January 1, 2010

Happy New Year! After last nights celebration at church we slept in. We had a late breakfast. At every meal lately we have banana fritters. I made them to use up bananas, now we are trying to eat all the fritters. We are running the genset, it started right up, hallelujah! The refer is at 39 degrees, we don’t want it to get too cold until we eat up all the meat as we don’t want to re-freeze it. Today we made calls to the family, which we enjoyed very much! Mike helped Alan fiberglass his sailing dinghy and got fiberglass in his shoes and now his feet hurt. He soaked them in Epsom Salts to try to get the fiberglass out.

January 2, 2010

Last night it rained so much that we collected 10 gallons of water, so I did some more laundry. Then we planned to have local guests over to lunch. I went to shore to buy some groceries so I could finish my cooking. I made pasta with fish, eggplant, tomato, garlic and onion, and I made long green beans in a mustard sauce with almonds and of course chocolate no bake cookies and popcorn for dessert. Mike went to shore at noon to pick up Lai, Ida, Amanda and Lorenzo. Ida had brought us a papaya, very nice. I gave her 2 pairs of shorts as I heard she lost a lot of weight and needed smaller clothes, they fit her perfect, so it was meant to be. Ida said it was a nice change from Fijian food. They stayed about 3 hours and we had a nice time. Mike’s throat was sore so he wasn’t up to playing his trumpet, so he missed music practice.

January 3, 2010

It looks nice out today. My laundry finally dried, it kept raining so it wouldn’t get dry. We went to church but we missed Sunday school. We invited Malo and D’anna over for lunch today. We walked back to the boat and found out that D’Anna had a boil on her leg and her leg was really swollen and red. She had a leaf on it, I am not sure if it was a natural healing thing or just protection. She shouldn’t have been walking on it. When we got on the boat we brought her inside and propped her leg up on pillows and put an Epsom Salt compress on it. She said she felt like she was in a hotel. I made lunch, we had pasta with teriyaki fish, green beans and cheese bread. They hadn’t eaten pasta before, it is available in the stores but they didn’t know what to do with it. I can relate to that, I don’t know what a lot of stuff is that is in the stores. Since D’Anna was keeping her leg up I suggested that Malo dish up her plate, he looked at me funny and said he has never done that before, they have been married 10 years. I said he needed to help her when she was sick. So he dished her plate and then she asked him to get her seconds, it was very cute. I told them Mike serves me coffee in bed almost every day. Too funny! We may have started something. We gave them taxi money to get a ride home, we didn’t want her to walk. They didn’t want us to pay but they didn’t have the money. We were happy to help them.

January 4, 2010

It is raining this morning and Mike isn’t feeling well, his throat is still sore and his sinus’ hurt. We had a late breakfast and chatted about Malo and ‘his dear wife’ as pastor would say. We went to shore and mailed the pump back to the manufacturer. We waited so long for it and then it didn’t fit, it had been redesigned over time, and the electric pump is working fine. We got a call from the marina office saying Malo was here. He brought pastor Ronny with him and they brought us some sweet potatoes. That was really nice of them. Malo also said D’Anna was at the hospital being checked again. They go to the hospital when they are sick as there are very few private doctors. She seems to be doing better this morning. We stayed on the boat most of the day. We called Lyn and Julie and shared holiday stories, nice!

Some things we noticed in Fiji: Most the time if you ask a Fijian if they want something, if they say thank you, they mean no thank you. I always find myself clarifying what they mean. The church calls Mike, Brother Mike and his dear wife. The ladies call me Sister Cindy. The congregation always shakes everyone’s hand, even their own family. Fijians don’t like Starbucks, yea! More for me! D’Anna said her leg didn’t hurt, it was quite painful. Our boat is like a hotel. Ida said our boat was much nicer than her home and it has so much room!

January 5, 2010

I was up most the night with a sore throat and Mike sat up all night as his sinuses were draining. I am reading ‘God is closer than you think”. God is in control. The refer motor wont keep running today, the motor spring is broken and we have no spares. Mike put in the old brush and springs and it worked. I ordered the part and spares this time, hope they come soon. Mike cooked Top Ramen for us for lunch. I organized our 2009 receipts, what a mess. Mike is hot, sweating and cranky cause his throat hurts and he can’t find anything to take to make it feel better.

January 6, 2010

Today is a beautiful day in paradise but we are both sick. Mike worked on the computer today and I made potato soup with the sweet potatoes. I tried to use up our left over’s. We had more left over’s for dinner. It was a lazy day for us. We watched ‘Lions for Lambs’ good movie, then bed.

January 7, 2010

It is sunny and windy today, perfect. Mike made breakfast and then he built a box out of cardboard so that we could return the pump. It cost $22.50 in postage plus a 20% restocking fee plus the initial postage, all because the redesigned this pump and now it doesn’t fit. Bugger! We went to the post office and then had lunch at Emmanuel’s where D’Anna works, her leg is much better. She took two days off and is telling Malo he has to wait on her. J I played cards with Kristen, her sister Jane and Kathy, we had a great time even though I lost. Mike went up to the church, he is working on a plan for their sound system. He got home just before dark.

January 8, 2010

I spent most of the day getting ready for appetizer night on our boat. I thought Jane might enjoy a cruiser night. I made tortillas and rotis. Mike helped me finish making bean dip. I started sneezing yesterday and now my nose is dripping, so I stuffed tissue up my nose, I remember Julie doing this when she lived at home and I laughed at her, if she could only see me now. Mike went to church with Wes to work on the base amp. The cruisers came at 5PM and we had a good mix of food and fun.

