Calm before the storm.

Oh joy.

It was an “anchor watch night”. Our cruising friends will have cringed by now knowing what that means. For everyone else, here’s the scoop.

I believe I left off last night’s post with distant thunder and the statement something like: “we’ll take a chance on where we’re anchored”. Or something like that.

Well, our chances became 100% lightning, thunder and a lee shore. The wind swung to the NW which is has not done in the three weeks we’ve been here. Our “bomb proof” anchorage became a trap. The only thing between us the shore was a 45 lb CQR anchor. Fortunately it did a yeoman’s job. BUT…I had no way of knowing how we would do so at 1230 I woke up to the “wrong feeling”. Knowing that feeling means, “Get your butt up and look around”, I listened to my muse (oh, and Ann was tapping me on the shoulder too having been awakened by a wind change) and before I was even out of bed the lightning nearly blinded me. Once on deck I immediately saw that the wind had swung around to the “impossible” position and was now pinning us down against the beach. I don’t think we were more than 30 meters off of the shore, if that.

So, anchor watch. A night cat napping in the cockpit was in order. I sat up here with my cup of tea and some biscuits and made the best out of not sleeping. Which meant I had a first hand seat watching nature’s incredible light show right in my back yard. To be honest, I would rather the light show had been in someone else’s backyard, but it WAS incredible. Bolts of electricity were zinging across the sky from one cloud to another. Thunder would add an exclamation point to my singed eyeballs. And I sat here in Charisma’s cockpit listening to the waves slap the big rock about 30 meters away hoping the anchor was holding. Why do we do the anchor watch? As we cruiser’s say: “Don’t wreak your house.” This was a case of the house being at risk. Sleep is a luxury at such times.

Fast forward to around 0500 when the torrential rain started. Now I had an excuse to go into the cabin. At this point the wind had swung almost 360 degrees from the day before so we were essentially back to where I put the anchor in the first place. Time to consult the gps. Amazingly, we were dead on with where the anchor was when we first got here over three weeks ago. Way to go CQR! And by the way, Ann’s rain catcher in it’s beta test state delivered 5 gallons of fresh water into one of our buckets. If we had rigged it into the water tank deck fitting, I think we would have filled our 100 gallon tank! Ann was thrilled! (Joan, you can stop the rain dance!)

As morning came, the wind eased and it turned into a gorgeous day. The kind of day that makes us want to stay here another three weeks, but we have to go as our supplies are running low.

With no wind and flat water we were able to take a quick run into the village with our dinghy to say a final good-by to all our new friends. Ann made a lovely wall hanging for “Ma” that she brought in and of course we couldn’t get away without Ma and George gifting us with a huge papaya, some homemade bread and a giant pumpkin (note: their pumpkins are shaped more like giant squashes but still have the flavor and texture of pumpkin-you peel it and then bake it to use). You also can never just drop by and leave. You must stay for tea or lunch. We managed to beg off on lunch and just have tea. The one disconcerting thing about staying for a meal of any sort is the Fijian way is to feed you, but not to eat themselves until you have finished. We’ve learned to adapt, but it still feels awkward to our Western mindset to eat while our hosts watch. Once we’re done then they will take some food or drink. It’s different.

We also stopped at Salotte’s to pick up a bowl that her companion Mini was carving for us. It is oblong, about twelve inches with two turtles at either end and carving all around the edge. It is beautiful and we will treasure it. And per Ann, the best part of being in the village one more time was seeing Waes (Wise) (Great grandson to the chief and Mattei’s son). When we were in on Friday Ann was sure she would see him one more time. Nada. But today he was our village greeter and helped us find George and Ma’s house. But his smile made Ann’s day. One of the best parts of Fulanga!

And we finished off the day snorkeling and then having cocktails on the beach, watching the sunset with our new friends from “Lady Nada”, Bill and Sue from Aussie. They have a catamaran, but we’re not holding that against them. The snorkeling was fun. Cocktails on the beach with a big bonfire and a fantastic sunset were a great way to end our stay in a truly magical place.

Magical. Incredible. Falunga.

P.S. By the way, I can’t end this without mentioning the view that we have as I write this. We’re stern to the beach-about 50 meters off. From left to right all we can see are coconut palm siloettes backed by the white of trade wind clouds, puffy white across the horizon behind them. All of this is lit by the almost full moon directly overhead. Such beauty really cannot adequately be described.

If you look closely you can see the full moon rising.