Days 88 & 89, Cruising the Mozambique Channel

We encountered a wee bit of motion in the ocean on our journey up the Mozambique Channel to Mayotte, French Comoros. Not to the point barf bags were out, but rocky. Then on the second day I just happened to look out to sea and spotted this beautiful rainbow. Maybe you can, but I didn't spot a pot of gold at either end. Somewhere, long, long ago back in my youth, I seem to recall that a rainbow was God's promise that everything was going to be all right. That is how I took this rainbow. We would all endure the rocking and rolling of the ship and the seas would calm. That is exactly what happened. Maybe not as quickly as some would have preferred, but calmed nevertheless.

At the half-way mark of this trip we reached Mayotte, a French province located on a tiny spec of an island west of Madagascar. Our "Currents" states that "Mayotte is the most prosperous territory in the Mozambique Channel, making it a major destination for immigration." Oh dear me! French is the official language and euros, it's currency. Lucky for us I had along some of my leftover euros from Paris. Credit cards did not seem to be accepted other than the food store.

Day 90, Mayotte, Comoros

None of the ship's excursions had any particular appeal to me but after two days and nights of being bounced around, Adele, Beverly and I boarded the tender and off we went to see the sights. If we happened on to a food store or pharmacy along the way so much the better. We found their main business district with no trouble at all. Adele purchased some nuts and chips as if there was inadequate food on board. We found nothing else of interest on this little spec of land so decided we would take the ferry over to a larger nearby island. That we did for the princely sum of 75 cents each in euros, round trip. The ferry was huge with space for numerous vehicles and 590 passengers. I do think this one tested that limit. Seems everyone wanted to explore that other island. A couple of the ship excursions included snorkeling at a nearby beach but we didn't make it to the beach. The temperature was somewhere north of 90 with matching humidity so we found a nice restaurant with a large patio in the shade and cooling breeze that served sodas. Bingo, we sat ourselves down and enjoyed watching the world go round. We were enjoying it so much that we did not notice that we were the only patrons remaining until the very nice waiter politely asked us to leave. I think that was a first for me. Don't remember ever before being asked to leave an establishment but it was a life saver that he did. The last ferry that would get us back to the ship before it pulled anchor was loading.

The Welcoming Committee at the pier

We three and approximately 587 others jumped on board. A nice young man offered to take my sunny seat and give me his shady spot but I declined. In so doing he somehow discerned that I was not a local so we started chatting about the States. He, like many others with whom I've spoken, expressed his desire to come to America "where all dreams can come true". His words.

Once back on the "main" island, we found a photo op we simply could not pass up. Having no guide, I haven't the foggiest idea as to the significance/source/reason for its being. Maybe you can Google it if you're curious. Back aboard we go, in time for Team Trivia. Ray must have stayed up all night researching the most obscure of obscure trivia questions. The scores were so low that our team actually won some O-points! Yay!

Another perfectly wonderful day ends.

Today Is Someday! Enjoy!