January 9, 2010

After breakfast I had Kathi on Po Oina Roa cut my hair. One side looks crooked but can’t tell for sure, oh well, it will grow back. We made reservations to go to Palmlea Lodge in Labasa with Kristen, Alan and Jane. I am coughing today so Mike went to worship practice alone.

January 10, 2010

It is Sunday, sunny and 91 degrees. Nice! We got up at 7:30AM and called Lyn but she and Ashley were at work. We talked to Greg, he sounds so different, very grown up. We also talked to Austin and he whistled for us. Very cute. Mike picked Alan up for church and Kristen picked me up a little later. The freezer is at 14 degrees, praise the Lord! I made sweet n sour fish for lunch at church. Not as many people stayed as normal but still several were there. The men and Kristen, Jane and I ate first, and then the ladies ate and did the dishes. Mike stayed for the second service today, I went home to pack for Labasa. We watched Avatar and went to bed

January 11, 2010

We got up at 5:45AM to charge the refer before leaving for Labasa. Jerry took us to shore so we could leave our dinghy on the boat. We caught the 7:30AM bus to Labasa, it was ¾ full before we left Savusavu but after many stops along the way it was cram packed and people were sitting in the aisles by the time we arrived. It was an interesting ride, people loaded their wares for market through the windows. Not a bad idea because the other way was to try and get down the aisle with stuff, which could prove impossible. Then there were people selling peanuts, watermelon, pineapple and roti through the windows at each stop. The views on the ride were spectacular and cultural with family seeing family off, some whole villages got on the bus, oxen being driven down the road, beaches, bays and rivers, red dirt and tropical landscape and many different types of homes. The bus ride alone was worth the $6 cost. It was difficult to figure out where to get off the bus. Alan had instructions but some of the landmarks were temples and there were several temples that fit the description. The locals on the bus were helping Alan too. We got off at Kahn’s Shopping Center that looked more like a shabby mini mart, but there was a Palmlea sign so we knew it was correct. Joe came to pick us up, he was great, but drove a rickety car down a dirt road with lots of potholes. More scenic views from Lion Head Bay. They had 60 African goats, they were pretty. They raise ducks too. Our bure had a queen size bed with mosquito netting over it. A big bathroom with shower and a nice porch with a table and chairs over looking the swimming pool. We had lunch and then planned to go for a swim and maybe take a nap. They had a great pool, it was vinyl but looked like tile and it was 75’ long and the perfect temperature. We had Mexican food for dinner cooked by Mexican Joe himself, very good. It wasn’t a late night as we were so tired.

January 12, 2010

Mike woke me up to help find Tylenol and Pepcid, he had a headache and heart burn. As I was falling back to sleep I felt something crawling on my arm, it was a huge spider, I screamed and was up fast. Mike caught the spider and was going to put it outside but just couldn’t get it out so he killed it. I didn’t sleep too well after all that! We had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, cereal and smoothies and coffee. Then Julie took us to Labasa about 15KM from the lodge. It is bigger than Savusavu but not that great and it was so hot. We did buy a new camera as ours bit the dust. Mailed our Julie a birthday card and got Mike’s heart pills refilled. We had lunch with Alan, Kristen and Jane at a Chinese restaurant, pretty good and really cheap. Mike got more candy for the kids at church and he also checked into cable for the sound booth for the church as they had a store with that kind of supplies. We took a bus back to the lodge and we had to walk about a mile down a dirt road from where the bus let us off. Jane tripped on some rolling rock and fell and really hurt her whole body. She hit my leg on my fall and my veins swelled up and it hurt for me to walk too. She was definitely worse off than me. We went for a swim when we got back we were so hot and tired. We had pizza, salad and wine for dinner, and Mike had to have dessert, boy were we full. We went to bed about 11PM.

January 13, 2010

I got up in the middle of the night and had heartburn so bad I took a Pepcid. 30 minutes later I had no relief so I took another Pepcid. I was in agony in another 30 minutes so I got up and walked around and ended up vomiting. I vomited 7 times before I could sleep but by then it was morning and we had to leave at 11AM. Today Jane is very sore and my leg is bruised. I had toast and tea for breakfast. After paying our bill Joe took us back to Kahn’s Shopping Center to catch the bus at 10:30, but the bus was really at 10AM, looks like we had bad information. And the next bus isn’t until 1PM, which is a 2.5 hour wait. Now there is one small bench at the shopping center not room for all of us to sit. The store owner let us use his bathroom but normally they don’t let customer’s use it and we weren’t even customers. It was a toilet with the walls very close to the toilet with no light and no toilet paper but hey it was a toilet! The owner’s daughter was 13 and she kept us company and tried to be attentive to our needs. She gave us mango to eat and took everyone to see a hot spring across the street, and told us of her dreams to be a lawyer. She told us a joke “Fijians want land, Indians want money and Americans want brains, she was delightful. Everyone went to the bathroom about 12:45 as the bus ride was two hours long, with no potty stops. While we were going to the bathroom the bus whizzed by just a few minutes early. The next bus is not until 7PM, holy crap, now what. The local girl found a guy with a car that would carry us and our luggage, the idea was that the driver would try to catch the bus. This car looked good but badly needed the suspension fixed and an alignment. He passed cars around bends where you couldn’t see on coming traffic, it was the scariest ride I think I have ever had. About 20 minutes later he caught the bus, we paid him $10 said thank you and hurried on to a safer ride, we hope. The bus was full but not nearly as crowded as the day we came. And it was much cooler. Back in Savusavu we had an early dinner, we shared a burger and fries. Back on the boat the refer was at 41 degrees but that was to be expected. We went to bed early thinking we might get up for something to eat but I never woke up. Mike got up and had a PB&J before going back to bed.

