The quilted wall hanging Ann made for Ma and George. (It's embroidered with "Vinaka Vaka Levu" which means Thank you very much.)

OK, Ann keeps saying; “They’re NOT magic beans, they are Surprise Beans”.

In any case, they are dried beans that you boil to reconstitute. (Thank you Unilever, for making beans that are marked as good until sometime in 2014). I guess the surprise is that they are better than canned. Not as good as fresh. BUT…mix them with lobster, and pasta in a parmesan garlic cream sauce and who the hell cares what they are. The results were heavenly.

So, today we pretty much chilled. Another windy day. Our sum total energy expenditure was snorkeling a bit, taking a saltwater bath (you jump in the water, get out, soap up then jump back in to rinse, then you get a teapot of fresh water to rinse in the cockpit). Oh and Ann’s been making a little wall hanging for “Ma” (short for something like Makareeta) since she’s been so nice to us. And she polished the starboard stainless just to keep Charisma looking her best!

I spent a fair amount of time getting weather faxes to try and figure out where the low that’s somewhere near us is, and where it’s heading. The grib files are not accurate right now which generally means there’s a low sneaking around somewhere ready to pounce. I think it’s currently south of us and heading east. The wind has shifted into the NNE, so we’re almost parallel to the beach right now. Four out of five of our neighbors left for another spot. We are hanging here with the cat, Lady Nada. One reason folks left was that it’s full moon high tide and that means our nice sand spit that’s been blocking north wind waves disappeared under water. That means we were getting some bigger waves over the sand in our little paradise. But, the tide’s gone down and now we’re settled back into our nice calm anchorage, but with four fewer boats who went ½ mile across the lagoon. We might have gone as well, but we’re planning to leave tomorrow anyway, so thought we’d just stay the night. It’s always a bit of a gamble in changing weather to decide whether to stay or move. The wind is forecast to go north-which is fine for us-but then shift around to the west before going back to SE. West is the problem. If it goes west in the middle of the night and blows hard, we’ll swing right over to the sandy beach. We’ll literally be 20 meters off the beach given how close we have anchored to get out of the wind and how much anchor chain we have out. We’re betting the swing won’t happen until tomorrow in the daytime when we’re ready to either move to the village anchorage where we’re picking up a carving that they are working on for us or can just leave if the weather cooperates (and tides, but that’s another story). Then it’s either off to Savusavu or stay here one more night for better weather and then off. In either case, we should see some favorable winds by Monday at the latest (knocking wood). We’ll see. In any case, guess what? As I’m writing this there’s lightning and thunder somewhere to the north of us. OH, my favorite! It’s looking to be an interesting night.

The day started with a fund raiser of sorts. We cruisers donated stuff to sell and the villagers bought it. The funds went to a village fund for improvements.

The children enjoyed the event.

Cute!

There was stuff for sale that we could buy as well, like these cakes.

And $5 Fijian would get you a lobster.

Then the whole group moved on the the "Goodbuy Party" Here they are mixing the kava (the blue bucket has water in it to mix with)

Now we know how they pound the kava

There was laughing and dancing and general silliness...

...and then the presenting of goodbye presents (this is a floor mat with the name "Charisma" woven into it).

What a wonderful party!

So unexpected! Let me explain. We’ve been sitting here in Fulanga in the high winds essentially trapped on the boat looking for something, anything to do and out of the blue, the village got in touch and said; “We want to do an event.” What kind of even? Well, no one was really sure. It seemed like it might be a thing where we bring stuff to donate to the school. It also seemed like it might be a farewell to the cruisers event. Whatever, we were game-let’s just go and find out.

So, despite high winds, two of the five boats in the anchorage (Kalida and Lady Nada) volunteered to ferry the rest of us around to the village, about two miles away, so we wouldn’t all have to move our boats (good on ya mates — thanks to Derek and Alison on Kalida for our ride). It was blowing 30 knots as Derek picked us up in his dinghy and brought up his anchor and headed over to the anchorage by the village.

