JAN 5, 2013 BOARDING TERE MOANA IN MARIGOT, ST MARTIN

SATURDAY JAN 5, 2013  TERE MOANA, ST MARTIN

We spent a full day in Phillipsburg Sint Maarten before catching the taxi with all our baggage to head over to Marigot, St Martin on the French side of the island to board the Tere Moana - our home for the next 14 days!  Tere Moana was docked in the freight harbour - so our entry was quite unconventional! After handing over our passports at the gate, we were processed as exiting Sint Maarten/St Martin then dropped at a container!  Our large bags were taken from us and then we entered the container which turned out to be the security processing centre!  We had our bags scanned and had to walk through the metal detector ourselves.

There was a man checking what he was seeing on the scanner and a lady checking us through the body scanner.  This was quite funny since after I walked through she said to me "did you ring?"  After I had determined she had been on the wrong side of the body scanner when I walked through I said "no I didn't ring but I will walk through again anyway!"  Then I saw that where the man was checking the bag xrays he had several pen knives and knives, obviously removed from the bags that folks were carrying on.  This just didn't make any sense since you could have just put these in your checked bag and picked them up 10 minutes later when they were delivered to your stateroom!

We were then taken 5 at a time in a very luxurious mini van to the Tere Moana where we were on board within minutes and soon sipping champagne in the main lounge.  There were at least 30 other folks there.  Boarding had started at 3pm so I guess many folks had boarded early and we did meet one chap who had taken the 7 day Caribbean cruise the previous week and was now doing a back to back on the Panama Canal cruise that we had booked on.

The Tere Moana is the new ship for Paul Gauguin cruise line - who only have 1 other ship - the Paul Gauguin - a beautiful 5 star ship which is based in Tahiti and does mostly Tahiti Society Island cruses with some extensions to New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands and Marquesas.  This new luxury yacht Tere Moana holds 90 passengers, 57 crew and was operated before by Ponant Cruises (as Le Vivent) and has now been purchased by Paul Gauguin cruise line and upgraded.  The Tere Moana was built in St Malo France, registered in the Bahamas, 330 feet long, 46 feet wide, with a draft of 11.5 feet and tonnage 3504 tonnes with a maximum speed of 14 knots.

Last week was the Tere Moana inaugural cruise and christened on Saturday Dec 29 2012 as it departed from Marigot for its' very first 7 day inaugural cruise.  The staterooms are beautiful - all brand new luxurious furnishings in shades of beige and cream - top end cotton bed linens and L'Occitane amenities.  It is quite spacious with king bed, two chairs, mini fridge stocked with beer and soft drinks, SONY Ipod player, SONY DVD player, LG flat screen TV, small dresser with surrounding mirror with light.

The staterooms have lots of storage - more than any other stateroom that we have been in, including many drawers and large hanging closet, which is also where the electronic safe is located. Each stateroom has 220 and 110 voltage electrical outlets.   We were quickly unpacked and soon sitting on the top sun deck number 6 in basket chairs being served copious amounts of Marlborough Sound sauvignon blanc by the bar waiter Vishal from Mauritius.  The back half of Deck 5 has a swimming pool, bar and some sun cots and sitting chairs and tables - the front half has staterooms with balconies.  Deck 5 also has The Moana Spa and the Fitness Centre which has 2 lifecycles, 2 treadmills and one rowing machine.

The other staterooms are on decks 4 and 3, none of which have balconies.  Also on deck 4 is a small library and internet station with 3 computers, as well as La Veranda restaurant used for buffet breakfast, buffet lunch and afternoon tea.  It also has a grill for cooked to order eggs, burgers, etc.  On deck 3 is a large spacious lounge with piano and bar - beautiful pearlised leather couches and chairs, again with fabulous sateen pillows in navy and cream stripes.  Deck 3 also is the main entry level for the Tere Moana with the reception desk and La Boutique - with some fabulous Tahitian pearl jewellery.  The main evening dining restaurant L'Etoile (the star) is on deck 2 with stairs that lead down to it from the lounge.

The mandatory safety drill with life jackets was at 545pm - that didn't take long for the 90 passengers!  Dinner is from 7 - 830pm and we were showered and enjoying a lovely dinner at a table for 6 which was squashed in the back of the restaurant.  Most definitely L'Etoile is pushed to handle all the guests and feels cramped but especially this one set of tables at the back of the restaurant.  The wait staff form the Philippines are gracious and helpful and served us a lovely meal including Caesar salad, herb crusted catch of the day.

After dinner we sat outside on the back of deck 3 where Terry enjoyed a glass of port - smokers can also use this deck.  We were scheduled to depart at 11:15pm but everyone was on board so at 10pm the engines were in full gear and we pulled away shortly afterwards.  We only had about 40? miles from Marigot, St Martin to the French island of St Barthelemy (St Barth or St Barts) our destination for tomorrow - but the Captain spent all night at sea and I'm afraid the wind made the water rough and it seems that this ship might not cruise as smoothly as it could since we were in for a night of rocking and rolling!!