January 14, 2010

We woke up at 8:30 and had coffee in bed and at 9AM we had another cup of coffee in bed. I finally decided I better make breakfast. They eggs were not good, maybe because it is 95 degrees in the boat and hotter in the cupboard. Eggs are not kept in the refer in the south pacific. This morning Mike started the genset and the oil plug popped out and sprayed oil all over Mike, the floor, on the dish towels, on the counters and in a cupboard, what a mess. I helped him clean it up, dirty oil does not clean up easily. Then we went and showered. Mike, Alan, Wes and Pastor went to Customs with a letter that said Peniel AOG church was going to sponsor us. This was in hopes that they wouldn’t charge us the $467 fee per person to stay until April, but ‘no go’ even if they sponsor us we still had to pay. Bummer, I guess we will go to Futuna before March 18 when our current visa is up.

January 15, 2010

It was a very hot night, it rained so we had to close all the windows making it hotter than normal. The good thing was we were able to fill our water tanks and water jugs again! I had gotten some pumpkin recipes from Christy so today I made pumpkin soup, it turned out pretty good. The pumpkin was cooked with a ham and bone piece of meat. We met Kristen, Alan and Jane at the yacht club for the last time before Jane flies home tomorrow. I think Jane had a great time.

January 16, 2010

Mike got up early this morning and made coffee and pancakes. After breakfast I got started on the laundry since we have all this rain water. Then I scrubbed the cockpit and deck what a job! Mike did some re-wiring in the engine room and he mounted the regulator on the wall and tidied things up. We took a break and rested and ate the jelly bellies mom sent and tried to figure out the flavors. Mike has worship team practice tonight and I will stay home to try and figure out what to make for the potluck tomorrow after church.

January 17, 2010

Today is Sunday, I took Mike to shore in the dinghy and then went back to the boat to make a dish for the potluck after church. I decided to walk to church it is only about a mile and on the way there were several churches and I could hear their singing, it was wonderful. I arrived at church just in time for the service to start. They have a special speaker, a pastor from the Philippines. Afterwards we had lunch and I had made stuffed cabbage but the cabbage was tough so it was difficult to eat. I guess I should have used my fingers like the Fijians, they don’t use forks much less knives. There were two services today and in between services Rod & Glenis of Island Breeze invited us to their home for coffee, along with Charisma. The ladies played cards while the guys just chatted. After church Glenis took us back to the marina since it was raining.

January 18, 2010

Mike went to buy plywood for the sound booth he is building for the church. He asked for it to be delivered to the church and then went to the church to wait for it. He fixed some of the microphones while he was waiting. It did not arrive on time so he came home. We were invited for appetizers on Sharazod so he couldn’t wait any longer. I made a bean dip on top of a tortilla crust to take over to their boat. Christy made pita bread and an Indian spicy dish called Moroccan Eggplant Dip that was quite good. I was able to get some local recipes from her that I hope to try. We ended up staying until midnight, we had a good time. They also sold us a spare electric pump for our genset.

January 19, 2010

Today is Julie’s birthday and it will actually be tomorrow in the US. Mike and Alan went to the church to work on the sound booth as the plywood was delivered. It rained very hard so I was able to catch some water and used it to do more laundry. I went to shore and took a shower and went shopping and then picked up Mike and Alan. We took Alan back to Charisma and then we stayed for dinner, fish and salad, very good.

January 20, 2010

Kristen and I took a bus this morning to a Christian women’s craft group that meets every Wednesday at Glenis’. The meeting was mostly about what project they should do this coming year. At the moment the hospital needs some help in the women’s ward. They decided to have a fund raiser on Monday morning. Kristen, Glenis and I made cake that will sell for $1 per slice, Liza is making vegetable curry roti packs and other ladies are making jam from there cherry and mango trees to sell. Mike stayed on our boat while I was gone and worked on Rod’s laptop and tried to order music cable for the sound booth. I went to the market to look for some odd spices for the recipes I planned to make. One was Fenugreek, but it had a different Indian name and there was a man at the market who helped me figure it out. I bought a movie on DVD. The movies here are all pirated. The government makes announcements about it on the radio all the time but there is no change in the stores. Had dinner and went to bed early.

January 21, 2010

Another hot night with rain and more rain today. Mike is computing and I am making pita bread. I also made the Moroccan Dip. I photo copied Christy’s recipe book. There are no cards today for the ladies. Mike and I have shared some really nice chats last night and this morning. Kristen and Alan came over and tested my pita and dip, they liked it. My pita bread did not rise like it should have but it still tasted good and worked fine with the dip. I also made Pumpkin Apple soup, not so good. We had a nice evening including a beautiful sunset.

January 22, 2010

Hot, hot , hot last night. We sat in the cockpit to have our morning coffee but it was so hot out we came back in the cabin. Mike went to the church to work and I played cards with Kristen, and Kathi, Kristen won! It was a fun game. At 7PM we met Glenis, Rod, and the Thompson family for pizza at Captains Café. The family has 5 young girls and they are missionaries at Buca Bay about 3 hours away. We had a really nice evening listening to their stories.

January 22, 2010

Another hot night, Mike ran the fan off and on all night but we have to conserve due to limited power. We both walked up to the church so I could see his progress on the project, the sound booth. Looks great! Suzanna, pastors wife served us rice with sugar and milk for lunch. It brings back old memories when I was growing up, we had rice with cinnamon, sugar and milk almost every Sunday morning. Mike said he cant step foot in the church without them feeding him. Tonight we went to Rod and Glenis for a BBQ along with Charisma and the Thompson family. We had lobster tail in coconut sauce, lamb sausages, beef patties, potato salad, green salad and carrot salad, along with ice cream for dessert. It was all wonderful. Then we played a card game called GOLF that Glenis taught us. The missionaries run a medical mission in Buca Bay. Their names are John, Monique, and Saddie who is 16, Mary Sue, Charlotte, Margaret and Laura who is 6. We all had a great time.