All 14 of us cruisers who are left in Falanga (seven boats) met on the beach and began the 20 minute walk into town asking; “What do you think? What are we supposed to be doing?”

Well it turned out we were all prepared and not prepared for the day.

What we were prepared for was that there was a lot of food that the villagers were selling in order to make some money. Wonderful Roti sandwiches with fish or corned beef went for $1 Fijian (about $0.50 US)-they were delicious. There were also papayas, bananas, plantains, cassava and a variety of cakes for sale at equally amazingly slight prices. We were very happy to contribute to the cause and get some fresh produce along the way. At one point Ann and I split up and I went down the village path to see some carvings that were for sale while she stayed with the “event”. As I was leaving, someone was walking in with two cooked lobsters that were going to be for sale. I saw them and thought, “Boy, it would be great if Ann bought one of those!” Much later in the day when we got back to Charisma, Ann pulled a lobster out of her backpack and said, “Surprise, look what I bought (for $5 Fijian!)!” Guess what dinner tomorrow night is going to be 😉

So, back to the event. We brought some stuff from the boat in as gifts not knowing exactly what the event would be. Turns out part two of the day was that OUR STUFF (meaning the cruisers’) was put out on a table and the local villagers who showed up competed to buy it. It was interesting to see how it was priced and who bought it. We brought some cans of food, three plastic bowls and a couple other things. They all sold very quickly. Fortunately Ann held back a few things for “later” as well.

As things were winding down on part one of the day-the food and auction part-I left the hut and walked down village to one of the better carvers to see what they were up to and to my surprise, they were carving some beautiful bowls that I hadn’t seen before. Oblong, about 14 inches long, with intricate edges hand-carved and two turtles etched into the bottom of the bowls. Ohhhh! How much might these be, I asked and could one for us be ready by Sunday morning (when we’re planning our departure)? There was some discussion but it was decided that they would make the bowl for us by Sunday morning before church-so we may be the new proud owners of a gorgeous turtle bowl. We’ll see.

But I digress from the real story….

While I was gone, Ann and the rest of the group moved from the hut where we had lunch and the auction of sorts. They were done with the fund-raising part and we (the cruisers) were glad to have been part of it, coming away with some nice, fresh food and happy to contribute some of our goods for the betterment of the village. The next step was 100 meters up the village to a large hut that would end up holding somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 people-and importantly a big bowl of kava!

Without detailing every minute of the next two hours, I’ll just say that it was nothing short of amazing and wonderful. Before I go on, I should add that there was dancing. I might even have a picture to add later of me (Bob) dancing with our Fijian friend Sara’s 70-something year old grandma. Just she and I. In front of a village crowd of 50 or so people. It was….amazing.

Essentially the village filled the hut with song, kava and gifts for the departing cruisers. It was a farewell to end all farewells. Most of us who are left here are waiting for the winds to let us out, have been here in Fulanga for some weeks and have made friends with many in the village. Besides the general kava party and music, many of them made gifts for us. Every one of the cruisers got something different, but Ann and I received a beautiful woven handbag and a pandanas mat with our boat name “Charisma” woven into the middle of it. We were stunned and of course will treasure this for ever! Where does this generosity come from? It was wonderful. In fact, given that we have been here some weeks, as were the dozen other cruisers (some Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Canuks and US) all of whom have formed relationships with the folks in the village, there were a lot of tears from both sides that we were leaving.

Music, kava, and sincere beautiful friendships. We were touched as never before and hope we can visit here again.

