Well we certainly had some fun in Fiji, even if most of the
time was spent in the marina at Vuda Point, a pit stop really.
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| out on the hard! |
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| mini bar, mini bar |
After our arrival check in we were given a berth in the
tranquil small and petite pond. Works lists came out, potential suitors to
carry out said work were engaged, and before we knew it we were out of the
water and on the hard to; change cutlass bearing, check shaft alignment, re-new
rudder seals steering cog and bearings, and repaint antifoul. All went well in
the end though someone swapped our relatively new compass with their older one
(we didn’t notice until we were on our way to New Caledonia).
A days work usually ended by a cool refreshing dip in the
resorts pool next door and the mobile ‘mini bar’ was always a good indication
of time to knock off.
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| croquet lawn bbq |
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| ..... the haloumi got smashed! |
While we were out of the water we accommodated a cabin room,
then upgraded ourselves to the cottage. This meant we didn’t have to eat out
all the time and we had our own shower and deck. We took it upon ourselves to
host a croquet lawn bbq which saw no
less than 3 guitars come out and 2 bbq’s raging in action. Everyone was amazed
at what I was putting on the bbq….haloumi cheese…it got the thumbs up! The bbq
was bettered however by some Americans holding a pot luck (everyone brings
their own meat and a salad to share) who provided a pig, cooked by the locals
in a hungi oven, for all to enjoy.
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| the 'Frightened Pig' pot luck! |
Our trips to Lautoka, for shopping in the market and the few
stores, was always accompanied by some bhajis, rotis, or curries giving us our
fill of spice. Bhoros, our 72 year old day worker gave us his lunch each day in
exchange for a sandwich. His wife made great rotis which we couldn’t keep up
with so many a curry was had back at the cottage as well.
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| spice stock up at he market |
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| keep going Bhoros! No money no funny! |
So many functions were put on by the Boatshed bar at the
marina, with cruisers coming in and heading out again on a regular basis. We
became a part of the furniture after a while, but we weren’t the only ones.
Some people stay in the marina for 6 months at a time, never moving their boat!
Extremely social, and the Fijians are always friendly.
We managed to get a few days cruising at Musket Cove, but is
was a fairly quiet affair being near the end of the season. In any case, we had
to get our skates on to get to New Caledonia and onto Australia if we had any
chance of beating cyclone season!
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| another cruiser on the way out.. |
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| Zenna prepared and looking good! |
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| ...the Fijian farewell choir. |
Fiji however…..we will be back!