January 23, 2010

It is Sunday and it is hot again. Mike took his trumpet and picked up Alan for Sunday school this morning. Kristen picked me up a little later and we took a taxi to church. I made baked beans for the potluck and Kristen made sweet & sour fish, very good. They announced pastor’s mom died so he has to go to Suva next week. They asked the church for donations and most local people donated mats, apparently it is a big deal to give people who attend a funeral a mat. Their funerals last several days and on the last day they give the people a chunk of raw beef. Later this evening Kathi on Po Oina Roa invited us over for cake. It was an orange upside down cake, very good! I made my cake tonight for the ladies fundraiser tomorrow.

January 24, 2010

I got up early to ice the cake. And Mike made us pancakes for breakfast. Kristen picked me up to go to the market to sell our goods. She also made hot sauce. We had to wait for the other ladies to show up, they were late, or on Fijian time. Finally Glenis and Liza showed up. We had 5 cakes to sell, roti, juice, hot sauce and chutney that Anna had made. I stayed a couple of hours and really wasn’t needed at the booth so I bought a couple of roti for lunch and then went to the market to buy mustard seed for one of my recipes. We met the guys at the yacht club, they had been at the church installing pipe under the church to run the cable to power for the sound booth. We had an early dinner and watched two movies.

January 25, 2010

Ida invited us to go to a funeral but since we didn’t know the people we thought our white skin would stand out and it would be obvious we were more spectators. So we opted not to go. Mike went to the church where he was supposed to meet Rondaneva but the church was locked up so he came home. I made pizza for lunch and used left overs for topping that I needed to use up. I also made pumpkin curry today for dinner but it wasn’t that great. I had saved some pita dough in the refer and this time when I cooked it, it rose like it was supposed to. Mike replaced the mast boot with an inner tube, every time it rains water runs down the mast. Hopefully it won’t leak anymore. Our Vodafone quit working, it got wet in the rain last night and of course the warranty ran out in December.

January 26, 2010

Kristen and I took the bus to the ladies group today. Ida was there and she gave us mangos and limes. Mike stayed home and was very busy sewing covers for the propane tank, the mast boot and for the hatch over our bed so we can leave it open when it rains. We went to the Captains and shared a burger and fries. We got mail from Kathy she sent us each two shirts and a candy bar, how sweet! We went to Courts store who sells Vodafone, we are looking for an inexpensive solution, but we have to go back with our computer. Glenis gave us the DVD called Fireproof, how to fireproof your marriage. There is also a book called Love Dare, a 40 day plan to improve your marriage. We think our 3 couples are going to go through this process. Should be interesting. Coffee, chocolate and bed.

January 27, 2010

No cards today as Kathi was involved in taking people from the cruise ship on a tour to one of the local villages. We went to Island Breeze for dinner, to start Love Dare and for the cell group bible study from church. It was a nice evening. Rod drove us back to the marina.

January 28, 2010

I missed journaling today and can’t remember what happened.

January 29, 2010

My Birthday today! Kristen and Alan stopped by with a gift as they are leaving to cruise around Fiji for a week or so. I had coffee with the ladies, Glenis, Ida and Christy whom I introduced. She plays the ukulele and so does Glenis. Back at the boat Mike made me lunch and then at 2PM I played cards with Kathi. It was a very different game with only two people. She bought me a coke float and then took me to her boat and gave me a pink cello sponge. Her husband thought that was a crazy gift but good sponges are hard to come by in the south pacific and I loved getting it. Mike was able to order the music cable and so it should be here by Monday. Courts told us we have to go to Labasa to resolve the Vodafone issue, bugger! We went to the yacht club and they had a drawing for a jackpot and they let me draw a name, I picked Shane and he let me pick a card, I picked Jack but needed the Joker to win. Then we met Rod and Glenis at Surf & Turf for my birthday dinner. Glenis gave me some shells that I admired at her house, a fan – a must have in Fiji weather and a Bula Fiji plastic bag holder. Great evening!

January 30, 2010

After breakfast we read Love Dare. Today’s dare is to not be negative and do one unexpected nice gesture for your spouse. Mike did the dishes that I would normally do. And I jellied his toast and made him chocolate no bake cookies, his favorite. It is Mark’s birthday today in the states, we share the same birthday only I am one year older, and so I emailed him Happy Birthday. I received at least 20 birthday greetings, makes me feel loved! Mike went to worship practiced tonight.

January 31, 2010

It is Sunday and a nice day. I took Mike to shore and then came back to the boat to finish running the genset and to make long green beans for the potluck after church today. I walked to church as I need the exercise and I enjoy the church music along the way from other churches. It was a good service, pastor is still in Suva for his mom’s funeral so Pastor Ronnie preached. Afterwards I helped Suzanna in the kitchen. She invited her neighbors to church but only their 3 little boys came. They are quite poor and Suzanna asked the congregation if they had any shoes or clothes they could donate to them. We walked home and I bought Mike an ice cream bar. Today Love Dare was to buy something special for your spouse today, well in Fiji that is not so easy 95% of business’ close at 1PM on Saturday and don’t open back up until Monday morning. That includes the grocery store, but there was a small store that had ice cream. It made him smile, so I know I did good. We went out for pizza for dinner. There was another local family at the restaurant and when they got their pizza they offered to share it with us, amazing, they don’t even know us, we were just talking to their little girl. The fish were jumping like crazy and the little girl was quite taken with them. We stopped and talked to Dolly on the way back to our boat and she said the Vodafone rep from Labasa comes here once a week. She is going to find out when he comes next so we don’t have to go to Labasa. Thank you Jesus!

