Papeete – February 9, 2013

The Ocean Princess is in port today.Maxine is planning on doing nothing, just sit and recover and read.  I have a scuba trip booked since this is my only time to dive in Papeete. People have  said that the diving isn’t the best, but diving is diving.  I was told to wait at the Tahiti Information Center which is right down the wharf from where the ship is docked,  I was looking for a car or a van to pick me up and was getting a bit concerned when they were 10 minutes late.  I happened to look out into the harbor and there was the scuba boat.  They do pick ups right from the wharf to the boat.  It was only about a 10 minute ride from the harbor to the dive site.  The divemaster provided a nice safety and dive briefing, checked over the gear and we were into the water.  Our first dive was a drift dive on a site they called White Canyon.  The current was pretty fast and it was fun riding along looking at the fish.  One thing they are still doing is baiting the sharks.  They had dropped a basket full of fish heads before they dropped us up current.  By the time we got back, the area was swarming with fish and lots of sharks.  We found rocks to hide behind and hold on to and watched the fun.  We had blacktip reef sharks, gray sharks and lemon sharks as well as lots of tropical fish.  There was hardly any invertebrate life, but the fish were fine.  After the drift, the surface interval was at the dive shop where they changed tanks and divers.  Only two of us were doing both dives.  The second dive was close to the shop in an area they called the lagoon.  There were several students on board who were doing their basic certifications and the place was perfect.  To make it more interesting for experienced divers, they have sunk several boats and an airplane as reef bases.  It is working.  There were lots of interesting fish and this time there were also lots of inverts. The return to the ship was also by boat.  At 5pm, the ship left for our first leg, after of course, the mandatory muster drill.  They are sure paying a lot more attention to this drills since the Costa Concordia incident.  Weather has been perfect and seas are very calm.  Even so, Maxine is reacting to the motion of the ship.  Hopefully that will pass.