Our Ship: The National Geographic Orion

Our ship for the week of May 10 through May 17 was the National Geographic Orion. The view of the ship we saw
most often was from the zodiac boats that took us to all of our excursions to the islands of French Polynesia.

The most exciting navigation on the ship was the passage through several narrow gaps between islands on remote
atolls, where the sea is rushing into or out of the lagoon, and there's only a very narrow channel.

All National Geographic/Lindblad expeditions have a policy of open bridge -- you can go in and see how the ship is being
handled by the crew. At right in this photo is Heidi Norling, the ship's Captain. At left, the first mate and the expedition
leader. Heidi is from Stockholm, Sweden, where she began her career on cargo ships and ferry boats.

Another photo of Heidi with the Hotel Manager, who is in charge of
rooms and food service. Heidi's biography HERE.

The ship's lounge has rather distracting mirrors on the ceiling.

We rarely had time to enjoy a moment on the top deck. This was the
last day -- we had just returned our snorkel gear.

A very important functional apparatus: the anchor!

I didn't take many photos of the crew, the hotel staff of cleaners, or the waiters and kitchen staff at work. But when we got off the ship to take a  walk on the island of Fakarava, a zodiac brought a group of workers who headed for a covered basketball court and a quick game. Note the second-from-left player's NatGeo shirt.