February 1, 2010

It is a beautiful and hot day. I made toast and coffee and a big bowl of fruit. Ida brought us bananas and mangos plus I had just bought some fruit. The blower in the engine room quit working today and we gave Charisma our best spare. Mike had to make do with a smaller inadequate one. And Mark emailed Mike that the power supply on our server quit working too so we have no website. More projects to do! We read Love Dare, we are supposed to call our spouse for no reason, but we have no phone so not sure how we improvise. We discussed that our Love Dare challenges should impact others in our life that we interact with too. We shouldn’t be negative to anyone.

February 2, 2010

I have been lazy and haven’t written in my journal for a whole week, so now I have to remember what took place over the last few days. The cable and parts came in for the sound booth. And Rod showed up just in time to take them to the church, Mike was going to carry the parts but they were heavy. Then Wes was at the church to help with the project. Mike returned to the boat just in time to meet with the Vodafone rep, a blessing not to have to go to Labasa. He gave us a modem to borrow until they determine the status of our modem. Thank you Jesus. I went shopping for clothes for the three needy boys that came to church. It was difficult as I couldn’t find sizes that Suzanna thought they needed. I did buy them each a pair of pants and confirmed with the store I could return them if they didn’t fit. The manager didn’t seem to understand the concept of returning or exchanging. We walked to the church and gave the kids the clothes and peanut butter and crackers to share with the little boys. We will have to wait to see if the pants fit. We walked back to the marina and were hot and sweaty so we took showers before going to the boat.

February 3, 2010

Today it is raining hard outside. We packed our backpacks with a few clothes, Rod and Glenis invited us to stay at Island Breeze for free for two days and relax. That was a really nice gesture. We took a cab since we had so much stuff. It was the ladies group today and I was a little late. Nati gave a devotional about abiding in Christ and that we are the branches, interesting that is what Ronnie preached on Sunday. I gave Ida some sandals that hurt my feet they were a little small for her but she liked them. After the ladies left Glenis made us lunch and we played cards, read my book and relaxed. Amanda made us curried breadfruit for dinner and roti, very good. First we ate Dahl soup that Glenis made, we ate way too much! We watched Rod’s DVD’s on discipleship. Then went to bed, in a king size bed, how nice! Great Day!

February 4, 2010

It is a beautiful morning and I had the pleasure of lying in bed watching the sunrise while listening to my husband just outside the door on the deck playing his guitar and singing. We just relaxed most of the day out on the deck over looking the reef and sea. The yard beyond the deck was filled with palm trees, frangipani, and banana trees and more all on a hill sloping down to the sea as to not block the view. We were spoiled with Glenis and Amanda cooking for us.

Later in the evening we went to a cell group bible study in a local Fijian home. There was lots of singing, tea and sandwiches, like we needed to eat again, but Fijians are worse than Americans eating at functions. They have breakfast, then tea, then lunch, then tea, then dinner than tea. And tea always has food too.

February 5, 2010

Today is Friday, we had coffee and toast with avocado slices, very good. Avocados are in season and are cheap so you eat them at every meal. I love them. Then Glenis took us back to the Copra Shed along with Ida. Friday mornings are ladies coffee in town. I went shopping afterwards so I could make Dahl soup. Rod and Glenis joined us on our boat for dinner and Love Dare. I made pita bread with morocco dip with Wine, then we had Chinese chicken cabbage salad and cheese bread from the bakery and finished with chocolate cookies and coffee for dessert.

February 6, 2010

Scarlett O’Hara with John and Rene came to visit us this morning. They arrived yesterday from Vuda Point Marina. They often buddy boat with Po Oina Roa and will go on to Australia with them after cyclone season. Mike needed a white shirt as everyone on the worship team wears white on communion Sunday. We didn’t remember most stores close at 1PM on Saturday so we had only a couple of stores to check and we couldn’t find one. He does have a couple of long sleeve white shirts but they are hot! Now it is time to go to worship practice. Mike didn’t get home until really late, he was invited to Rondaneva’s on the way home so he had ‘tea; with them.

February 7, 2010

It is Sunday today so I took Mike to shore to go to church early and I went back to the boat to get ready. I baked a banana cake last night so that was what I brought for the potluck after church. Ida came to church in the white Capri pants I gave her and she looked very nice. After the service there was the potluck, then tea and then a second service and then tea again but we did not stay for the second tea, it is just too long of a day.

February 8, 2010

Monday morning and Wes came over with another pastor. We hadn’t even had breakfast yet. I fixed pancakes and spam for them, I don’t think they eat pancakes, they only used butter and no syrup, hind site I should have had jam out for them. They brought the pastors computer in hopes that Mike could fix it. He couldn’t fix it here so they went to Rod’s house where Amanda had her computer that Mike also had worked on. It used the same hard drive and Mike thought they could use it to test pastor’s computer. Mike couldn’t fix the computer but was able to get the data off for him. Mike didn’t get home until dinner time and then we watched "Faith Like Potatoes” before going to bed, it was a great movie.

February 9, 2010

It was a nice morning. We had breakfast, ran the refer, did Love Dare and then went up to the church. Rene had donated a lot of crystal light that was starting to stick together with the humidity so she donated it to the kids at church, they loved it. It is a real treat for them. Mike fixed another microphone cable. We gave the pastor’s twin boys a can of spaghetti each for their 10^th birthday. They said they love spaghetti and seldom get to eat it. After talking with them they like the canned type, that’s okay it is easy for me. Suzanna made us some lemonade, they have a lemon tree. We walked back to town and had lunch at Decked Out with Imagine, Berit and Haakon, we call him Hong Cong it is easier to say. I made vegetable curry for dinner.

