Hi All,
And this adventure in paradise continues…..we are still here in Fulaga, now almost 4 weeks and we are not sure when we are leaving as the weather has turned too boisterous for us with some high winds for a while, 20-30+ knots, so looks like we are here another week+…..o darn!!!!
The last blog left off after the picnic. We stayed in the spit anchorage for a while and had some good days of diving outside the pass. One day was not so good. The wind had backed to a northerly and it was a bit choppy outside the reef. Val, Sue and Kathy decided not to dive but Andy and I and another set of divers opted to go for it. We knew it would be a lot more comfortable under the water and it would not be nice in the dinghies so the dive plan was to drift to the pass and then dive the pass on the incoming tide. Sue elected to follow the bubbles while the other dinghies headed into the pass where it was much calmer and did a little snorkeling. In scuba diving, there is a cardinal rule: plan the dive and dive the plan. That is exactly what Andy and I did, but the other set of divers did not and continued across the pass entrance and down the other side, still on the outside of the reef. Sue got confused on whose bubbles were whose and followed the ones not in the pass because they would be coming up in some choppy waters and get pushed into the reef if no support boat was there. To compound the problem there were some other snorkelers in the area that made it hard to follow bubbles. Well, when Andy and I surfaced at the end of the pass, we had no support boats around…..ugh…..WTH…..then we looked outside the pass and saw many dinghies and the light dawned on us that they found the other divers, and we were hoping all was ok because why did they need all the dinghies.
As it turned out, it was very difficult to get the other divers out of the water with the choppy conditions so Sue had called Kathy on our dinghy and Buffalo Nickel to come help get the divers onboard….of course, now Kathy and Sue are getting quite stressed because no one seemed to know where Andy and I were, and Kathy and Buffalo Nickel were called out of position where we should be. There was one dinghy by us but they did not have a radio so we could not call Kathy or Sue. Andy and I were perfectly safe as we were inside the atoll, inflated our BC’s to keep us afloat, the waters were quite calm, and with the current we were drifting towards the big boats a few miles away! Andy inflated his bright orange safety sausage and held it up and eventually Kathy saw it and came to get us. I have a yellow safety sausage and was getting ready to inflate it also when we saw Kathy coming. Thankfully, it all turned out ok, and Sue was the hero for rescuing the wayward divers. The other divers learned a valuable lesson because if Sue had not been there, they would have eventually drifted out along the reef a long ways and possibly gotten injured on the reef. Needless to say we all had a few passage beers and a wee dram to help calm all the frayed nerves!!
Fishing w/Tai: After Andy caught his big wahoo, Tai was anxious to go fishing kaipalagai (white man) style….meaning trolling out of the dinghy. So one morning the 3 of us went out on pretty calm conditions…..while we did not catch any big tuna, mahi or wahoo, we did come back with about 9 fish of kawakawa tuna and some trevally fish…..a very good haul!!!
Drinking Kava Fijian Style: Tai had been asking us to come in for a kava drinking party and before Andy and Sue left (they had decided they were leaving a few days hence) we arranged with Tai for the kava session. Sue wanted the women to join us (in most cases the kava drinking is just for the men) and we all expected it be a small intimate gathering of our host families…..oh silly us. Andy and I decided that we did not have enough kava to supply the session so we asked if we could buy some at the shop…..we had noticed 2 very large bags had been brought in on the supply ship. It turns out Bis sells the kava, not the shop. So, we arranged to purchase 1 kilo for F$50…..Tai assured us that was plenty. Well, we think Tai was so excited to have that much kava, plus it is just the Fijian way to be very inclusive, that he expanded and invited all the cruisers and it seemed half if not most the village…..wow……but it was one of the best times yet for sure. In these sessions they name an honorary chief, me in this case, and it is my responsibility to instruct the kava bowl guys to start another round when the last round is finished. You say “taki” and that starts the round…..I, as honorary chief, was served first and then Kathy, then the rest of the cruisers and then the village folks. At first they said I was saying “taki” too softly and was told to belt it out…..so in my deepest voice and as loud as I could say it I belted out “taki” for many, many, many rounds…..in fact, eventually Tai leaned over and said we were almost out of Kava…..so Andy promptly got up and went and bought another kilo for us. There was a lot of music and dancing. Sue had brought her flute and Ben and Adam had bought their guitars and the village also had many musicians and they would sing these lovely Fijian songs…..many of them love songs. The village women would get up and start dancing and would grab a cruiser to join in!!!! Finally it was getting a bit late, my voice was about shot and Tai said are you hungry…..hmmmm, absolutely…..so we moved over to Koro’s house where there was a Fijian feast laid out for us…..OMG…..somehow the village women had prepared all this ahead of time…..fish, crab, wild cabbage (tastes like spinach), cassava, breadfruit et al…..yummers!
