Weather Helmed

Wow.  Our time in Fiji has gone by so fast.  I guess that’s what happens when you have good friends along for the ride.  In less than 2.5 weeks, we visited Beachcomber, Waya, Wayalailai, Navadra, Mana, and Manolailai islands and made a full circumnavigation of Naviti.  There were various reasons as to why we moved around so much but I think all that wandering around made the days fly by even faster! Now the boat is quiet and Matt, Jon and I are trying desperately to make up for all the sleep we sacrificed to hang out with our friends 😉  (Remember me saying that 9pm is “cruiser’s midnight”???)  But, we had such a fabulous time.  I can’t believe how EASY it was to have 6 of us on the boat.  Of course, I truly believe that had it been other people, it might not have worked out so well, but the 6 of us just all seemed to mesh and it never felt too crowded. Even our poor little head (i.e. toilet) handled the increased traffic like a champ!

Recapping our time here is difficult. I started writing a post that quickly turned into a short novel and then I remembered that I have asked G&A to write a guest post for my blog and I didn’t want to usurp their fun in recounting our experiences.  I need to go back and highlight *MY* favorite moments and throw in a few tips for future cruisers coming here, and then I’ll post about that.  Hopefully G&A can fill in the rest of the blanks.

Something that I did realize while everyone was here is that it’s great to see this life from their perspective and get a new appreciation for what we’re able to do. But – that said, I still found myself feeling incredibly restless and bored with the thought of swimming in the ocean and going snorkeling again (admittedly, we have become quite spoiled!).  And, apparently, when I get restless and bored on the boat, I bake.  While everyone was here, I baked (with the help of others sometimes) bagels, english muffins (twice), cupcakes, and bread. I also found myself very eager to do a lot of the cooking when it came to our meals.  It seemed like I spent all my time in the kitchen and when I wasn’t there, most of the time I wanted to be.  I’m sure that this is just a fad seeing as how there’s little else on the boat that can so occupy my attention, but I kind of hope that I can keep up this enthusiasm when we get back home and I have a galley that is larger than a closet.  But, it made me so unbelievably happy to have people to cook for (other than matt and jon, of course).  It was fun to have a reason to try a few new recipes and share our acquired boat cooking skills with our guests.  I can’t wait to have a little apartment again that we can open up for dinner parties.  Who wants to come over?!?!?! 🙂

Anyway, I am going through pictures (G took so many awesome ones!) and I suppose I should give G&A a few days to recover from their flight before begging them for a post, so I’ll get to that soon.  But, I will tell you that Fiji, despite the recent instability with the coup, etc., has some of the friendliest people we have encountered during our travels, the food is delicious, the water is beautiful, the islands are interesting, the villages warm and welcoming, and it is a place where you can easily spend a month and feel like you’re still not quite ready to leave.

But, *we* are on a tight schedule with cyclone season starting in just a few weeks, so we can’t linger here too much longer and today we must begin getting the boat (and ourselves) ready for yet another passage.

A fellow cruiser met up with us the other night for dinner and he was talking about how some of their cruising friends convinced them to do the puddle jump even though he was planning to go down to South America for the season.  They had been cruising together for a few years and as he was telling us about all of it, he said, “You know, it’s all about the people.  The islands will always be there – it’s about the people.”  I feel like I know that now, but I wish I had known that and accepted that truth back when we first started this trip.  Having experienced how awesome our time in Fiji has been being able to share it not only with G&A and A, but also a bit of it with IO and Totem, I can see how our trip may have been different had we traveled with friends along the way.  But, hindsight is 20/20 and all that’s left is to take that truth – it’s all about the people – and apply it to the future, and to the family and friendships we so often take for granted.

Thank you G&A and A for coming out to see us (and Fiji).  These were three of the most enjoyable weeks I’ve had on the boat! 🙂