We’re at Albert Cove on the island of Rabi, north of Fiji. Rabi is now actually part of Fiji, but, well it’s a long story and you’d best just look it up on Google. It’s an interesting and sad story about rags to riches to rags. A culture from an island north of here that was relocated after WWII.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, while we came in day before yesterday (Sunday our time), we got in late and then spent yesterday on boat projects. It was a windy, cloudy day and easy to just stay on board. Fast forward to today-we went ashore and moments after pulling up on the beach received a hearty; “Bula!” from an obvious “Elder”. Turned out it was “Samuel” who our friends Chris and Rani from Ladybug had told us about. With this info at hand, we immediately told him: “Chris and Rani said ‘Hi’!” Well, that was all that needed to be said. We were now Samuel’s best friend. He told us about Rani’s curry and all the other kindnesses of Chris and Rani. The fact that we knew them even “forgave” the fact that even though we got here on Sunday, we didn’t come ashore and introduce ourselves until today (Tuesday). OK, lesson learned. Respect the local culture and don’t just sit on the boat (well, we WERE working on projects…. You should see how our stainless shines!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we also made a good impression on our own since we brought some goodies ashore. A glider, balloons and soap bubbles for the kids (which they immediately ran off with and we saw them playing on the beach), a 5 lb bag of rice, some “lollies”, some canned corned beef (all they subsist on here is what they grow and catch, i.e. fish) and sundry other stuff. In fact, they seemed genuinely touched with the gifts. Enough so that we received a bunch of papay and smoked fish in return and the promise of limes and something else we did not quite comprehend. A surprise! We were also invited back in to see a new hut they are building.

Anyway, a fun day meeting the local folks. We also went snorkeling. Beautiful as expected. What we didn’t expect was seeing some coral that we haven’t seen before-in great quantities. We need to get a book on coral so we know what we’re seeing. But the good news is, the coral is very healthy and growing here.

Tomorrow-back to the beach and more snorkeling and a few misc boat projects. I also still haven’t tracked down the mystery electronics bug. The helm instruments have stopped working. Bummer. Electronics are great when they are working but are the biggest waste of time in the world when they are not!