Day 100, Year 2: Getting Closer to Leaving Fiji
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2007
Weather: Sunshine is Back–Beautiful Weather
Location: Lautoka, Viti Levu, Fiji
We had red sails last night and today was a sailor’s delight. Paul of Ranger asked me what “sailor’s delight” means–good winds or sunshine or both? I never really thought about it, but when I see red sails at night, I think the next day will be sunny with moderate winds. And that is what today was, except the winds were from the wrong direction for us. But we only had to move about twelve miles, so we motored and enjoyed the delightful day.
Today was all about getting ready for the passage to Vanuatu. Passages always mean talking to our children before we leave, cooking food for the passage, checking the weather, and doing the last minute shopping. And that is exactly how we spent today.
We stayed right on schedule this morning. We met Marie and Paul of Ranger on shore at 8:45 and walked out to the round-about where we could catch a 50 cent taxi. We were in town and on our computers by 9 AM. The most important “getting ready for passage” task for me is talking to our son Justin and to our daughter Heather. I thought that Mark had emailed them and prearranged 9 AM calls, but we had a miscommunication. He had emailed them that we would call at 10 AM our time, but it all worked
out. Since we were an hour early, Justin’s computer was asleep and we could only reach his cell phone to leave a message. Heather was not online, so we called her cell phone and only got a message. But within minutes, both were on their computers. We ended up talking to Heather first, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing Heather and Sam. Jed was not home, so we missed seeing him today, but Sam certainly kept us entertained. He is still absolutely fascinated by the webcam on the computer, and he
spends his entire time trying to find a way to grab it. He has the biggest, most beautiful eyes I have ever seen (grandmother’s opinion), but they are also the most intent eyes I have seen. You can sense that when he sees something he wants, you will be hard pressed to keep him from it. Poor Heather and Jed. I think they are going to have their hands full with this little one! Heather said that they will be in their newly purchased home by September 1, so her next month is pretty well taken
care of with moving.
We then talked to Justin. He didn’t have his webcam on so we didn’t get to see him. He and Jo have just moved into the home they are renting in Albuquerque and Justin says it is wonderful. Their puppy, Alphie, has a fenced yard which they are very happy about. So both children seem to be doing great. We aren’t sure what the internet situation will be in Vanuatu, so we don’t know how often we will be able to talk to them from there. I don’t know if I could have sailed around the world ten years
ago when talking to people back home was not so easy and affordable. That contact with family is what keeps me going out here.
While we were talking to Justin, Mark was at the same time playing around with uploading pictures to the website. We have not been able to do that since leaving Suva, so he was just checking it out. What he found is that Nadi has a great connection and he was able to upload quite a few pictures beginning with our arrival in Suva. Justin has received the CD we sent him with the pictures, and soon he will try to get the rest uploaded. I’ll be sure to mention when all of the pictures up to our arrival
in Savusavu are posted. The pictures from Savusavu onward will either be uploaded in Vanuatu or sent to Justin from there.
While Mark uploaded photos, I did the last minute shopping. We had set 11:30 as the last possible time to leave town and head back to the boats, so that is when we hailed a taxi, went to the butcher’s to pick up the meat we had ordered yesterday. As soon as we had the meat, we headed directly to our boats to get that put in the freezer. Both Ranger and ourselves made one more trip back in to the Denarau shopping plaza for last, last minute shopping, and then we were on our way to Lautoka where
we have to check-out of the country. White Swan and Maggie Drum left at the same time, and we are all now in Lautoka. Tomorrow morning we will check-out with customs and immigration and either head to Musket Cove for tomorrow night and start our passage on Saturday morning, or we will just keep going once we leave here. Since starting out on a passage on Friday is supposed to be bad luck, we might just tuck into Musket Cove for tomorrow night (our Friday), and head for Vanuatu on Saturday morning.
It is a four to five day passage, so we will be in a new country by next Tuesday or Wednesday if all goes well.
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| 070802 Day 100 Viti Levu, Fiji–Denarau Anchorage and Cultural Shows |