I have to end this with one vignette. Ann has noticed in the last two weeks as we have gone to church here, that one girl, about 10 years old, wears dresses that are hand sewn, but don’t have clasps to hold the dress together at the back of her neck. It doesn’t seem to bother her but Ann is a seamstress and I can see her itching every time she sees it. (I’m sorry I don’t remember the girl’s name -many of the Fijian names are unusual and hard to remember unless we’ve seen them written down). Ann found a set of 10 clasps in her sewing kit and brought them into town in the hope of seeing the little girl, even though we knew the kids would all be in school. Fortunately school let out early-it being Friday and a stormy day. The little girl came over to the farewell party and ran up to Ann with a big, “Bula!” Ann responded by pulling the set of clasps out of here pocket and giving it to the girl. I can’t even begin to describe the huge smile and look of thanks on her face. Her lovely but incomplete clothes could now be completed. We were left almost breathless by the joy such a simple gift could bring. If Ann had had a needle and thread she would have followed her home to do the repair herself!

Now the back of her lovely dress will have a clasp to close it with.

Life in paradise can be so simple and joyful and we so enjoy this opportunity to be part of it.

And we’re bored. OK, life in paradise can sometimes have its drawbacks. One of them is when the weather pins you down as it has us for the past several days. And we’re running low on water, so the lack of rainfall EVEN though we have a fancy new rain catcher is a pain since it’s cloudy and the solar panels are just keeping even with the refrigerator AND we’re low on diesel so I don’t want to run the engine more than we have to.

Sooo, we really hoping to catch some rain. It’s forecast tomorrow through Saturday, but the forecast changes every day and I don’t have today’s yet. But…we did get a couple small squalls and the raincatcher did admirably. We were so excited to see drops of water sliding down the fabric into the little spout that Ann sewed into the bottom where it enters the bucket. During the short rain event Ann was so excited she was out IN the rain taking pictures of the rain catcher gathering rain.

Such is life here in the tropics when you’re pinned down by weather on a smallish boat. Little things give great joy. Making a cup of tea in the afternoon is a grand event. You’d think the Queen was visiting. “Would you like one biscuit or two?” “I think I shall have two!”

Anyway, pray for some rain if for no other reason as we’ll be thrilled that the custom-made rain catcher is a success. 😉

Yup, we’re down to getting creative with stuff that lasts a loooong time.

Today we made Smoked Salmon Alfredo. Funny how dried peas come to life almost as good as fresh. We’re tried canned and they are terrible, but dried are actually delicious. You just have to boil them, then simmer them for about 10-15 minutes. I used the last of our fresh garlic (“fresh” after three weeks or so being a relative term, but the cloves hadn’t sprouted), butter, aseptic packaged cream, butter that’s been under the freezer and is still fine and parmesan which never goes bad. Oh and our last package of smoked salmon from New Zealand. Wow, it was delicious!

We always judge our meals by whether we would share them with friends or not. Good thing there aren’t any close friends around ’cause we didn’t want to share! Actually there are five other boats tucked in here waiting out the weather like we are. Noone moved off their boats today. The wind was smoking. You couldn’t really stand up on deck without holding something to keep from being blown off the side. It’s high twenties gusting to mid-thirties. The gusts make the wind look like it is dancing across the top of the water. Sometimes the top of the water is almost being blown into the air. Some of the gusts are healing Charisma over such that you have to hang on when down below. I even let the stove gimbal while I was cooking because stuff was flying all over the place as the gusts would hit and nothing would sit still.

The gribs (weather charts) say two more days of wind including some strong rain as a low approaches. Then as the low passes, we have a nice window to leave and go back up to Savusavu to resupply. Probably three days from now.

I keep thinking I’m going to jump in the water and go snorkeling and then a huge gust hits and I think; “maybe tomorrow”. What I ended up doing was reading all day. That’s nice too and something I haven’t done in a long time. It was actually very relaxing. Ann finished the rain catcher which is now rigged up waiting for rain and then she did some quilting, but the big Sailrite sewing machine is made for thick fabrics and doesn’t do so well with simple quilting material. She’s roughing out some stuff to bring back to the US during the holidays to finish but no quilts are going to get made on our hulking boat sewing machine unless they are made from six layers of Dacron with leather trim.

Life in Fulanga.

That’s the best I can say.

