Cruiser Connections « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Day Show

by steve, on October 12th, 2011 (Coramandel, Drifter, Fiji)

We woke in a new world. The rain clouds had gone, the air was crisp and the sky was blue. After a week of miserable weather the change to the better has a great affect on the soul.

Around mid morning Helen and I went ashore. Helen was hoping to find one of the female dancers to show her some moves. It took a while and eventually it was decided to spend some time today on a dance they will be doing tonight which is easy to learn. In between all the waiting Helen learned and played a few games of Rummicub with Coby from Drifter who spends most days ashore.

Over the last couple of days we’d got to know a young couple of Brits, Matt and Jo. It was their last full day ashore. They had a dive planned but also decided it would be fun to join in the dance. We spent a little while going through the moves on the beach. In the end, their dive clashed with the show so they missed out.

While the day trippers were having their lunch it was time for me to change for the dance. I was given a sulu and a grass skirt to wear and had some black paint applied. I really had to wonder what I’d put myself in for. I have to confess my main motivation has been to get Helen to dance as the ladies in the troup make an effort to dress the guest dancers up. I knew if I didn’t join in, Helen never would, so here I find myself dressed like a plump native with a bad hair day.

Although I’ve learned two numbers, only one of them was on the lunch time play list. So song number 4 was the fisherman dance and I jumped in to join the guys doing the dance. Before we’d agreed that I would sit in the middle of them so I could get the timing right. In the end they connived to put me on the front row. Yikes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac_nmiP75Oc[/youtube]

It didn’t go so bad. I was nervous but tried not to look it. It was kind of fun to do.

I thought I was done after this number but I was dragged into the next dance as it was a no brainer. I just had to hang onto a palm frond and walk back and forward while the girls danced. Getting close to those coconut shells wasn’t so bad. The guy on the other end of the palm frond kept mucking about trying to pull me over. I pulled back of course.

Once all was done and over we made arrangements for dinner aboard Dignity. We’d invited Arnold and Coby from Drifter, Don from Coromandel and Clint, the dive instructor ashore all over for curry and drinks. We also invited Jo and Matt for sundowners. Helen and I went back on the boat for a rest and a clean up for me. I tried cleaning off the paint in the sea but that didn’t work. I tried lots of soap in the shower and that just made a mess. In the end it all just wiped off with a tissue.

At 5:30 I went ashore to pick up Clint, Jo and Matt, took them back to the boat and cranked out the G&Ts. It was a good evening. I took Jo and Matt back ashore for their dinner at 7pm. Clint ended up staying the night in our spare berth.

This morning I took Clint ashore and have visited both Drifter and Coromandel to do some computer assistance.

Rubbish

by steve, on October 9th, 2011 (Coramandel, Drifter, Endless, Fiji)

The weather continues to be pretty iffy with bouts of strong rain interspersed with cloudy skies and the occasional peak of sunshine. It looks to be much the same for the next few days.

On the subject of weather, yesterday morning we saw signs of a ‘big fat high’ predicted to form and leave Australia. This is often the herald of a good sailing window down to New Zealand. This mornings forecast reinforces the picture and, being a day later, gives us an extra days forecast on it and making the forecast more accurate. Had we been sitting here waiting to go we would be watching this one very closely, perhaps to leave in a couple of days. For now, we will watch it, and it’s aftermath, to learn something of the local weather.

We had a few visits in the morning. Petr from Endless popped by to say goodbye as they were off. Arnold from Drifter popped by to return our hard drive and lend us his. Don, Hannah and cat visited from Coramandel for a chat. Don’s a long time cruiser and Hannah is his current visitor/crew. He’s a jack of many trades including chiropractics. We agreed a swap of some of our surplus wine for some bone crunching later in the day.

Later in the day was around 4pm when we headed ashore. Don gave us both a good session on the massage tables here at the resort. The right hand side of my back was stiff. Apparently this was due to tension on the left hand side of my back which was caused by my left leg being shorter than the right which in turn was caused by my preference to step down onto my left leg. Plenty of action was taken on these causes and symptoms. It’s wasn’t overly painful but some strange things were done.

The Ireland v Wales match was on at 6pm but we forgot the summertime switch in NZ which hadn’t happened here. Therefore the match started at 5pm and we missed most of the first half. A few of us congregated around the resort TV to watch the rest of the match.

It turned out that Wayne, one of the resort owners, had Sky TV in his home within the resort. He let us go there to watch the England v France match. What a load of rubbish. England are now out. The second half had it’s excitement but we watched with our usual despair at our home team.

We are anticipating today’s match between South Africa and Australia with much excitement.

Rain

by steve, on October 8th, 2011 (Endless, Fiji)

Rain stopped any outside play. The water continues to be unclear so I allowed Helen only one wash in the morning as we must begin to conserve water. In the end this turned out to be necessary as it ended up raining a lot and we’d have had nowhere to dry a second load.

I was fairly listless for the day surfing the internet at very slow speed. Every now and then we pick up a 3G signal and we’re off for a bit but it never lasts that long. I decided my brain needed some real exercise and went back to Project Euler and nailed problems 172, 153 & 158. It’s such a weird feeling as each time I go back to this kind of activity I feel at first as if I’ve gone senile. The questions look impossible to answer and I wonder if we’ve had one too many parties. But soon the gears become unstuck and the synapses start to shake and ideas flow. Not all at once. Sometimes I have to walk away, have a snooze, read a book to distract myself and then come back with new ideas. Always satisfying to answer a few more as I’m continuing to feel as though I’ve run out of ones I can do.

