Fahiti ho!

 Nick and I walked through the village.  Well-kept up I thought.  Incredibly friendly people.  There is some question whether Yamata is the correct name.  Yamata is on the chart.  The headman's wife called it Nabora village.   Met the local schoolmarm.  Melea teaches first and second grades at the local school, about 20 students in her class.  We didn't get to see students because it's a holiday now.  We had a great discussion about adverbs. School and rugby pitch: We walked to the beach.  There is a sand spit connecting two islands.  Nick had the foresight to remember about the tide - it was coming in and we would have been stranded had we walked across the spit as initially intended. Pics of Yalobi Bay from the shore:

Finally I get to sevusevu.  Nick and I changed clothes and hopped in the dinghy.   His kava looked different from mine; I thought I recognized it from someplace but my kava was tied up in a paper bundle so we couldn’t compare.   We start toward shore and Nick sees this guy in a red shirt waving us over to the right.  Turns out there are a lot of rocks near shore and he was directing us to a bouyed path through the rocks.  Landed on sand, kids helped pull the dinghy up, and we met Jim.  Jim is the headman of the village.  He knew why we were coming in and led us to his hut.  We sat down in a room with no furniture whatsoever and he proceeded to do the sevusevu ceremony.   After he got our names, he said a long prayer for us in Fijian.  I only recognized our names and countries of origin.  Then he clapped three times and started speaking English.  He said we were now welcome to stay as long as we liked, go anywhere we liked, he related the names of all his family (which of course I do

Stardate:  Aug 25 Musket Cove blows.   I’m sorry, fellow cruisers, but this place is too crowded, too noisy, and besides, I plugged my head up this morning.   Yes, plugged, as in the turds went in but the turds don’t come out.   Whatever - I have a bucket.   Will fix in Savusavu. Nick texted last night that he was headed out to Waya Is. this morning, so I am happy to leave, plugged head and all.   My route was pretty fixed, given all the reefs and other sketchy areas.  It was a slog straight into variable but light (very light) winds.  Tried to use the jib several times; kept getting backwinded.  Finally gave up.  The Iron Jenny was called into use the entire 40 miles.  Left at 8 am, anchored off Waya at 6:30.  Good timing - Nick pulled in right behind me, starting from Vuda.  Anchored in 30 feet of water; nice sand bottom, good holding.  Beautiful islands. Quick launch of the dinghy so we could go in to do sevusevu.  That’s the subject of the next post. One of my sailing apps

 Ok, been there, done that.  Too crowded, too noisy.  (Hey, Aussies?  Do you have to party past midnight two boats away from me?). The famous Island Bar is a shack; Vuda's Sunset Bar is much better.   Anchorage is deep with reported good holding.  I have 150 feet of chain and anchored in 60 feet.  Not much for scope.  Pretty open to any winds from the west or south.   Nice sunsets, though.  I didn't know which of these I liked best so I published them both. It's 7 am.  I'm outta here ASAP.  Heading to Waya where the men are strong, the women good-looking and all the children are above average.   The cell coverage, unfortunately, is not above average.  I may be radio silent for a while.  Fear not, dear reader, I shall return with tales of swashbuckling and derring-do that will curl the toes of the common hobbit.

 My friend Tim put me in touch with his friend Nick who is also at Vuda.  Met Nick and invited him over for beers.  He's from England, been sailing around the world for six years.  Wants to leave tomorrow to go up the Yasawa chain of islands to Savusavu.  I suggest buddy boating.  He agrees.  Only problem for him is his credit card is all fubar'd and he has to sort that out tomorrow, so he'll be delayed a day.  No problem, say I.  I wanted a few days at Musket Cove, the cruiser's paradise that I keep hearing good things about. Friday am.  I take off for Musket.  Nick will text me when he's good to go.  We'll meet at Waya, first big island in the Yasawa chain.  

 Tuesday night.  Final prep for travel.  All tanks full, lines run, sail cover off.  Maybe I should check the windlass. Crap. The connection to run the windlass (anchor up/down) is flaky.  Not what I need single-handing.   Wednesday am.  Tell marina I'm here another day to sort this out.  Brian comes over and we troubleshoot how to cut the power to the windlass so I can replace the connection.  It's a standard extension cord end, nothing fancy - put I think it best to do the replacement without the power on. Eventually we figure it out.  Of course it was a simple breaker.  Fixed by 1 pm.   Inform marina that I'll be leaving tomorrow.  Pay another day's mooring charges.  Boating life...

 My Precioussssss...  The freezer finally arrived, at least two weeks after they said it would.  Cost me an extra week in the marina waiting for it.  But it was worth it.  Sits on the floor of the cabin, freezes water for ice, keeps meat frozen.  It only has one job, and it appears to do it well.  I have it blocked behind the settee table for when I'm underway.

