"The ship, Polynesia and the Pacific Ocean were incredible – vast, beautiful, friendly, dramatic and mysterious. As the deckhands would say, it was choicer than choice, sweeter than sweet, sweeter than choice, and even, just maybe, choicer than sweet. In short, cool as.

After Sunday lunch alongside the wharf in Papeete (our first taste of Lucinda’s amazing shipboard cuisine), we motor-sailed from the harbor at Papeete to Matavai Bay, spending a night at anchor in the same spot where European explorers such as Cook et al. first landed in Tahiti.

The evening was devoted to unpacking, freaking out about how small the bunks were (and how many people were crammed into them), learning how to operate the marine heads, learning everyone’s names, and then on to drinking and then, as a consequence, caring less about the size of the bunks, everyone’s names, etc.

We also got our first glimpses of southern hemisphere constellations, including Scorpio and my special favorite, the Southern Cross. (Interestingly, you can see the Big Dipper from down under, but it’s upside down!) Indeed, we were lucky enough to have a new moon (or only a very tiny sliver) as well as a generous supply of shooting stars in Scorpio for most of the journey.

The following morning we sailed off the anchor (which, as distinct from simply starting up the engine, is actually quite a feat of seamanship, although we were mostly oblivious to it at the time) and set off across the Sea of the Moon to Moorea, taking our first turns at hauling lines to set and trim the sails.
We learned how to make a line fast, coil a line properly (clockwise!) and so forth. After we anchored in Cook’s Bay, we enjoyed the first of many swims off the side of the ship – nothing to cool you off when you’re roasting in the tropics like a splash in a cool lagoon.

Thenext day we took turns making our first ascents aloft (this time in the safety and calm of the bay). It was a lot like ice climbing – I probably didn’t look or sound like I was having fun, but believe me I had a blast. The crew were extremely helpful in not letting anyone falter (and not minding how many curses I let loose in the process of climbing over the platform edge), and we were all well rewarded with an extremely nifty and unusual vantage point to view the ship and the bay, not to mention a true sense of accomplishment.

We then set sail for Bora Bora, leaving the calm of the bay for the swells of the open ocean. We took turns at the watch, and marveled at how Lucinda and her trusty sidekick Martine produced ginger biscuits and other tasty treats while the ship was tilting 30 degrees in either direction and we blasted along at a record pace of up to 8 knots. I took to my bunk around 9, where I spent several hours listening to the loud creaking of the ship (and the sloshing of the water tank in the bilge beneath the cabin) and convincing myself that if the ship could survive five weeks in the Southern Ocean, surely this must be a piece of cake. At some point I finally nodded off, although my feet were lifting off the bunk with some of the rolls and my head kept bonking against the end of the bunk. I awoke just before 3:30 to dress, brush my teeth, put on my harness and join the 4 to 8 watch. Again, a great reward was in store that more than made up for our trouble – a spectacular sunrise as we reached Raiatea and Taha’a. We cruised past these the two islands, through a channel in the reef that was created 65 years ago by way of dynamite and the US Army and into what properly qualifies as the world’s most gorgeous lagoon at Bora Bora. We spent two full days there, including a 4WD safari into the interior (where we saw some nice 7” guns the army left behind and saw the amazing lagoon from a spectacular vantage point) and the first evening of the Haeva, the annual dancing festival that takes place throughout Polynesia in late June and early July. We were also joined at anchor by the god-awful Tahitian Princess cruise ship, and we did everything we could to drive home the point that, quite frankly, our ship was much cooler than theirs, although we held off from mooning them.

Then it was on to Raiatea, where we were special guests at the opening cocktail party for the Tahiti Tourism Cup, a promotional event for the twin islands of Raiatea and Taha’a. (See Christiana's account and pictures) . The weekend's events included a regatta (where, in a recurring theme, we had the coolest boat, if not the fastest, a point driven home by volleys of water balloons launched from our deck), a 6-man canoe race (won by a plucky team from our ship) and a traditional Polynesian feast which turned into quite a bash (one of our group was reportedly seen dancing on the table).

