Or should I call it “Stupid Captain Tricks”?

Either way, we almost lost our dinghy last night. We were anchored in the lagoon at Nagelelevu, coming back from dinner on Orcinius. It was windy and bumpy and maybe some alcohol was involved. Anyway as I went to put the dinghy painter (that’s the bow line for you landlubbers) through the hawse hole in the side of the boat so I could put it on a cleat, a big wave hit the dinghy and knocked the painter out of my hand. I tried to get the boat hook but by the time I untied it and got to the stern the dinghy was out of reach and sailing away into the darkness. For a split second I had a choice. Jump in the water after it or call Orcinius and get them to come over in their dinghy. I thought better of jumping. The wind was blowing it away almost as fast as I could swim and IF I caught it I might be too exhausted to climb in. Fortunately I had that choice. Anyway, John quickly launched theirs (it’s on a hoist on the stern), and zoomed over. I jumped in with our high power flashlight and off we went into the darkness. Looking downwind we saw nothing for a moment or two, then, swinging the light a bit I caught a reflection of the light. There it was and off we went. The tricky part was we were headed right for the reef. You couldn’t see how shallow the water was getting. But John is a bold driver and we charged on with me crossing my fingers. We got to it before it hit the reef and I lept in, started the engine and we headed back. Getting soaked the whole way in the steepening waves caused by the shallow water.

Phew! Thank you, John.

So today went a little better. We waited out some squally, rainy weather and went into the beach around 1300. Lisa was feeling a little under the weather, so John, Ann and I hit the beach hoping that we would find the two “castaways” we met here last year. Walking anxiously up to the hut we didn’t see any sign, so we called out, “Bula, bula” and from within the hut we heard some stirring. Coming closer we could see it was Moe. Yeah! He’s still here. And he remembered us. We spent the afternoon sitting in his hut and talking about how it was going. Turns out they just got a boat this summer and Matei, Moe’s nephew, had taken it in to Taveuni to sell some fish they caught and to take a course – we’re not quite sure what, but some kind of captain’s course probably to operate a vessel.

Here's Mo's house. He's added a room since last year.

Mo is encouraging the chickens to come in the house and lay eggs. Beats having to find them in the bush. He's also working on a hen house to keep the chickens in at night. That will be even easier.

Anyway, we brought some gifts for Moe and gave them (John and Lisa also brought some they will bring tomorrow). He was thrilled and…Coconut crab tomorrow!! This place is crawling with them so it’s the only place where we would accept one.

So, tomorrow we’ll go in for a hike across the island, then Moe said he would cook the crabs for us and tomorrow night we’ll enjoy one of the truly rare tastes in the world.