Lifou

Slept in a bit and then watched the ship come to a stop off the beach at Lifou Island. It is “gps anchored” in position as the tender boats are launched off the side.  The ship basically hovers in a location with the props only turning when the ship drifts out of position. Very cool.

Beach and churches in the background.

 We can see the beach area and the two churches that are famous here. Weather is cloudy with intermittent rain..... again!!

We grabbed a quick bite of breakfast then prepped for a beach day. Packed the bag with stuff (towels, sunglasses, bug spray, suntan lotion, water shoes) and went down to Deck 1 to board our tender boat. These boats substitute as water transport to & from shore when not acting as a life boat.

Mini Sail away to the beach.

Beach view

Kelly

 The beach was covered with sand and coral so beach shoes are a must. We walked out in relatively shallow waters for a long distance before the water got above our waste. It was warm and very relaxing. We met some other cruisers out swimming and had a good visit. The rain had held off for us but we decided to walk through the stalls of the locals. They had hand made goods along with food and drink available. We then went back to the ship and after a bit of lunch, Kelly went off to sew and I blogged a bit. As you may know, blogging can and does work up a thirst so it was back up to the pool bar for a Corona. The rains came down hard now but luckily the cover over the pool bar worked well :-)

Kelly joined me and walked back to the room to relax on the deck... but the rains put that idea off.

I went down to watch the last two tender boats being brought back on board. All very interesting and quite quick. Once all boats were recovered the ship eased out of the harbor and headed towards Vanuatu, our next stop.

View from the heli-pad.

Tender boats being recovered

Lots of folks interested in the retrieval process

The entertainment schedule changes a bit tonight so we went to the early show at 18:30 then to dinner. The show featured a vocalist Monique Montez singing numerous songs. She had a great voice and captivated the audience with her style and stories between songs. Clearly a professional. 

Dinner was with our usual crew and dress for tonight was Caribbean.... Kelly and I rocked it as we had lots of that style of clothing :-)

A quick fifteen minute stop at the casino and we went away with some of the ships money this time around!

 Vanuatu is on the radar tomorrow... lets hope the rain stops!