We're back in Fiji

Bula from Fiji This has been the longest stretch (almost a year) since we have been onboard QuickStar. We had to leave a few months early last Fall, but will be eternally grateful that we were able to fly to Ontario and spend the last six weeks of his life with Peter’s father. During this time, I was also busy organizing the travel details for the Mexican wedding of our son Danny and daughter-in-law Ashley. There were 47 of us gathered for the week in early December for this amazing wedding celebration. It was so wonderful that all four of our kids and their significant others could be there with all of us.

After the big Christmas celebration and get togethers, our daughter Kylie and son-in-law Taylor’s wedding was coming up quickly in early March. I helped Kylie to organize this, which was held in our home village of Silver Star Mountain, B.C. There were 70 people who came from all over including Australia (since Taylor is Australian), Ontario and within B.C. and Alberta. This was a great weekend celebration and the contrast between Danny’s sun wedding and Kylie’s outdoor snow wedding made both events special and memorable in their own way.

We had decided to delay our return to QuickStar, which is normally early April to be the beginning of July. This was to give Peter some “cowboy” time as he was missing being part of brandings and wrangling duties. He did get to spend a lot of time riding, but he also really enjoyed helping to build a barn for a really good friend (this was after spending about 3 weeks in the early winter helping another friend build a house…hmmmm….sounds a bit like a trend…which he absolutely loved!) During this time, I focused intensely on launching my book – which is the first marketing I had done for it, even though it was already in its third printing. I was extremely gratified that Financial Fitness for Beginners became an Amazon #1 best seller on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca on June 12th. It has been really rewarding hearing about all the success stories from my readers, and due to this I will focus more energy on the book and doing the radio interviews that have been requested when we return from this cruising season

We still had intentions of returning to QuickStar at the end of June following a week in Ontario for a friend’s wedding and a family ceremony of planting a tree in memory of Peter’s Dad. In the meantime, however, our son Danny and Ashley bought an 80 acre ranch in Pritchard, B.C. One of our lifetime goals was to buy land with our kids – affectionately known as Whoville, so we bought 20 acres from them and purchased a second hand trailer and over the summer we set up our SeaHorse homestead. It was wonderful to spend time again on the land, and the special bonus was visiting with our granddaughter Addison (20 months) almost on a daily basis.

After the final wedding of the season we left right after Labour Day and flew back to Fiji. We lost a day travelling over the international dateline, but it seems like we go back in time by at least 50 years here. I can’t tell you how much I love the people, the culture and the simple pleasures that can be experienced here. I’ll be writing more about the lifestyle during the weekly blogs ahead. When we arrived after the overnight flight, we were somewhat disappointed that QuickStar was on the hard (that means out of the water and in a cradle). We were getting the bottom cleaned and painted and had expected this work to have been completed, but there was stormy weather for the past few days, so they couldn’t do it. Being on the hard is inconvenient and expensive and not terribly comfortable since you don’t have running water, washrooms, showers or the ability to cook onboard.

It’s not all bad though, as during my middle of the night jaunt down the ladder, I was rewarded with seeing the amazing southern hemisphere constellation (Southern Cross) and a cute little gecko in the shower house. We hope to get the boat in the water later this afternoon, as the bottom is now freshly painted and the last minute scrub and polish has been completed – as has the four loads of laundry to freshen up the linens and clothes we leave on board. We are on Fiji time though, so we’ll be happy with whatever happens.

One of our boat neighbours, also on the hard, is a Manta 42 MKIII which just sustained major damage after dragging on anchor and crashing on a reef. It was a very serious situation and it cost over $48,000 U.S. dollars just for the salvage company to get them safely off the reef. During this time, one of the pontoons on this catamaran was completely submerged and the motor was punched right in to the boat. In addition all electronics were destroyed. The boat is now going through a significant refit and the bill will be in excess of $200,000. Thank goodness for insurance. It also makes our little “woops” of hitting the reef last September look a little insignificant, even though it cost almost $7,000. The sailing territory in Fiji is amazing, but considered amongst the most dangerous cruising area in the world, due to the fact that there are no accurate charts and many, many reefs.

We are not sure of what our plans are for this cruising season. We may head to Australia, or New Zealand, or leave the boat in Fiji since we will only be out for 3 months rather than our normal 6 months. We might even sell the boat, so this might be our last cruising season. We are finding it harder to leave Canada now with little Addison plus Danny and Ashley are expecting a second child in late January. This is our little cutie here with Kylie’s one-year old Great Dane mix.

I apologize for the length of this blog posting, but it was a bit of a catch-up. I will continue to post each Friday sharing with you our sailing adventures and the beauty and warmth of the Fijian people and wherever our travels take us. We love to hear from you, and keep up with everything that is going on in your life,so please email us at svquickstar@shaw.ca. Until next week….. In calm water every ship has a good captain." -- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th U.S. President