Meet the Big-eye Trevally.  AKA, Dave's supper.  Ollie (of last night's bass fame) is taking off for NZ on Tuesday.  He had this fish in the fridge and couldn't use it.  Only a few days old.  He offered, I accepted.  Filleted just like a pike with the exception that the lateral line right before the tail turns into something the Goodyear company should be making tires from.  I literally couldn't cut it with the fillet knife; I had to get the big butcher knife from the galley and even then I was about to go get side cutters.  I kind of butchered the filleting job; some weird bones in this guy.  I made sure to cut away all the dark red flesh (blood?) and ended up with some decent pieces. So how was it?  Pretty good.  Rolled in corn starch with salt and pepper, fried on the stove.  I only ate the smallest piece.  Still a little skittish about Fiji fish.  Ollie said they had hooked this one out in the ocean so it wasn't a reef fish.  He is well aware of ciguatera.  If E

Met Brian and Rita at the marina office.  They are now waiting on a part to be delivered from NZ for their hydraulic line.  The guy who was supposed to fix it here was very apologetic, but finally gave up.  They will be here for another week waiting for DHL to ship it. Brian says "Bring your guitar over in an hour." Sounds good.  Brian is the (near) deaf keyboard player that was part of our circle up in Savusavu.  We get along great musically.  He is one of those guys who has perfect pitch and I don't.  See?  So at the appointed time I pick up the guitar and walk up the deck toward the dock.  The guy in the boat next door looks up and says "Hey!  I have a bass!  Can I join you?"  Holy wah - we may have a combo!  I said sure and pointed out Brian's boat.  The guy said he had some stuff to do at the fuel dock but that he would be over. I trip happily over to Brian's boat and announce that I had invited another musician to join us.  Brian was all pumped but

Some of you are aware that I had a run-in with biting insects last Jan-Mar up in Savusavu.  There was speculation regarding what they were, with the likely culprit bedbugs.   Somehow I expected this trip to be different. It wasn't.  It isn't. The bites hit two days after I landed on the boat.  They weren't too bad the first day.  They got progressively worse on my back.  About the fourth day - holy wah!  I was the Dave buffet for something. Last night it was so bad that I made up my mind to get to a medical clinic for help.  Yeh, that's right, I voluntarily sought out medical advice.  That's how bad it was. Woke up and went to the marina office.  "Can you recommend a clinic?"  "Yes, we always send people to Zen's Medical Clinic.  Would you like me to make you an appointment?"  Say howdy, ma'am.  Please do. So I got a noon appointment at this medical clinic.  Same day.  Hell, same *morning*.  Try that in Hancock with Portage Health.  They

 Here's the thing about Savusavu - it's not big, there's limited selection of stuff, but dammit, you can park your dinghy a stone's throw from the market (and the liquor store).  That makes provisioning the boat a piece of cake. Contrast that with Vuda.  Vuda has amenities, but you have to take the bus into Lautoka for shopping.  And you can carry only so much shit.  The cabbie must share stories around the kava bowl at night... So I'm trying to rig a switch for the anchor chain wash pump that I can operate from the bow, rather than have to scramble back down into the cabin, move up to the head, and toggle the switch that was formerly the shower sump pump.  (If that's confusing, imagine bringing up a muddy chain in an onshore breeze only to realize that you have to make three full boat length trips to get the wash pump going - meanwhile watching the reef get closer...) So my idea is to run a lamp cord out through the head hatch with a switch on the end that will

 "Captain!  Captain!  Peregrine!" Oh, f***, here we go again.  I have had to untie and retie my stern lines a half-dozen times the past few days.  Apparently the slip next to me is the 'transient' slip so every time a boat comes in or out I have to be jostled from whatever somnambulant ennui I am presently in to a semblance of activity.  The current occupant is 'Timy' from Slovenia.  They had rudder problems and came in for repairs.  The problem for them is the promised help did not show up last night and now they have a deadline of 3 pm to leave Fiji courtesy of Fiji Customs.  So off they go on a test cruise to evaluate the fix.  And when they come back in I'll have to mess with my stern lines again. Timy is on a two-year expedition around the globe.  You can follow their journey on YouTube.  Search 'Sailing Timy' and they pop right up.  Of course you can't understand a word they say because it's all in Slovenian.  The production values ar

 Or is it 'David'?  Enquiring minds want to know. So I felt like shit yesterday.  Actually it started Tuesday when I was in Lautoka; my barber actually gave me tissues with which to blow my nose.  But nothing like yesterday.  All the 'Vid symptoms in spades.  Laid around with no energy, although I managed to make it to lunch at the BoatShed.  Went through a whole roll of toilet paper blowing my nose. So I faced the fact that I probably had Covid.  Damn airline travel.  Joe and Michelle had a couple of test kits on the boat (still good, I checked) so I took one.  You know, the 'lateral flow' type where you have to wait 15 minutes to read the result? So...swab, swab, rinse, squeeze, drop, start stopwatch on phone.. And with absolutely perfect timing comes the banging on the stern.  "Captain, you must release your line." The boat next to me was leaving and my stern line was in the way.  So I'm bouncing between the cockpit and the cabin to check on the Cov

I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead I just need some place where I can lay my head "Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?" He just grinned and shook my hand, "no" was all he said Take a load off Fanny Take a load for free Take a load off Fanny And (and, and) you put the load right on me (You put the load right on me) R.I.P. Robbie.  Still trying to learn your intro to "The Weight".

