Saturday Feb 15, 2026
Hi Folks! As I always like to say, wash, rinse, repeat… and that’s what we’re doing thru French Polynesia. Another day, another island and another catamaran and snorkeling excursion!
Today we are docked in Papeete, otherwise known as Tahiti but we’re still in the French Polynesian island chain. Today was the day that roughly 300 people got off and 300 new people got on. It was pretty hectic this morning when we went out for our tour.
We did a catamaran tour around the island sailing for about two hours and snorkeling for one hour. It just so happened that we knew a bunch of people on the tour. Roger and Laura, Ken and Sandy, Don and Sandy (who we’re having dinner with tonight), and the couple (Clarence and Corrine) who have two young daughters, Sophie and Haley, who are like 8 and 11 and are on the whole world cruise! How lucky are they?
It was a beautiful trip with the sails up most of the way with lots of beautiful island scenery all around. The snorkeling was fun but not as many fish as other snorkeling trips (but thankfully no sharks!). But we had a blast and caught some rays.
Afterwards we got back on the ship and had lunch then went for a walk around town. Since it was Sunday, all the stores were closed and actually very few people were out on the streets. It was kinda spooky! But we did see their beautiful Town Hall and the quaint Notre Dame Cathedral and Catholic Church (it was nothing like the one in Paris!).
After our walk we got back onboard and got cleaned up for dinner. I’ll do another update tonight. Happy Sunday to all!
The Wandering Italian 