We spent Sunday morning puttering on a beach (mainly doing some snorkeling off the beach to explore loads of dead coral and eating coconuts and sugar cane under palm trees) and then set off for Huahine, which we reached in the evening. I got a special treat, having been "ordered" by one of the deckhands to "help put the cover on the middle stays'l" (this appears to be the maritime equivalent of "come up and look at my etchings"), I climbed aloft while the ship was still in the swell and, after applying several incompetent (and probably hopelessly tangled) reef knots to the cover for the middle stays'l, got to see the sunset and the passage into the lagoon from a unique vantage point.

Having grown increasingly lazy (yet somehow also losing weight and gaining arm muscles), we spent the following morning strolling about the main town, Fare, and sitting in a café sipping Fanta, and then, after returning to the ship for lunch, a nap and smoko (shipboard coffee break -- not to be missed), we went horseback riding in the afternoon. Despite the inevitable post-riding soreness, we enjoyed a steak dinner on shore (sitting down, using napkins, plate on the table not on the knees, wine in glasses – total luxury!) with some new friends from the ship who were celebrating their anniversary, followed by a champagne toast back on the ship. The weather also proved excellent for sleeping on the deck house roof, where one could doze off looking at the shooting stars and such…

We were to have spent the following day at Huahine as well, but a nasty low pressure system settled in, and we set sail for Moorea, giving us another chance to refine our sailing skills, this time in squally weather. (Who knew that rainwater makes the deck more slippery than sea water?) I am pleased to report that I thoroughly broke in my new rain jacket, mainly by hanging around the bow as waves crashed over it. On the way, the captain let me spend much of the 4 to 8 watch in the afternoon steering the ship through a pass in the reef into another bay at Huahine (where we again encountered the evil Tahitian Princess), turning her around, and sailing back out through the pass. The following morning, I got to do it all again on the 4 to 8 morning watch, steering the ship through the pass into another bay back at Moorea. (According to our captain, a youthful but supremely skilled Shetland Islander named Barry, this makes me a quartermaster, which (as he said in his lovely, lilting Shetland accent – think of a very young Sean Connery) is a superior helmsman who is charged with steering the ship through difficult passages. So there you have it. I always fancied myself a good driver…)

We spent a lovely morning walking around the bay, grooving on the gorgeous and amazing flowers and then returned to the ship somewhat sadly, knowing that we would soon be returning that evening to our last anchor spot back in Matavai Bay. We were distracted from our sadness with a great fancy dress party, the highlight of which was the fo’c’sle party (“foc’s’le” is short for “forecastle,” the crew quarters at the bow of the ship), where all 38 of us (still wearing costumes) piled into the fo’c’sle to celebrate (belatedly) the turning of another page of the (cheesecake) calendar accompanied by the traditional sea shanty “Born to Be Alive”…

The next morning, we reluctantly packed our bags to go our separate ways. The leave-taking was extremely sweet, with no one really wanting to go, each of us dawdling with our luggage, pouring just one more cup of coffee and taking one last turn around the ship in an attempt to delay the inevitable. It vividly demonstrated the amazing degree of closeness we all felt after our 10 days together. Fortunately, many of us (including myself) still had a day or two before we left to return to planet earth, and I spent another two days whooping it up in Papeete. I picked up a very nice pearl, finally opted not to get a tattoo (although I am now regretting it…) and hung out with my newfound pals.

And now, to sum up the journey, the top ten things I loved about the trip:

10. Tallow – the wonder substance (rendered pig fat used in copious quantities to grease the masts and the lines -- turns green when it meets the copper fittings on the mainmast)
9. “We don’t talk to people who don’t have sails.”
8. Dolphins surfing our bow wave as we entered and exited the lagoons
7. Not running the dinghy aground in the dark on the reef in the lagoon at Huahine
6. Falling off the poop deck (note to self: do not attempt to locate the little yellow star in the tail of Scorpio when the ship is underway as unanticipated rolls may prove hazardous)

5. A coconut full of coconut juice on a hot day (you can tell it’s hot when the mainmast drips tallow onto your shoes)
4. Scrubbing the deck with sea water (sailor’s pedicure)
3. The long preventer (my favorite line -- the longest of three lines (the short, medium and long preventers) used to keep the main boom from clobbering anyone in the head when the mainsail is set)

2. Smoko (twice-daily coffee break)
1. Swimming off the boat