Tag: cruise

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French Polynesia Society Islands

Raiatea

Somewhat smaller than Tahiti, Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. The proper spelling of the name, rarely used though, in the Tahitian language is Ra’iatea, meaning bright sky; Ulieta is an obsolete transcription commonly used in the 19th century. The chief town on Raiatea is Uturoa, administrative center for the Leeward Islands (French Îles Sous-le-vent). The islands of Raiatea and Tahaa are both enclosed by the same coral reef, and may once have been a single island.

Raiatea is both the largest and most populated island in the Leeward Islands, with a land area of 167.7 km² (64.7 sq. miles) and a total population of 12,024 inhabitants at the August 2007 census. The population density is 72 inhabitants per km². Ra’iatea is widely regarded as the ‘center’ of Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aoteroa (New Zealand) and other parts of East Polynesia started at Ra’iatea. A traditional name for the island is Havai’i fanau fenua (Hawai’i birther of land).

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Seychelles

Indian Ocean Explorer hijacked by Somali pirates

The last journey to Seyshelles was exceptional for several resons. First of all, my dream came true – I had a dream to get to Aldabra for 13 years. We sailed a quite long way – over 1500 km during 12 days. Second – I was able to explore unique places: Desroches (an island, on which I had been 3 months beforehand as well), Alphonse, Astove, Cosmoledo, Assumtion, and Aldabra of course.

We were very lucky too. Our vessel, Indian Ocean Explorer, was captured by Somali pirates around 2 weeks after our trip. It happenned near the coast of the Assumption island, between the 28th and 30th of March 2009. The crew was held hostage for 79 days. Fortunately, thanks to the Seychelles authorities, they were released on June 22, 2009. However, Seyshelles government representatives neither did release Somali pirates they had captured nor did pay any ransom for the crew. This is why the vessel still remains in pirate hands, anchored off the coast of Central Somalia.

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Seychelles

L’Ilot

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Seychelles

St. Pierre

St Pierre Island is a raised reef island west of Providence Atoll and part of Farquhar Group, which belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. The island is located at 9°17′S 50°44′E, 35 km (19 nautical miles) west of Cerf Island of Providence Atoll, 704 km (380 nmi) from Mahé and 500 km (270 nmi) ENE of Aldabra.

The island is nearly circular, 1.6 km (1 mile) east-west by 1.4 km (0.87 mi) north-south, with a land area of 1.68 km² (0.65 sq mi). St. Pierre has a gently sloping seabed on the exposed southeastern coast and a steep drop off on the northwest, where the fringing reef is all but absent. It is uninhabited, and indeed in modern times all but uninhabitable. There is a derelict jetty and settlement on the north west shore, which is accessible by boat in the calmest weather only.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Seychelles

Bijoutier

St. François Atoll is one of two atolls of the Alphonse Group of the Seychelles, just three kilometers south of Alphonse Atoll, the second atoll of Alphonse Group. The atoll is uninhabited and has two islands, St. François and Bijoutier Island. The aggregate land area is 0.196 km² (196,000 m²), but the total area including reef flat and lagoon is much larger (roughly 15 km north-south and 5 km east-west, with an area of more than 40 km²). It was discovered on 28 January 1730 by Chevalier Alphonse de Pontevez, commanding the French frigate Le Lys. The atoll is named in honor of Saint Francis de Sales.

The northern and smallest island takes its name from the French word bijoutier, meaning “jeweller”. The area of the island is 20,000 m². The island is only accessible by boat during high tide. The island is small enough that it takes only a few minutes to walk completely around it.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Seychelles

Alphonse Atoll

Alphonse Atoll is one of two atolls of the Alphonse Group, and located 87 km south of the Amirante Islands, and just three kilometers north of St. François Atoll, the second atoll of Alphonse Group. The atoll has just one island, Alphonse Island, with a population of fewer than 300. It was discovered on 28 January 1730 by Chevalier Alphonse de Pontevez, commanding the French frigate Le Lys. A luxury hotel has been build on Alphonse Island, generating frequent traffic between other islands in the group. The area of the island is 1.74 km². The total area of the atoll, with more than 3 km in diameter, is about 8 km², including reef flat and lagoon.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Seychelles

Desroches II

Île Desroches or Desroches Island is the main island of the Amirante Islands, part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. It is located 230 km southwest of Mahé, the Seychelles’ main island. It is 6.2 km long and has a land area of 3.24 km². Along its circumference of 15 km is a beach of fine sand.