Actually, Ann got a lot done today. She did laundry and started a really cool project to create a rain catcher. There’s a fairly major “rain event” due day after tomorrow if you can believe the forecast. We’re low on water and fuel, so need sun to power the watermaker. Guess what? With this wind comes clouds. There’s not a lot of sun. So…Ann spent part of the day working on a canvas tarp-like thing to funnel rain water down the deck plate where the connection to the water tank is.

Back in the day before watermakers this is how folks would fill their tanks. Many still do -but watermakers are so much easier and more predictable. However, now that we’re in the deep, deep wilderness, it’s useful to have some extra survival skills- such as the tarp rain catcher thingy. We’ll report on how well it works. Other cruisers have said that they have been able to fill their 100 gallon water tanks in very short order in the heavy rains. We’ll see.

Speaking about wilderness sailing. We emptied our jerry jugs of diesel into the tanks today. We figured the weather’s not getting better, so we should do it while we have some fairly benign conditions. It’s windy, but we’re tucked in where there are no waves, so it was fairly easy. I’m now estimating we’ve got 18 gallons of fuel left to get us back up to Savusavu where we’ll resupply and pick up the engine parts that have arrived that we can give back to Bright Angel who so kindly lent us what we needed to get our engine working. We used a lot of fuel coming down here since we wanted to test the engine, but we’ll sail all the way back. At this point the fuel is just for charging batteries when the sun doesn’t cooperate and for the last 1/2 hour of the voyage to get into the anchorage or mooring, so 18 gallons should be plenty.

Speaking of resupply, we have absolutely no more fresh fruit or produce. We used the very last of our supply tonight when I made a Waldorf Salad with the last half head of cabbage and the last apple. I added Ann’s homemade yogurt, blue cheese and walnuts as well as left over corn fritters Ann made yesterday, and we had a great meal. After this we’re into our “long term” supplies. Actually we still have some eggs, some bacon and some smoked salmon so we have some good meals planned for the next couple days including bacon and egg scramble tomorrow morning and probably smoked salmon pasta in alfredo sauce tomorrow night. So, we’re biding our time right now for an estimated departure from Faluga on Friday. Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy and Thursday (remember we’re a day ahead of the US) is forecast to bring heavy rain. Friday looks more settled and good for a departure. The rain catcher is in the “refinement phase” and almost ready to be deployed and then Ann may start working on a quilt! In the meantime if we have a little sunshine we’re going to try and go for a snorkel.

(By Ann) Okay, so not every day is warm and sunny but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy them!. So yes, Bob did ask for his coat (I already had mine) and we jumped in the dinghy to go explore after lunch. We motored along the shore, in and around incredible “cupcake” islands (so nicknamed because of the way the volcanic rock is eroded by the water) over water that kept looking way too shallow to negotiate. I figured that if it got too shallow Bob could pull us over the shallow spots! Luckily it was not necessary. After an hour or so of investigating/exploring the shoreline we rounded a mushroom rock and saw our old anchorage in front of the path to the village! Now we know the short cut. But more exciting was when we came back to our current anchorage and realized that the outgoing tide was creating the sand spit that we are so protected by. It was very cool to walk out there as the water was receding. Sometimes we feel like we walk on water …this is one of those times. Suddenly we are out in the middle of an area and it looks like we needed to walk on water to get there. It is always a religious experience when you are cruising! While exploring today Bob found another coconut that was calling to him. I try to keep him to a one-a-day limit. But…today we decided he would chop it up on shore. The other day he made a mess all over Charisma …and he was only in the cockpit! But pieces of coconut were launched everywhere! So we came back to Charisma, got Bob his machete and chopping board and sent him back ashore. Oops – he came back without the cutting board and had to go back for it before the tide claimed it! And as I type this he is making fried coconut strips a la-Big Mama’s in Tonga. I sure hope they turn out! Tomorrow the winds are really supposed to pick up as a “Convergence Zone” event passes over us over the next couple days. Could be rain too. So tomorrow we plan to pull out the sewing machine and make a rain catching device! And then maybe I will do some quilting! PS – Joanne commented on our cheese making implements referred to in our blog last night…I had panty hose on board for those social events that called for more than a sulu (the wrap around sarong that is necessary when visiting the villages). No, honestly the pantyhose were on board to put my bar of soap in while showering under way. I put my bar of soap in one leg and tied the other one to the hand rail so there was no concern about losing the soap over board (thanks to my son, Greg for the great idea!). So now I don’t lose my soap AND I can make cream cheese! It’s all about using everything to its fullest potential!