 Dunno what the occasion was.  I'll ask if I see them.  This is all marina staff singing.

 "Maverick!  It's here!  The bane of our existence!" "Calm down, Goose.  What's here?" "His guitar!  OMG, we're all going to die!" "C'mon, Goose, he's not all that bad." "Yeah, kind of like a bastardized amalgamation of Jimi, SRV and Lightfoot.  Played backwards." "Goose, we can always go to another marina..." "But I like it here.  And you like the Mai-Tais and the lovely Anopheles..." "Yeah, they're everywhere, Goose.  Maybe he'll have pity on the marina folk and not play where he can be heard." "Yeah, Maverick.  That's a plan.  We can recruit swarms of Aedes to drive him below.  Maybe that'll muffle the sound enough for us to survive." "Or maybe the marina folk will figure out that what he calls 'music' will keep us mosquitoes away.  Hmmm?  Haven't thought about that, have you?" "Well I won't tell them if you don't, Maverick.

 Off to Lautoka this am to have Digicel check my phone account.  Also provisions for the boat.  Lautoka is the closest town/city to the marina.  You walk out of the marina and wait for the bus.  $2 FJD gets you a seat.  Doesn't get you a glass window - they have drop down curtains for the rains.  (See below) Found Digicel by accident; clearly I don't know how to use Google Maps.  They were no help, as it turns out.  The guy there topped off my plan, giving me another 150 GB of data, but no talk time, which is what I went for.  I may just get another phone number if this keeps up. Stopped at Jack's of Fiji to buy a light jacket.  They don't have light jackets in Fiji.  They don't need light jackets in Fiji.  They tried to sell me a hoodie with not much more substance than a tee shirt.  I don't want a hoodie, dude, I want something that will stop the wind.  They sent me down the street to a sports store.  They tried to sell me a hoodie.  I gave in.  It's a nic

 Spent yesterday alternatively unpacking and sleeping.  No food on the boat, so I had lunch at the BoatShed restaurant at the marina.  Some kind of fish chunks in a white sauce with veggies and taro chips on the side.  Delicious.  $5 USD.  The beer cost $4 USD, bringing my total to a staggering...$9 USD for a great, filling lunch.   My guitar is still not here.  DHL has it and the marina folks have promised to track it down.  Probably today.  Freezer is scheduled to arrive Thursday. All three dozen eyeglasses that I had collected and brought out made it intact.  A tribute more to luck than my skill in packing, methinks. It got down to 72F last night.  I see what Michelle had said about using a sheet to cover up.  I may actually have to break down and buy a sweatshirt or fleece in town for sundowners.  Oh the horror!  It's going to be 72 degrees for drinks!  We may all freeze! Speaking of town, a trip into Lautoka is on tap today.  My digicell phone plan is not functioning properly.

 "He's back." "Goose, we've been all over the world for ten years now spreading the Zika virus.  We've encountered thousands of people.  Do you suppose you can be a little more specific?" "Ok, Maverick, ok.  The big guy is back." "Joe Biden is in Fiji?" "No.  Our big guy.  The one who brought Shirley to Panama.  The one in whose mind we live lives of vicarious existence." "Oh.  Him.  Did he remember everything this time?" "Seems so.  Haven't heard any swearing from the boat yet.  Some loud music playing.  Tumbling Dice or something..." "Well that's good news.  Hey, have you tried the Mai-Tais here?  They're pretty good." "Mav, it's ten o'clock in the morning..." "Hey, I'm a mosquito on vacation, what can I say?"   "Hey Maverick?" "Yeah, Goose?" "Doesn't it ever bother you that we've lived over ten years, drink umbrella

 Chilling in Redwood City, two days to the Fiji flight.  Have a roll-on chock full of stuff for Fiji, including donated prescription eyeglasses that I hope to distribute to locals in need of them.  Also a drone to check for bommies.  We'll see how long that lasts...may not make it out of CA.   Got word that my guitar is at the marina waiting for me.  I will scare the locals with my Jimmy Buffet covers - probably cause an international incident.   Also, my 12V freezer is on the way.  Ice for sundowners!  What a concept.  I may barter ice balls for food while out on the islands.   Bringing Borax for ants, Prevagen for Jeff, a wireless microphone setup for Brian, and weatherproof 12V/USB sockets for Peregrine.  Plus my sports action camera this time is waterproof to three meters without an enclosure.  Also have a spare micro-SD card. And...and...and - I remembered to add 'Exile on Main Street' to my stored music.  The trip is already a success.  I hope the folks at Vuda Marina