We grabbed some coffee and bagels at Le Grill and joined them. The sundeck bar was serving Coronas, appropriately enough which tasted pretty good on this tropical tension-filled morning!
The clouds gathered over the sun and then dissolved. First contact (the first bite out of the sun by the moon) occurred at 7:18. Lydia and her friend, Malia, managed to shinny up the front edge of the bridge for a great view. We all stood around, watching with our eclipse filters, the sun slowly disappear behind the moon; it gradually got cooler and the light changed. A beautiful rainbow appeared to the south of us. The captain and Jay Anderson, the meteorologist, worked on steering the ship to a hole in the clouds. At 8:30 totality started to a general cheer, but then the cloud-cover blocked our view, but suddenly it cleared and we all got good views of the great black hole in the sky with a beautiful corona showing all around it! We had almost four minutes to observe it, but, of course, it passed in a flash! All of a sudden, the second diamond ring effect appeared and the sun flashed out from behind the sun! The ship broke out champagne and we all cheered!
Most of us met at 10 for a re-cap of the eclipse and people’s different impressions. Famished, Bob, Hilary, Ann and I went down to La Veranda for a delicious French style Tex-Mex buffet! We sat outside overlooking the stern of the ship; now we’re running with the wind, it is much less windy on deck and more pleasant.
The four of us got together again at four for a tour of the galley which the others had already seen. The jolly Aussie Executive Chef took us into one of the galleys showing us the huge dish washers, Then we saw the cooking and plating areas and we met the baker who produces all the breads and rolls eaten on board! There is a pastry chef who construct the myriad of fancy Danishes, and tarts and cakes. Just amazing!
We dashed back to our cabin to get dressed up for the Eclipse Cocktail Party and reassembled in the Grand Salon for Pina Coladas and trays of goodies. Jan Anderson and his wife gave us a slide show of eclipse pictures that various passengers had given them and they showed three of mine - human interest pics including one of Lydia and her friend, Malia, up on the bridge wall. Others had beautiful eclipse photos showing the corona and phases of the eclipse.
At seven we sat down to the Polynesian dinner at the L’Etoile restaurant and feasted on lobster tail and mahi mahi with banana sauce, chocolate baby cakes and passion fruit cheese cake! Now we know how the food is prepared, we are even more impressed with the variety and quality!!
Ann , Hilary and I tried the slot machines in the tiny casino which ate up our dollar bills in seconds and didn’t provide much entertainment! We went up on Deck 9 to look at the stars but didn’t have our personal astronomer along so couldn’t identify anything, although it was beautiful! We went to bed just as we could see the lights of Moorea approaching in the distance.
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