Why I’m here - the back story

It has come to my attention that there may be people reading this blog who are not fully versed in how I came to be sitting on a sailboat outside Savusavu, Fiji on December 1 while they are shoveling snow.

Luck and longevity, my friends.

I met Joe back in 1987 or thereabouts.  He was my first GTA in Instrumental Analysis at MTU.  We became lifelong friends, had many adventures together in the Keweenaw (Copper Falls mine - don’t tell the mine inspector).  Joe developed and sold a successful business and he and Michelle bought a sailboat to become cruising sailors.  They have been across the pond, in the Med to Turkey, all around the Caribbean (including Cuba).  Vicki and I spent a week with them in Grenada and I helped them take Peregrine through the Panama Canal several years ago.  They sailed across the Pacific to French Polynesia and wound up in Fiji.  They came back to the states to visit in 2019 and Covid hit.  Fiji closed its borders and they were stuck for two years.

Meanwhile, a cyclone showed up in Fiji.  Peregrine’s mooring lines chafed through and she drifted through the mooring field, over some reefs and wound up on the shore where she caused quite a commotion amount the locals.  Those same locals, most of whom are unknown to this day, managed to get Peregrine back afloat and towed back to her mooring.  There was rudder and stanchion damage but no hull breaches.  Someone had broken in through the front hatch, though, and subsequent rainstorms soaked the interior.

They came back to Peregrine in the Spring of 2022 to a real mess.  Mold everywhere.  The boat was a cockroach hotel - you get the picture.  A lot of labor got the boat ready to sail to Nadi (pronounced Nan-dee) on the other big island where there was skilled labor aplenty.  The boat got a thorough hull job with all the blisters ground out and filled, new gel coat and bottom paint, and a new rudder was built.  Joe thinks the boat is in the best shape its ever been.  So, back to Savusavu and reef diving.

But wait - there’s more…

Joe and Michelle wanted to come back to the states to see relatives again.  Strangely enough, they actually missed the snow.  And - they didn’t want the boat unattended during cyclone season again.  So Joe scratches his head and says:  “I know a guy.”

And that’s why I’m here.  I’m even registered with Fiji customs as the rightful Captain of the boat for the next four months.  Been through two weeks of on-the-job training; I think I know where all the spares are.  Joe expects me to keep Peregrine sailing and there is some discussion about bringing her to the other island to pick Joe and Michelle up when they return in April.

And how am I ever going to keep myself busy, you ask?  Joe said “If there’s any improvement you think the boat needs, go for it.”  Music to my ears.  Now where is that disco ball?