows included this versatile pair who performed acrobatic dance, quick change, the Wizard of Oz.
On one evening they enlisted members of the audience to reenact the visit of western sailing ship to a Polynesian island.
That is Priscilla in the role of a native princess.
The Gauguins also told us about what life on the islands is like and how they were selected.
They gave lessons in flower, pandanus and palm crafts and pareo tying.
Because this was an eclipse cruise there were lectures on astronomy, cosmology, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI.
Paul Drake and Alex Filippenko each gave several fascinating talks.
This is a section of a stony-iron pallasite meteorite shown at one of the lectures.
Other lectures included instruction in underwater and eclipse photography and Polynesian history and anthropology.
Just a couple of the sunsets we saw from the ship.
