PAPEETE, TAHITI and PAUL GAUGUIN

Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia, and has a population of 245,000. Shaped like an upside down Maui, each side formed by separate volcanoes. Beaches are black. The philosophy is not to worry.

Pape'ete is the capital, with an urban population of 136,771, or 27,000, depending on which portion. Called a sleepy town. I can one up that by saying town at sleep, for I made a walking tour, and virtually everything was closed at 2:30PM on a Saturday. Close by is Faa'a International Airport.

Le Marche is the town marketplace. Of course it was closed when I walked by. But that is because it opened from 5:30AM to 1PM. A worthy stop would be the Botanical Garden/Gauguin Museum.

Britisher Samuel Wallis discovered Tahiti in 1767. Of course Captain Cook also landed, two years later.

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist artist, spent the final decade of his life in French Polynesia, leaving behind his wife (photo with wife Mette in Copenhagen) and 5 children at the age of 43. In many ways he was urged to leave by his family.

Few remember that he was first in his 20's a successful Parisian businessman, earning the equivalent today of $145,000/pear as a stockbroker. When the market crashed in 1882, he turned to painting.

He was largely mediocre as a painter in France, so moved to Panama, then Martinique. He made friends with Vincent van Gogh, linked to his brother Theo buying three of Gauguin's paintings. According to legend, in 1888 Vincent cut off his ear when they were both at a brothel in Arles, France. They never saw each other after that again. Left for Tahiti in 1891.

Had a life of controversy in French Polynesia, for he was known for his sexual relationships with teenage Polynesian girls. His first muse and native wife was Teha'amana when she was 13. Below when she was 14. There was a child. He "married" three native girls, all around the same age, and gave them syphilis. As decadent as this all seems, in Tahiti women did marry from the age of 13.

Painted When Will You Marry? in 1892. Sold in 2015 for $210 million.

He first left Tahiti in 1893, but returned in 1895. Entered a new relationship with Pahura when she was 14, and had two children. Passed away in 1903 at the age of 54.

He also did woodwork and sculpture. One, Therese, was sold for $31 million

Interested in any of his 1774 artworks? Click here. Or 2443 of them from invaluable. A self-portrait. Only $1500-$2500.

Okay, we yesterday were in Pape'ete, and adjacent to the Seabourn Odyssey was, of all the ships, the Paul Gauguin.

And next was the Majestic Princess.

Remember? A few days ago I mentioned that a cruise ship had docked in Sydney in November of 2022 with 800 covid-positive passengers. This was the Majestic Princess.

Well, anyway, first lunch, then a walk through Pape'ete.

It looked threatening, but we went into town anyway. We were greeted by Blue-Bar and his friends.

As everything was closed, the only attraction worthy of a photo was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It rained, so we went back to our ship.

A good day of walking. 4679 steps.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for...

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

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