Cheese making on Charisma. You put the yoghurt in the cheese cloth and let it drip overnight. Then salt and seasoning and you're set.

Mixing in the herbs

Done!

A new word in Charisma’s lexicon. Fivesies is the Kiwi word for cocktail hour. You get invited to a Kiwi boat for Fivesies. So there you are, your lesson for the day and our new concept of “Charisma Time”.

Speaking of new concepts for stuff, the new concept for social hour when you’re sailing in the wilderness as we are is the 0800 social hour….on the radio. The shortwave. It’s essential for keeping up with people. We have two nets we are checking in with. The 6212 MZz 0800 social net where a few friends including Bright Angel, Gato Go and Ladybug chimed in this morning for a delightful chat. Then there is the 0830 “official” net called “Drifter’s Net” with a Net Controller where all our friends check in and update their status of where they are, what they are doing etc. It’s a great place to hear about other islands, anchorages, dive spots, hikes, etc, etc. So, while having breakfast and a coffee, we listen to the “net”. Fun and informative and how we keep up with where all our friends are.

Also, today was Sunday. That meant Huevos Boberos day. We haven’t celebrated that particular holiday is a while but discovered that in Fiji there is an Indian product called Roti that is suspiciously similar to flour tortillas. So, add a can of refined beans, marinated serano peppers, topped with sunny side up eggs and some shredded cheese all baked in the oven and…there you have it…Huevos Rancheros a la Fiji! A good start to a cloudy, windy Sunday.

Then, not to be topped, Ann whipped up corn fritters. Why you might ask? Because in opening a can of corn for last night’s dinner, we discovered that we bought a can of creamed corn. No bueno- at least for our intended dining use of corn/black bean salad. But, Ann quickly realized we could use the leftover black beans, serano chiles, and creamed corn combined with pancake mix for-waIt for it-corn fritters. I was slightly horrified even thinking about it, but have to admit that it made a delicious lunch.

So, after all the good food for breakfast and lunch, we went minimalist (more or less) for dinner with Waldorf Salad a la Charisma. That is blue cheese/yoghurt dressing with cabbage/toasted walnuts/carrots and apples. We’re down to our last and most hardy veggies. It was great though.

And, talking about food and invention- Ann has about perfected cheese making. Not quite artisanal, but absolutely delicious! She makes yoghurt, then strains it overnight and in the morning adds spices to the solid whey. Refrigerate and voila, the best cream type cheese you have ever eaten. Several cruiser friends have partaken and loved it. We don’t have the heart to tell them the product is strained through some old (but clean!) panty hose- not having enough cheese cloth on board. That’s on our list for the next shopping expedition in the real world.

In the mean-time, we’re reporting from the wilderness where it’s starting to blow really hard. Gusts into the 30’s but we don’t care, we’re tucked into a nice little sandy cove. No waves, no rocks, just wind.

This guy was just cruising the shallow water-where we were walking!

Our new anchorage on the other side of the lagoon.

“There we were…”(as these stories always go). We were exploring the beach at our new anchorage when there was a section where we had to wade into the water to get around a large rock blocking the beach. There was some eel grass in the water and Ann half jokingly said; “keep a watch for eels”. As I rolled my eyes, threw caution to the wind and took a step, there not two feet away in the water staring at my toes was a deadly coral sea snake. This is a snake with one of the most venomous poisons on earth. One bite and you’re dead in minutes. Uh, oh.

