Dinner out the night before Peter left for Vancouver
I’ve had a very productive week – getting lots of projects finished up and spending a lot of time on the marketing of my book and communicating with my publicist. The highlight of the week has been sleeping in the hammock on deck each night. It is dark between 6:30 and 6:30, so I’ve gotten in the habit of retiring in the hammock after dinner and reading until well after the stars have come out in all their glory. Peter found the neatest reading glasses for me before we left home that have lights on either side of them and they work like jim dandy!
As the sun rises, I do about an hour of Yoga on the deck and then have been faithfully doing my Spanish lessons. For daily exercise I either go for a long walk or paddle the kayak around the bay. After lunch I head over to shore to the internet café to get some more work done and to visit with the other cruisers. Yesterday, it was just pouring rain, but I was determined to go ashore to listen to the Canucks game on Radio Team 1040 via the internet. I was drenched by the time I got there, but it sure was worth it and what a finish! Go Canucks Go!!!
Afterwards, when I got back in the dinghy there was so much rain that I had to roll up my Capri pants to get in and bale for well over 15 minutes. It truly was a deluge. We are expecting more unsettled weather for the next 4 or 5 days, so it will just give me a chance to get more done, but will likely force me to sleep below decks. We did have another small earthquake this morning, but didn’t even feel it.
Local family walking home from church
Last Sunday, I walked about 45 minutes to the Church of Tonga and was once again the only non-Tongan. It was totally different than the other churches here – more staid and conservative – but the singing was still wonderful. What was very interesting is that all the girls sit on one side and all the boys sit on the other – right at the front. About two rows back, the local matriarch keeps an eagle eye on them and almost every 5 minutes she got up, went over and smacked someone and shook her finger at others for either falling asleep, goofing around or not paying attention. By the end of the service, I’m convinced that she managed to smack each girl and boy at least once. It is interesting that raising children here is very much a village activity and there is always one “head matriarch”.
Following the service, I walked home with Mari & her baby Beni and we had a great conversation. (Made missing my precious grandmunchkin Addison even harder). The Tongans are very literate and most of them welcome any opportunity to practice their English.
Mari & baby Beni – my companions for the walk home from church
Today I spent a wonderful day meandering through the Village and visiting with the locals. I even got a lesson on how to cut up a pineapple properly as I mentioned that I seem to waste too much the way I do it. I learned lots more of the history and tradition here, as the Tongans love to share their heritage and are very open to talking with visitors. Peter would have gone stir crazy, but for me it was a magical day! Just to give you an idea of prices here:
A morning at the outdoor market (prices given in equivalent Canadian dollars)
Large Pineapple $4.00
Large bundle of long beans $1.50
Coconut $.50 cents
Watermelons $.50 cents
3 cucumbers $1.50
5 small tomatoes $1.50
Homemade brown bread $4.00
Small bunch of carrots $1.50
Small bunch of bananas $1,50
Papaya $2.00
Bag of roasted peanuts $1.50
Cabbage $3.00
Everything bought at the outdoor market is fresh from the farm and comes straight from the source. The cabbage is delicious, but full of bugs, so when I cut it up (for coleslaw) it took about an hour just to make sure all the bugs, slugs and earwigs were all removed. My city-mouse girlfriend Lesly will be cringing as she reads this while my country-mouse girlfriend Krys will be saying “how great to be living in a developing country and enjoying all the local flavour”.
Arriving this week were 25 boats from New Zealand in a rally organized by the Island Cruising Association. They all sailed over together for safety in numbers on that notoriously dangerous stretch of water and then from here they stay in smaller groups or go their own way. They will travel onward to Fiji and then return as a group back to New Zealand before the hurricane season arrives. It’s been nice getting to know some of them as they drop by to say hello via dinghy or in the case of Kira and John via their stand-up surfboards. These are very impressive – but more so because they are actually “blow-up” models and can be stored in a knapsack. Kira has offered for me to give it a go, so I may just take her up on it. Everyone has been wonderful about inviting me to join them, because they think I must be lonely, but in fact I am so treasuring my solitude that I’ve politely declined to be more sociable.
Kira and John on their stand-up surfboards
I’ve got to give Peter heck though about his oversight during his many instructions and warnings that he left me with. Although he outlined almost every possible situation that could go wrong, he failed to mention what to do with a problem that two of the cruisers had yesterday. In this harbor there is a huge jelly fish population and it turns out that these two cruisers had their generators shut down instantly – the cause being jellyfish! Actually in fairness to Peter he did say if the generator shut down unexpectedly for any reason – just turn it off and thereafter use the engine for charging the batteries. So, we’ll see if over these three weeks I encounter a jelly fish clog-up.
The weekly Friday evening sailboat race is just about to commence, so I’ll say farewell so that I can go ashore and cheer on the racers and I’ll upload this to the blog while I’m there.
Until next week – just three more wins and the Canucks capture the Stanley Cup!
P.S. Peter begins the Van Isle 360 race on Saturday morning at 10:00. If you want to follow how they are doing check out www.vanisle360.com. Good luck to Joe and crew!
No comments:
Post a Comment