MandM Cruising: Pit Stop Fun in Fiji

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.

out on the hard!

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.

croquet lawn bbq

..... 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.

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.

spice stock up at he market

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!