.: Our first week back in Fiji

BULA from Fiji.....

Our first week after arriving in Fiji was spent getting the boat put back together. This took 8 days, which wasn’t too bad considering everything operates on the very sane Fiji time schedule unlike our North American full throttle life-style.

Notice how low the tide is. We have to use a plank to get on and off the boat. Big tides here.

Cruising is not all gin and tonics…..sometimes you have to work.

Heading to the Sunset Bar

Every Sunday at the Sunset Bar, they bring in a band from 3:00 – 7:00. It’s great to socialize with fellow cruisers and locals while overlooking the ocean.

While this sunset wasn’t as spectacular as the one last week, I still cherish each sunset.

On our way home we saw geckos hanging out on the lights to catch their evening meal.

Every Thursday the Sunset Bar has a happy hour. You can see the prices below. Keep in mind that Fiji dollars are about half of Canadian/American dollars. It is a real bargain in Fiji for food, services, accommodation, etc. On average, most things are half the price that they are in North America. Fiji also has almost everything you need except for real coffee (when you can find it, it is really expensive because the locals, Aussies and Kiwi’s all drink instant) pickles (poor Peter loves his pickles at lunch and we haven’t had any luck with finding them.so I’ve convinced him to try mango pickles and mustard pickles – so far the jars remain unopened), Hellman’s Mayonnaise (again this is one of Peter’s staples as many of you know he can’t live without a sandwich for lunch).

The view from the Sunset Bar looking out over the ocean and the entrance to Vuda Point Marina.

Here we welcome our good friends David and Suzi from Sidewinder into Vuda.

We haven’t seen them since our last cruising season, so we had a fun afternoon/evening catching up with them.

After getting all the work done, we are finally on the road again.

At low tide, the locals get hard at work to dig up mud clams. side

A very relaxed captain after working so hard all week.

It’s so wonderful to be back out at sea. We had a nice sail over to Musket Cove yesterday.

Musket Cove was hit really hard by the cyclone last December. The Island Bar got taken out, as did many of the docks. Luckily the Island Bar re-opened last week, so this quaint hang-out is back in business. As if the cyclone wasn’t enough, the main store/coffee shop got hit by lightening a few weeks ago and was burned to the ground.

This is the store under tarps.

Now, the store is being housed in a tiny space by the dive shop.

Musket Cove is one of our favourite spots, because the anchorage is beautiful, with lots of fresh breezes. It offers the convenience of taking our dinghy or kayaks in to the resort. We have full access to the resort, including the use of the pool, beach, dive shop, etc. It is a lovely large island featuring three different resorts and it is wonderful to walk all around it. You can do any activity you want here, or simply relax in the cockpit and watch nature unfold around you. Right now it is a full moon, so we couldn’t have timed our arrival here any better.

Musket Cove Resort Bures

The beach at Musket Cove

Our first sunset at Musket Cove (okay, okay, I promise I won’t keep posting sunsets, but we just got here and this is just such a magical time of the day)

Today and tomorrow Peter will scrape the bottom of the boat, because, as is expected, it has collected some barnacles over the winter. We’ll take it easy here for a few days, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, walking and then visiting with Dave and Suzie when they arrive later today.

As for our long-term plans for this year, we have yet to make any. We do have the boat up for sale, (www.svquickstar.com) because after 6 seasons of cruising, we are missing our adult kids and our grandchildren. Deep down, I hope we don’t sell the boat, as I feel so much better out here on the ocean and away from the “real world”. There is something so freeing about just being able to pick up an anchor and sail to wherever the wind takes you.

(I am feeling really good right now – so don’t want to jinx it).

In addition to missing the family, Peter misses the land and weekend cowboying, especially now that we have 25 acres to play on in Pritchard, B.C. So, we don’t know if we will spend this whole season in Fiji or travel further along to Australia and return in the winter, as we do each year to Silver Star Mountain, B.C. for the ski season. We may even bring the boat back to Mexico so it would be closer to home and easy to come and go. So, as you can see, we really do have no idea what we are doing! We’ll just see where the winds take us.

The almost full moon yesterday on our first night here