There we were on our second night out of Tahiti cruising the South Pacific as most of us had dreamt about for years. We were on the beautiful 5-star, 150-passenger “motor sailing yacht” Wind Song operated by Windstar Cruises (www.windstarcruises.com). The cruise promised a visit to the legendary island of Bora Bora as well as other lesser known secrets of French Polynesia.

We’d had our first day in port on the island of Raiatea. In the early evening, a group of talented local singers and dancers came onboard to perform the “Children of Raiatea” show. Just what you’d expect, right?

The ship departed Raiatea at 10:30PM for the short overnight crossing to our next port of call, Huahine.

But at approximately 2AM on Sunday 1 December 2002, passengers are awakened suddenly by the signal we had been briefed about just that morning... 7 short tones followed by 1 long one. The captain's voice announces over the PA system for everyone to get our lifevests and go immediately to our muster stations. There is a "small fire" in an engine room.

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