South Pacific update (I hope)
This is our first try at an email posting. We are currently in the future, having crossed the international date line a couple of days ago (I would share a picture of it, but of course it is invisible). Somewhat surprisingly, we made it ashore to all of the South Pacific islands on the itinerary. All but Tahiti are tender ports & Rarotonga & Niue lack outer reefs that create lagoons with calm water for easy tendering. So those two islands are often missed because of bad weather or rough sea conditions. Boarding the tenders was pretty dicey on both of these days, especially at Rarotonga, but we did make it ashore. So that is probably a pretty good omen for the rest of the cruise.
For the last two days we have been sailing through a real gale, with wind speeds up to about 60 mph. The ship has really been rocking, both side to side & front to back. Actually, the captain says we are threading our way between two big storms, so we are getting it from both sides. The weather on our port days has been mostly quite good, so we can’t really complain about bad weather when we are confined to the ship anyway. Day after tomorrow we will be in Auckland, New Zealand, which is actually the last of the Polynesian Islands we will visit on this cruise.
I have attached a couple of pictures, so we will see if they get posted when I send this. The first is a view of the island of Moorea from Tahiti. The second is the early morning sail in to Bora Bora.
BADER JOURNAL 
Glad to hear from you. Thought I wasn’t getting the blog. Safe sailing for you two.
January 30, 2018 at 6:53 pm
Wonderful to hear from you, hope you have calmer seas from here on out.
January 30, 2018 at 7:45 pm
Glad your having fun. We loved the islands but then I just love cruising. So have fun for me
January 30, 2018 at 8:32 pm
Great to see your post and good to know you are both enjoying the cruise.
Beautiful photos – really appreciated!
January 30, 2018 at 10:45 pm
so good to hear from you. I thought of you this morning because there was an Amtrak crash. A special train taking GOP house members to a retreat in West Virginia crashed into a trash truck. No reps were damaged but at least one maybe two garbage truck persons were killed. Crash looked very similar to the one we experienced in Indiana. The cynical side of me is asking “Is this another attempt by Trump to take the focus away from the Russia investigation?” Hope you are enjoying being away from all the Trump stress even if you have to take a tender thru a hurricane like storm to get to land. Cecile
January 31, 2018 at 4:51 pm
60 mph winds on the open ocean must be a real thrill and a test of your ability to avoid sea sickness! Have a wonderful cruise!
February 14, 2018 at 5:17 pm