The Aranui 3

The Aranui 3 is 380 feet long and 58 feet wide and has a draught of 16 feet. Its main engine is can develop 5200 horsepower and it has a 400 horsepower bow thruster engine. It is outfitted with two cranes. The largest can lift 35 tons and the smaller one is capable of lifting 25 tons. The main cargo deck carries shipping containers and this deck opens up with back to back butterfly like doors. The freight capacity is 2500 tons.

The original Aranui began visiting the Marquesa Islands in 1959 but it wasn’t until 1985 that the first “freighter with comfortable amenities for passenger cruising” began.

As the Aranui 3 pulls away from Tahiti so begins a 2200 mile journey where the crew and the passengers will live together for 14 days.

Our first stop will be the atoll of Takapoto in the Tuamotu group of low islands about 300 miles north of Tahiti. This stop is for the passengers to stretch out for the first time after a full day at sea. After that it is off to the Marquesas to off load our cargo at eight different ports and to pick up what the islanders have produced for sale back in the Society Islands.