In the evening we went ashore during a period when the rain had eased off to have a meal with Endless. There we met Paulo from Supermario who we’d not seen since the Galapagos. We had been told that dinner would be sausages and mash but it ended up being pasta again. Deja Vu!! Helen ended up going back with Endless while I stayed for a while drinking cava with the staff and guests. I didn’t return until midnight. I slept very well but now I am in that post cava haze. No Euler problems this morning.

This weekend we’ll be watching the rugby quarter finals. They don’t have Sky TV here which means we can only watch the matches that are shown on the Fiji One local TV station. So today we get to watch Ireland v Wales but not England v France which we really wanted to see. But tomorrow we get to see South Africa v Australia which should be an excellent match.

Live and Let Die

by steve, on October 7th, 2011 (Drifter, Endless, Fiji, Tracks)

We began the day digging out all the bottles of wine scattered around the boat. Quite possibly, there are a few that escaped our attention but those will turn into a nice surprise later. The idea is to retain just enough to get us to New Zealand and sell the rest at cost to folks who are short. We can replace the wine in New Zealand and don’t want to have any complications with customs on the way in. However, for folks here who have run low, buying locally is expensive so it helps all. This had all come from a conversation with Arnold from Drifter (the Dutch boat that’s been here for a month) the night before and who’d shown interest in the idea.

Once we’d selected all the wines we wanted to keep/couldn’t part with, we laid out all the rest. I dinghied over to Drifter to pick up Arnold so he could come over and pick which wines he wanted. He snapped up all the reds we had spare.

Later I visited Endless to discuss windlass relays with Petr. They’d had a problem raising their anchor but the problem had now gone away without action. An intermittent problem with raising ones anchor is not a good thing as one never wants to be delayed when raising the anchor, particularly in an emergency. We discussed a few options which I hope was helpful.

While there we decided to all take a trip up the nearby river. With Petr, Ola and Neil from Endless we were soon in our dinghies motoring the 5nm to Natadola Harbour to our south. The trip took us up the river amost to the dock where we’d gone to visit Sigatoka a few days ago. On the last bend there is a turn off to the right where a small creek winds it’s way through the mangroves where it finally widens to a very small lake which ends pretty close to the beach there. As a result of all the recent rain the main river was chocolatey brown. Worse, when we entered the creek we quickly encountered a log jam where a mass of bamboo and some trash had collected and wedged up. There was a nasty smell too which was soon attributed to a dead pig floating in the mass.

Not wanting to be put off our goal I started pushing the log jam with the dinghy hoping to push it further up river where it could break up. We were partially successful in this. The dinghy also created a path halfway through the mass. We were beginning to ride up over the mass so I backed off to rethink. Petr then gave a go in his dinghy. He powered in and rose over the last section. The mass was again pushed forward and as it did so closed in behind them, dead pig and all. There were nearly through though and with use of their oars made it the rest of the way. With the mass now much looser we were able to push our way through too. Helen had to use a bamboo pole to push the floating carcass aside as we didn’t want it touching the dinghy.

Once we were all through we were back to heading up the last stretch of creek. As we gained confidence we powered through almost at full speed occasionally slowing wary of potential submerged hazards. When we could go no further we tied off our dinghies to the mangroves and went ashore. A short way along the dirt track there we found a path to the beach and walked along that towards the resort area. This section of the island boasts a couple of hotels, has a fine beach and great surf.
We stopped for lunch and beer at the less posh hotel before heading a little further to visit the Intercontintal. Neil went for a brief swim while we had a brief walk around the grounds.

Soon it was time to return. Back in our dinghies we raced back up the creek. The log jam was still there and needed a bit of effort to clear but not as bad as before. Better still, the pig had floated off a short way so the stink wasn’t so bad.

Back down the river we decided to explore a side creek. We worked our way along it, at one point having to duck low to get under an old railway bridge. We pushed on slowly as the mangroves closed in over us. Eventually we decided enough was enough and turned around. Knowing there were no submerged obstacles we raced back. It felt like a scene out of Live and Let Die as we sped through the narrow channel through the mangroves.

Here is the track of our trip.

View Likuri Dinghy Ride in a larger map

We ended up on Endless for coffee/tea and biscuits before. We agreed to meet up on Dignity at 6pm for a few games of Fluxx which Petr really likes. Ola and Niel also enjoyed the session – perhaps a few new converts.

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by steve, on October 6th, 2011 (Endless, Fiji)

Time rolls on. Bit of an admin day so I won’t bore you with the details. The weather has been pretty lousy with torrents of rain. The anchorage is now green from the local out flow. As there is a strong tidal current here the boat is often sideways to the wind which means the rain pours into the hatches. We did a wash in the morning before the rain but had to bring the washing inside and string it up to dry there. All adds to the humidity.

Endless showed up just before all the rain. We made contact on the radio and agreed to go ashore for the evening meal/show. This turned out, again, to be very enjoyable. Similar but different to the last time.

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