February 10, 2010

I took the bus to the ladies group, it was my first time alone and I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t get off at the right spot but no worries, it was easy. I gave the devotion today, I decided to tie it in to the last two devotions ‘The great commission to be disciples” and ‘He’ the vine we are the branches and must bear fruit’. I shared “Joy and Peace, the fruit” It went really well. Then we celebrated Liza’s last Wednesday as she is moving to Suva for one year to care for her grandchildren. Matilda brought me grated coconut so I could make cookies. You can only buy desiccated coconut in Fiji. And Ida brought me limes and avocados, and Glenis game me green peppers and a deck of cards, boy was I blessed today! Afterwards I played cards with Glenis while I waited for the bus. Mike was a busy boy while I was gone he fixed the dinghy engine that wasn’t running well, he worked on Lai’s computer, fixed the ships clock and went shopping and bought me Tiger Balm. I made cookies when I got home, I thought Mike deserved some. They didn’t harden as well, maybe it was the moist coconut, or maybe I used too much coconut since I had lots and it doesn’t keep.

February 11, 2010

Christy and I went for an early walk this beautiful morning. We walked up dirt roads we hadn’t been before and then up the hill past the church. We did see beautiful views of the bay but boy were we hot and sweaty when we returned. Then we went to the market to say hi to Olivia then back to the boat. Christy shared some produce that locals gave her and I shared my bounty from yesterday, we had too much to eat before it would go bad. She also let us borrow her extra phone to call Vodafone which was a no charge call. Vodafone couldn’t find anything wrong, but the bottom line is our connection would not work. Argh! Then Mike called the local rep and again and he is working on a solution. Charisma came back today, we missed them while they were gone. They hit a reef in Buca Bay but their boat seems to be fine. I cooked Kumara for lunch, it is like a sweet potato and I fried it like French fries, very good. I also made grilled pineapple in coconut rum sauce, not bad. I made another batch of chocolate no bake cookies only this time I toasted the coconut and used a little less, they did get hard like they were supposed to. I played solitaire and Mike was right there helping me, and he says he doesn’t like games! We went to the yacht club and then to dinner at the Wok with Po Oina Roa, Scarlett, and Charisma. Nice evening.

February 12, 2010

I went to coffee with the ladies while Mike stayed busy again on the boat. He made straps to keep his trumpet case closed as the zipper broke, his poor case is falling apart. I hope his trumpet is doing better. He also sewed Charisma’s US flag back together but the fabric is so bad it just ripped again. He worked on Lai’s computer again but he doesn’t think he can fix it with the tools he has. I played cards today with Rene, Kristen and Kathi, it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure how it would go as Kathi said Rene plays serious cards and you can’t dilly dally around. I bought ice cream to go with my grilled pineapple with coconut and rum sauce that I am taking to Charisma for dessert after dinner. We had dinner with Rod & Glenis on Charisma and then did Love Dare.

February 13, 2010

Today is Saturday and it rained most of the day so I stayed home. Mike went to the church to fix a cable and then to have worship team practice. I was doing a little cooking trying to use all the produce we have been given. We had a little ice cream left so I made banana papaya smoothies, yum! I made fried rice and banana fritters too.

February 14, 2010

Valentine’s Day, they do celebrate it here or it looks like they do in the grocery stores but the people really don’t say anything about it. I went to church with Mike this morning since it was starting early today. We had prayer and then a long song service before the message ‘We need to be peacemakers’. Afterwards we had a Valentines lunch at Bula Re. We were supposed to go there with Rod and Glenis but Rod had a leg infection and had to go up to the hospital. So he stayed home but Glenis still joined us along with Kristen and Alan. At Bula Re ladies were given a free glass of pink champagne, we liked that. We were given a choice of chicken, pork or fish and all the meals were $20F and included dessert. We met a medical student from England at the restaurant that was at church too and we invited her to join us. She was doing volunteer work at the hospital along with 5 other students for 6 weeks. We had a lovely visit and missed Rod.

February 15, 2010

We had papaya smoothies for breakfast and did Love Dare together. Mike got up really early to try and connect with Mark regarding our server but was only able to email him. I made a banana cake with coconut and chocolate frosting. Later we Skyped the Videen’s and had a great talk. Mike even got out the video cam and hooked it up so they good see us and we could see them. Mike wore his Bula shirt too.

February 16, 2010

I made more papaya smoothies only we were out of ice cream so I used juice, not as good but certainly not bad. Today Mike is getting fuel in gerry jugs, this is a hard job lugging the 5 gallon jugs from the gas station to the dinghy, and from the dinghy lifting up to the deck is a killer. I stand on the deck and pull the jugs up while Mike lifts them. He bought 40 gallons, 8 jugs. We can only do 4 jugs at a time because we only have four! Then he has to use a funnel and pour it into the fuel tanks. He didn’t put on his sunscreen and was pretty sunburned at the end of the day. Then we took two loads of laundry into the laundry lady and then went to buy two putty knives we will use to scrape boat bottom. Then we went swimming to clean the thick growth of algae off the bottom of the boat. We had an aquarium growing under there. On the rudder alone there were about 50 two inch little black fish. I felt bad disturbing their home. We only did about a quarter of the boat today, we are just too tired to do more. And Mike got stung by little jelly fish four times on the wrists and feet and they swelled up. I made us some lemonade and found 3 little cockroaches in the lemons. I quickly killed them, I hate bugs! We went to shore to take showers and then went over to Charisma along with Imagine for a belated birthday cake Kristen promised to make. While we were there we borrowed a bunch of new DVD’s to watch.

