Ok, I'm a long day from Savusavu. Calm waters, cell coverage, restaurants and bars. I'm gonna do this, come hell or high water. Got up and made pancakes. Was down to a quarter tank of diesel so I took the time to add my 40 liters of reserve to the tank. Up anchor at eight, motored (surprise!) straight into big swells at the head of Nadi Bay. Tough it out, gotta make happy hour. Three hours later I'm across Wainunu Bay and entering Nasonisoni Passage. This is a well-known passage - I've been through it several times now. But not in this wind. Nasonisoni generally runs on an angle of 116 degrees. The wind was howling out of the east (90 deg). Ok, I can do this. Happy hour awaits. Coming out of the east end of Nasonisoni the swells were some of the biggest I've ever seen. They rivaled the ones Nick and I saw coming out of Fawn Harbor two trips back. The boat was twisting and corkscrewing on top of the swells, all...
May 5. Also Island Don’t know why it’s called Also Island. It was started by a guy named Jim Bandy back in 2000. It’s a ramshackle enterprise, with a big deck full of half-disassembled outboard motors and other machinery. Jim is a kind of legend in Fiji and I was excited to meet him. I walked up the stairs and met Veronica, who was taking care of the place while her mother was away. Turns out Jim died a year ago of prostate cancer. No one had updated the Fiji Compendium with this fact, so I couldn’t know. I’m starting to think I’m a jinx: First Morena dies two weeks before I visited at Naqaiqai, then I crash a funeral in Kioa, and now I find Jim Bandy has passed. I’m scared to get back to Somosomo - who the hell else has kicked the bucket? Village across from Also Is. Can't find the village on a map so I don't have a name. “This is my home,” the headman said, touching the wood floor of the porch. “This is now yo...
Nice marina!! Snow is melting here!
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