Drunk on Life

I was feeling quite emotional yesterday morning. While at Robinson Crusoe island we’ve been in a very pleasant limbo. The place runs itself as a family and long term visitors get sucked in. For a while we’ve forgotten the outside world. But the prospect of leaving brings the outside world back in. In my mind were thoughts of the passage to NZ ahead, visiting sorely missed family in November through February in South Africa and the UK and the prospect of becoming grand parents in January. Stirred in were the feelings of sadness for leaving Robinson Crusoe and, not too long from now, Fiji. Front and center were very warm feelings for Helen brought on from watching her dance the night before. It feels like when we first met 28 years ago.

I first went ashore on my own to pick up some T-Shirts, a DVD and settle up. I treated myself to a cooked breakfast, something I’m not allowed on the boat unless I’ve been really good. I gave some antibiotics to Clint, the dive instructor, who has an infected boil on his leg as well as some of Helen’s chilli chutney which I also gave to Rie and Don from Coromundel. We have enough to last and the excess won’t be allowed into NZ so we gave it away. I also gave some scissors to the dance group as the ones they’d been using when Helen had helped out were really bad.

Once this was all sorted I returned to the boat to pick up Helen and a USB stick so we could collect some of the music played at the resort. We said our goodbyes, gave a few hugs and made our departure.

The winds were light so we motor sailed. In calm seas we headed north west with the job out for an extra push. We cranked up the music playing Cat Stevens mixed with some of our new Polynesian mix. For some reason, once out at sea there are no regrets. Past and future merge into one, the emotions run. We were drunk on life. I think the South Pacific hook set a little deeper. (On that note it’s worth pointing out we caught no fish).

We only went as far as Momi Bay where we intend to wait a couple of nights before heading into Denaru Marina.

Here we enjoyed a quiet afternoon to ourselves. We watched the videos of our dancing and remembered the fun we had. It’s obvious we don’t have the bodies of the dancers (although in my mind Helen always does) but I think we’re doing pretty well considering our combined ages are over 100. In the spirit of trying anything once we’ve found something that was very personally enjoying.

BBQ ribs for dinner. Mmmmmm.

I continue to look at the wide area forecasts each day. The ‘Big Fat High’ which, 5 days ago was forecast to leave Australia 5-6 days from then, is still forecast to leave Australia in 5-6 days. Maybe it’s sitting there waiting for our departure. Somehow I doubt it. I expect that if I looked at a map of where the jet stream is right now it’s probably snaking around this system leaving it stationary. It’ll be good to watch as it passes as we could well be taking the next one behind it.