Hallelujah, the ship came in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last evening around twilight, a longboat from the village came out to Charisma and essentially begged us to give them some of our extra petrol so they could go across the strait (about 10 miles) to the other island where the supply ship was anchored. Its tender had engine trouble and there was a lot of concern that it would just skip Falunga . Of course we would donate our gas to the cause. We hope to get it back once the ship comes in, but even if we don’t it’s a small price to pay for all the hospitality that the villagers here have shown us this past week or so.

Fortunately the longboat expedition seemed to have worked and the Falungis made an impression because the ship came today. Even though the tender wasn’t working, the Falungis used their longboats to unload cargo and passengers. We were fortunate to have been here to see it as it was fascinating to witness.

We walked into the village about 1000 to pick up a carving that one of the villagers was doing for us. Once near the water near the village we could see the commotion. There were at least 50 people sitting on the beach and in the palms just off the beach, among stacks of their possessions that were leaving with them for the trip to Suva. There were literally stacks of boxes all along the beach. Some had already been delivered via longboat to the beach from the ship and most were yet to be transported along with their occupants to the ship and onward to Suva.

The effort to make all this happen is huge. You have to picture a 150 foot ship sitting ½ a mile offshore outside the reef going up and down in 10 foot waves waiting for the little 18 foot longboats to come alongside to load and unload cargo. They use a crane with a cargo net to drop the supplies (boxes and sacks of commodities-we saw 50KG bags of rice, flour, boxes of canned corned beef, crackers, etc as well as 50 gallon barrels of petrol). The longboats then leave the large ship and have to navigate in toward the reef where they have to time the pass just right as waves are breaking over it. Once inside the pass, they have to go slowly for another 150 meters picking their way over the shallow reef. Once inside, they are then able to motor quickly the last 200 meters into the beach where a dozen folks would swarm the boat and offload the supplies. Everything from commodities to petrol to the new village nurse to grandmothers back from Suva were brought ashore. Some looking happier to be back than others.

Then the “tide” of people and supplies turned the other way and folks from the beach started loading onto the longboats for the harrowing ride out to the supply ship. Ann took one look at it in our binoculars and said: “uh, uh…I wouldn’t go anywhere near that….”. It’s a two day ride into Suva and you pretty much sleep on the deck on your own mat. Not fun.

So, we said our goodbyes to all our new friends from the village and now we’re back on Charisma by ourselves in our little bay in the lagoon. We were hoping to get across to the other side of the larger lagoon where several other “yachties” are anchored (about two miles away) by the pass enjoying the snorkeling and diving in the clear water-but the weather had other ideas. It’s been squally and cloudy all day. Not conducive to moving in a reef strewn environment. You only move the boat around here when it’s sunny and you can see the “bommies” that lurk under the water waiting to tear the bottom of your boat apart. OK, we’ll wait ’til another day in paradise. We feel privileged to have met and spent time with the villagers on this island and hope to connect with them again someday in the future. They are such wonderful, sincere people. While we’ll be here in Falunga at least another week, we’ll be across the island and out of touch with the village. What fun we’ve had, but we’re looking forward to a new kind of fun snorkeling and beachcombing on the other side of the lagoon a couple miles from here.