February 17, 2010

Ladies meeting today. We were to come prepared with a food in the bible and bring it and the verse to share with the group. I found cinnamon and honey and I also had information on the healing powers from them off the internet. I made everyone a cup of one teaspoon cinnamon, one teaspoon of honey and one cup of boiling water. It is good but you have to keep stirring it or it separates. It is supposed to help with weight loss, arthritis and a number of other needs. Cinnamon is not readily available in Fiji so I gave mine to Ida and Glenis, I had a big bottle. I bought more at Cost U Less. Mike came with me today and he worked on Ida’s small laser boat that she is going to use for fishing but it had a hole in it and Mike had fiberglass materials to fix it. Glenis cut my hair after the meeting, we played cards and then took the 4PM bus home. We met Kristen and Alan at the yacht club and had pizza. Back at the boat the refer motor wouldn’t work! We did Love Dare and bed.

February 18, 2010

No girls’ cards today, Po is out in the islands cruising. It is another hot day! Mike and I donned our snorkel gear and went diving and cleaned the boat bottom again. The water was not as clear as the last time we did this so it was difficult to see. Normally I don’t dive under the boat to clean, Mike does, but there was so much to clean I had to buck up and do it. I was surprised it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Mike is really good at it and can hold his breath for quite some time! After working a couple of hours we are not quite half done. I wore leggings this time as last time snails clung to be as I scrapped them off the boat. Two big fish hung out the whole time we scraped I think they found dinner.

February 19, 2010

Kristen and I met Glenis for coffee. She brought Alice and her baby and Ida and Christy came too. Nice girls group. Ida gave us all more avocados, they are wonderful. Mike stayed and worked on a motor again. When I got back he had it working, yea! Vodafone didn’t come today as expected and now they say they can’t come until Tuesday, they are such a pain. We won’t be here as we plan to go to Futuna. We had Love Dare tonight and took the bus to Rod & Glenis and she made us dinner again. We saw Malo and D’Anna at the bus stop, they rode a different bus home. In our Love Dare tonight we discussed how it would be a huge challenge to love your spouse if they said they didn’t love you anymore. Now I have a better understanding of God’s unconditional love for us and he expects us to have that same love for our spouse. It was a beautiful night and we sat on their deck talking. Later Rod drove us back to the marina.

February 20, 2010

Today I must mail a birthday card to my sister in the states. It is not easy to find cards in Savusavu but I did, now to get it mailed. We had coffee in bed and did Love Dare. We discussed ‘unconditional love’ for us in our marriage, it is a tough thing. It is raining today, Mike says it rains every Saturday and most Sundays. Mike ordered new hinges for his laptop computer online. We are having them mailed to my sister this time and giving the Videen’s a break. We are expecting new credit cards too so she will find them and mail them too. Mike has worship team practice this afternoon and I need to plan the Sunday potluck dish.

February 21, 2010

Today is Sunday and they are having a different service today as they have annual elections for all positions including the pastor. It is not that big of a church so it would be difficult to replace the people in all the positions. It will be interesting. They started with lots of music and Pastor Kumbu from the district AOG office officiated the elections. I am not really sure that the people understood what they were voting for as even we were confused. Pastor Esau was voted in again for one year. Then the board was elected and there didn’t seem to be any changes. Then we had lunch, I brought dinner rolls and peanut butter cookies. Everyone enjoyed the cookies. Pastor Dan drove us home.

February 22, 2010

We planned to leave for Futuna so the day was spent packing and buying groceries. Mike helped Alan fix his SSB cable. We did Love Dare and went to bed.

February 23, 2010

As planned we left as soon as we could check out of Savusavu with Customs. Alan brought some stuff to store to our boat from their boat so there would be more room for our stuff and us. We brought half the food and our clothes and life jackets which were a dinghy full. We left the mooring at 9AM and motored all day. We stopped for the night at Viani Bay where we saw Scarlet and Po on mooring balls. We said Hi but didn’t get together at all. Jack, a local, brought us lots of bananas. His voice sounds kind of like Lai. We took seasick pills and had a good night sleep.

February 24, 2010

We left our mooring around 7AM so our sail to Futuna will be a day and a half away, so everyone gets a 3 hour night watch. I guess this will prepare us once again for what is to come. I have first watch 8PM – 11PM, Kristen 11PM – 2AM, Mike 2AM – 5AM and Alan 5AM – 8AM. We had better seas today and we were able to sail, yesterday seas were a bit rough. Alan caught 3 fish, 2 that looked like rainbow runner, very good eating and one skipjack, tuna. We mostly read and Kristen and I took turns cooking and dishes. It made the passage much nicer. The wind was great on my watch and not so great on Kristen’s watch. Mike had to start the engine as the wind died on his watch. Alan didn’t seem to sleep on our watches which is too funny since he is known for sleeping on his own watches! J

February 25, 2010

Kathy’s birthday. Glad the night watches are over. We all did Love Dare together after breakfast, more importantly coffee. We had a nice day of sailing. We arrived at Futuna at 4PM Fiji time and 3PM Futuna time. The guys got the dinghy in the water and we headed to shore to check in. We asked a local guy driving by where Customs was, he only spoke French so he didn’t understand until we said Gendarme. It was a fair distance, so glad he gave us a ride. There were quite a few houses made of concrete and stucco. And a few other buildings and lots of cars but narrow 2 lane roads, this surprised us as we were told there is nothing there. Well there is nothing touristy to do. There was no English spoken but the Gendarme were very friendly and used sign language and Alan spoke little French, enough to get our passport stamped. But they didn’t want our ‘certificate of clearance’ and didn’t give us one. He made me smile to give my passport back. We were taken outside where a woman said in English to come back tomorrow to stamp our passport to leave. She told us where a store was but we had no francs but you could use a credit card if you spent a minimum of $50Francs. There were no banks and I guess a representative comes to the island only once a month to do business for 2 days. They dump their rubbish in the sea, they raise pigs. We walked around the one street town before going back to the boat. Not really anything to see. Back at the boat we drank wine and killed flies. We have never seen so many annoying flies in all our life. We must have literally killed 50. We never picked them up we just left them for dead as examples to other flies! HA! Mike and Alan put out the stern anchor as it was rolly in the bay.