Desroches was named by Chevalier de Roslan, commander of the ship L’Heure du Berger, after the Chevalier des Roches, the Governor of Mauritius (then Île de France) and Réunion (then Bourbon) from 1767 to 1772. It was explored by the Chevalier de la Billioère in 1771. The British had originally named it Wood Island because of its dense tree vegetation. The island was an important producer of copra.

Desroches has a population of about 50, a settlement in the middle of the northwestern shore (looking to the lagoon), a small luxury hotel with 20 rooms in the south (Desroches Island Resort), built in 1988 and a paved airstrip 1372 m long in the southern part. It is located 36 km east of the Amirantes Bank, and separated from it by water over 1300 meters deep. It lies on the southern edge of a reef of atoll character. At the northern edge of the atoll are the Shark Rocks, with least depths between 3 and 6 meters. There is a lighthouse on the northeast end of the Desroches Island. The island is fringed by a drying reef which extends 1.6 km offshore from the northeastern extremity and 0.8 km from the southwestern extremity. The island is low and is covered with coconut palms and tall hardwood trees. A deep channel, about 1.6 km wide, leads into the lagoon. The least depth in the channel is 18.3 m, and it crosses the atoll in a position about 11 km northwest of Desroches.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

Príncipe

Príncipe is the smaller of the two major islands of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of around 5,000 people. It rises in the south to 948 metres at Pico de Príncipe, in a thickly forested area forming part of the Obo National Park. The north and centre of the island were formerly plantations but largely reverted to forest. The island forms one province and one district named Pagué. The languages other than Portuguese includes Principense or Lunguyê with a few Forro speakers.

The island has one town, Santo António, and an airport (IATA code: PCP, ICAO: FPPR?), as well as some small villages including Bela Vista, Bombom, Futuro, Neves Ferreira, Paciencia, Ponta Fonte, Ribeira Ize, Santo Antonio de Ureca, Vila Rosa and more – few connected to the small road network.

The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old, surrounded by other smaller islands including Ilheu Bom Bom, Ilhéu Caroço, Tinhosa Grande and Tinhosa Pequena.

Príncipe was the site where Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was experimentally proved successful by Arthur Stanley Eddington and his team during an eclipse in 1919.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia (French: Sainte-Lucie) is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. Its size is 620 km² with an estimated population of 160,000. Its capital is Castries. The island nation has been the home of two Nobel laureates, Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott, and so can claim the distinction of being the nation with the most such honorees per capita in the world.

Saint Lucia is one of the Windward Islands, named for Saint Lucy of Syracuse. It was first visited by Europeans in about the year 1500 and first colonised successfully by France who signed a treaty with the native Carib peoples in 1660. Great Britain took control of the island from 1663 to 1667 then went to war with France over it fourteen times, and finally took complete control in 1814. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Lucia was also known as the “Helen of the West Indies.” Representative government came about in 1924 (with universal adult suffrage from 1953) and from 1958 to 1962 the island was a member of the Federation of the West Indies. Finally, on February 22, 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations. The island nation celebrates this every year with a public holiday. It is also a member of La Francophonie. About 20.9 % of the population of Saint Lucia live on less than US$1.25 a day.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe (Antillean Creole: Gwadloup) is an archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea; with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi). It is an overseas department of France. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. As part of France, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union; hence, as for most EU countries, its currency is the euro. However, Guadeloupe does not fall under the Schengen Agreement. The prefecture of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre.

Guadeloupe comprises five islands: Basse-Terre Island, Grande-Terre (separated from Basse-Terre by a narrow sea channel called Salt River) with the adjacent islands of La Désirade, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante.

Basse-Terre has a rough volcanic relief while Grande-Terre features rolling hills and flat plains.

Further to the north, Saint-Barthélemy and the French part of Saint Martin once came under the jurisdiction of Guadeloupe but on 7 December 2003, both of these areas voted to become an overseas territorial collectivity, a decision which took effect on 22 February 2007.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)