Fortunately the deadly coral sea snake also has one of the smallest mouths of any deadly snake. My toes are big enough that I’m relatively safe from coral sea snake bites unless he were to catch the skin between the toes. Not that I’m testing the theory mind you. I gingerly stepped another foot or two away so as not to disturb him, took a couple pictures and we moved on only to discover just a few feet away the fierce Fijian land crab blocking our way. And so the day went.

We moved our anchorage this morning. The wind came up last night and turned a bit south. The combination made our old anchorage a bit rough with two foot waves setting down from the far end of the lagoon driven by the 15-20 knot wind. So, we moved. About ¼ mile to the south into a pristine little bay with a beach at the south end where we are anchored, that also curves around to our east with a sand spit to the north. We are virtually covered-completely actually when you consider that the only winds we have seen in the last two weeks have been between south and east, northeast. And we’re only about 50 yards off the beach. Even though it’s still windy -although we’re protected a bit more from the palms fringing the shore, there’s no chop at all. We’re very comfortable and it was worth the effort to move. We’re in between 14 and 19 feet of water over sand (depending on the tide) and I have a little over 100 feet of chain out expecting some higher winds that are forecast in the days ahead. We’re tucked in a sweet spot.

Even though we like where we are, the first thing we do after we anchor is create a route on the gps to get from here, out through the bommies and the reef to open sea in the case that everything goes wrong and we need to depart. Since we came in with the gps turned on and the “tracking” function set to take a reading every 10 seconds, we have a pretty accurate track to go out on. All I have to do is put some waypoints on top of the track and name it and we’re ready to depart. With this set up, we can theoretically follow the route we took to get here, back out in the middle-of-night darkness -although I’m not keen to try it. But, that’s just part of sailing in the wilderness. You have to be ready for anything.

So, that’s it. An easy day -well after I finished with my machete, cutting the coconut we collected while on the beach and then cleaning up the mess in the cockpit when I was done. I need a little more practice. I still have ten fingers though and the coconut milk is sooooo good and refreshing after a hike on the beach and fighting off deadly sea snakes. Then to really make a mess you split the coconut in half and scoop out the soft meat inside for a little snack. Ahhhh -I think it’s time for a nap.

(By Ann) The winds stayed away and the sun came out at just the right times today. It was a lovely day in Fulaga.

We had only hoped to get a good paddle in but were gifted with a delightful party hosted by the villagers. But that was after the paddle.

Spear fish, place over fire...

Mouth-watering...

Palm frond floor, lean-to roof...

...and, oh, you weave your own plate.

We took off from Charisma and headed toward the shore that we explored on foot a few days back. We were paddling into the wind, about 8 knots of wind, but very little chop so we plowed through until we were in the protected lee of the land. It was wonderful! We glided in water that was anywhere from 3 feet to one foot below our boards. The color of the water went from varying shades of turquoise to the warm browns of the bommies. The sun was behind us and so everything was lit up perfectly for pictures. And then when we turned around it was downwind on the return trip! So fun! Prior to taking off on the paddle boards we had been invited by the villagers to join them in a good-bye fish roast on the beach. We were not really expecting to go but they even sent a dinghy around to personally invite everyone. We are so glad we went!

The villagers had built a sheltered area with a palm frond roof and floor and invited us to come on in! The men had been spearing fish and diving for crabs while the women caught fish in nets. There was jack trevally, barracuda and some other fish I was unable to identify. The fish smoked on sticks over the open fire. No seasonings, just fish cooked the old-fashioned way. And the crab melted in your mouth!

Of course there were a variety of side dishes too: baked bananas, coconut and the ubiquitous cassava in the case, cooked by simply putting it on the coals of the fire. All simply made with loving hands. And to serve the food the women taught us to weave plates out of a banana palms.

We’re going to stay here another couple days as there is still much to do and explore, but we’ll probably plan to move on sometime next week. In the meantime there are some fairly high winds predicted starting tomorrow or the next day, so tomorrow we’ll move Charisma about 200 meters closer to shore to tuck in out of the wind and waves.