Weather Helmed

an adventure in renewing the spirit and living the dream…on a sailboat

Weather Helmed

Bula Bula Bula

September 14th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Fiji, Our Route

“Bula” means hello or welcome in Fijian.  It’s a fun word to say 🙂  And, what’s even better is that the Fijians say it a lot.  Everywhere we go people call it out, shout it out to us or say it kindly as we walk by.  They are probably the friendliest culture we’ve encountered yet.  Then again, some of their ancestors used to eat our ancestors for kicks.  Hmm….

We are now at the lovely, touristy Denerau Marina (aka Port Denerau) just outside of Nadi.  The ferries to the resorts on the outer islands come in and out of here so there’s a little center geared towards tourists, but we are enjoying it right now.  Awesome burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe, with guacamole… YUM.

As we entered the marina channel here yesterday, we ran aground (were in less than 6 feet of water).  Oops.  Matt was fast-thinking and hopped in the dingy (which we had towed behind us) and grabbed our stern anchor, Jon led it over the bow roller at the front of the boat and Matt dinghied out to drop it down.  Using the anchor as a “solid”, stable point, Jon then worked to pull the boat towards the anchor.  We “kedged off” in this way in maybe ten minutes!  Quite a quick exit to a rather embarrassing event, but oh well, it was bound to happen sometime.  The channel is EXTREMELY narrow and the reason we were out even a bit off-center in the first place is because this huge catamaran ferry ran us down at 10 knots and it seemed like we needed to give them a bit more room.  Grrr.

As we came into the marina, it became obvious that we would be the smallest boat around and clearly the dirtiest.  There are several huge fancy yachts berthed here. We had barely got into the slip and turned the engine off before a dockhand approached us and asked if we wanted them to clean the boat.  I laughed out loud.  I have no doubt that our dirty, shabby little boat is bringing down slip fees as we speak.  Ha.

BULA FIJI.

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One Comment so far ↓

  • Ankitha

    Karen!

    I can’t believe you are already on the other side of the world! I’ve been reading your blog since the beginning and love it every time you post something new.

    I quoted from your blog the other day on facebook, and one of my law school classmates was interested in reading your guys’ blogs b/c he, apparently, has similar dreams to sail the world as well. Both he and his wife (also an attorney) loved your blog.

    So glad things are going well. Keep posting! Hope to see you when you get back. Who knows, I might finally move to the Bay around the same time you get back. Lol.

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