Well…..I have never had a kava hangover but I did the next day…..you do not hurt like with alcohol you just feel extremely lethargic as in noodle legs with absolutely no energy!! OK….I’m on the kava wagon for a bit 🙂 )))
Tours/Tea: We have had several requests to tour Mystic as they have had very few trawlers come to Fulaga. They have seen several Dashew’s FPB but no fiberglass trawlers such as Mystic. So one morning many of the men came out for a tour and we had a great time showing them Mystic and playing w/some of the instruments. We then sat around and had tea and snacks another great conversation with Bis and Soko about their family histories.
After that we helped Andy and Sue with a formal British Tea on Spruce for the weaving ladies. There were about 10 ladies who came for the tea. But before they went on Spruce, Jasmine wanted a tour of Mystic (she had told us the day before she wanted a tour but w/o the men….she is just a kick 🙂 ))). So we gave all the ladies a tour, including Tara from our host family……several of them were even interested in the engine room, but most admired Kathy’s galley and all her decorations we have collected on our voyages……all the wood carvings, sea shells, mats, and pictures/art. The tea on Spruce was an unmitigated success, as Sue did a proper, formal British afternoon tea. The ladies loved it, from the cucumber sandwiches to the scones with cream and jam!
Solar Panel and Bis: One day Bis called us on the VHF radio and wanted us to come into the village and help him with a solar panel. He had found this 12v 2004 panel in his father-in-law’s old shed. We brought in some tools and the volt meter, Bis hooked up the panel to a battery and voila, it was making 13.5 volts and charging at 0.5 amps…..after all this time it was still working. Bis will get an inverter and hopes to be able to run a laptop and other electronic devices…..perfect. While we were there, we of course had tea and then another 2+ hour conversation on his and Joanna’s family history. It seems Joanna’s father ran his own shop in this village and her mom was the head school master. Her father was evidently an important person in all of Lau as he held several government positions. When he died he willed a considerable sum of money to Joanna and she used the money first for education at the university in Suva……good for her!!! Bis also was at the university on scholarship and eventually they decided to return to the island, and they are now trying to set up their own shop with some of her father’s money. We have had quite an indepth conversation of business and how to make one work in the islands….a logistics hurdle for sure (Stuart where are you when we need you 🙂 ))))!!!
Sunday church service: We attended the church service again and continue to be so impressed with their worship services. After service we had a huge feast at Joe and Tara’s. I think she must have cooked every dish she knew! She didn’t have time to go out fishing with the ladies on Saturday, so Koro brought over cooked mangrove crabs for us. These people are so amazing! We brought in pictures of our family. We first showed the wedding book of David and Dana…..they were so interested and would study the detail of each picture…..they thought Dana adorable (well, of course, duh), David very handsome and quite tall and Lake Tahoe got a big wow. They loved looking at Nana and Papa and the pictures of all the family. Next we showed pictures from the Ipad of Josh and Courntey’s wedding….oh, wow they said, what a beautiful couple and such great pictures of the Pacific Ocean, especially since we have that Ocean in common……there is one picture of me with Josh and David and they kept trying to decide who looked liked who and why they were bigger than me 🙂 )))!!! But finally, the pictures they could not get enough of were of little Sadie…..now I have to admit we already have more pictures of Sadie than of our family including Mystic Moon…..and, as Kathy says, as it should be….yep, we all agreed she is the most precious granddaughter! 🙂 )))
I’ll close for now but upcoming stories will be Andy and Sue taking a sick pregnant women 62 miles to Lakeba for medical treatment and our help with communications, more fishing, diving, and boat projects (still have not thoroughly tested the winch but will do so shortly!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