February 26, 2010

We slept in this morning and had a nice breakfast. Then we pulled anchor and headed to Alofi Island 6 miles away where the water is supposed to be cleaner. It was beautiful clear water but a little deep for anchoring. We went to shore to check it out. There were some locals there fishing. And 3 ladies there smoking and covered in some yellow orange substance. We tried to ask what it was but again only spoke French. They seem to know what we were asking and pointed to the sky. It was overcast but we think it was a sunscreen for them. The island is uninhabited but it used to be inhabited as there were many old buildings and a church. We walked the beach and collected some shells. We watched the men fish with nets, they caught some fish 3 or 4” long. They had woven a basket out of palm branches to hold them as they caught them. As we were leaving one of the men offered us some of their fish but we said no thank you. We didn’t want to take their fish for one because it was like sardines which we don’t eat and two because they seem poor and it took hours to collect the fish. I found a sulu on the beach which I did take, it was really pretty and was buried in the sand. After dinner Kristen and I played cards.

February 27, 2010

We got up at 7AM and headed back to Futuna to check out. We anchored and only Alan went ashore, when he returned we had breakfast and got under way about 9AM. We planned our sailing so that when we got to the reefs it would be daylight. For night watches Kristen and Alan swapped shifts, Mike and I kept the same times we had on the way here. Nice sailing weather.

February 28, 2010

Dan’s birthday today. My night watch was fine again but again Mike and Kristen’s had very little wind and had to motor. Today it was rainy and the cockpit got wet. We decided to go to Viani Bay again for the night. Kristen and I tried to play cards but they just slid all over as the boat heeled. Alan hooked two fish but lost both along with the lures, bugger, I thought only we did that. We were able to get on a mooring in Viani Bay which makes for a calmer more comfortable night.

March 1, 2010

We got up at 7AM to head for Savusavu. It was rainy and wet and we motor sailed most the day. We arrived at 4:30PM and really wanted pizza for dinner. We were tired of cooking. We called Scarlet to see if they would pick it up for us and they said no, don’t be so lazy. They didn’t realize we were under quarantine. Since it was Charisma that left Mike and I decided to go ashore and get the pizza. It was so good. Customs was closed today as there was a holiday. We had to stay on Charisma until we cleared Customs tomorrow morning.

March 2, 2010

Dolly arranged for Customs to come to the boat. As it turns out we didn’t get the much needed ‘certificate of clearance’ from Futuna and now they don’t know how to process us, specifically the boat. They told Mike and I to stay on Charisma until they figured it out. What a pain. They called us to come ashore at 2:30PM. Then they went over and over our story trying to understand why we didn’t get the certificate. We continue to say the Gendarme were French and spoke no English and we didn’t speak French and had no idea that there was an issue to resolve. When we were in French Polynesia we only went to the Gendarme but there we had an agent. Here there were no agents. They sent us back to the boat and requested the boat log and a letter of explanation. We also got a $75 fine for arriving on a holiday. That is unbelievable! We are waiting on the outcome and have prayed for God’s favor! We took showers and went to Decked Out for fish and chips. And backed to our boat! But it is 97 degrees!

March 3, 2010

More cockroaches! The refer is full of mold! It is raining out and I spent the whole day cleaning the refer and freezer out. And killing cockroaches. Mike spent the afternoon researching reducing refer energy, can we fill it with Styrofoam, the answer for that is no. So we decided to keep the refer and the freezer the same temperature, about 40 degrees. We are storing our pop and drinks in it, and hope to not have to run the genset so much, we will see. Mike took the laundry in to be washed and dried and then picked it up too.

March 4, 2010

We had breakfast and read our Love Dare together. Then I updated our journal and made a grocery list. Must buy more Hit spray made specifically to kill cockroaches! Kristen and Alan Mike and I are all going to say good bye to Pastor Esau, he is going to Suva for 3 weeks for a seminar. That is a long time for a pastor to be away from his church. We may be on our way to Tonga when he returns. I need to make a list of what needs to be done before leaving on a passage.

March 5, 2010

On Thursday Customs told Alan that he gets a hand slap, and not to leave a country ever again with out a certificate of clearance. Thank you for God’s favor! But the Customs boss is to be here on Monday and Alan is to bring his boat log here to be review by him and his passport again. We ladies had coffee again at Bula Re. I saw Olivia while I was walking to the restaurant she gave me a flower for my hair, she told me she didn’t need a flower as her face was already a flower! The flower would not stay in my hair. Glenis wants to do our Love Dare meeting at her house tonight, it is not really her turn but she insists. Okay by me but it is more work for her. I went to the store and bought a BBQ chicken. When I got back to the boat Mike had the same idea, so we had two chickens, oh well they were good. I did more cleaning of the cupboards and found endless cockroaches, but now they are dead. How many more are there? We took a bus to Island Breeze, Glenis made apricot chicken legs with 1000 salad dressing, apricot preserves and onion soup all over rice, so good. Our Love Dare recommended finding a Christian marriage mentor. Rod brought us home at 10:30 and we were locked out but the security guard did let us in.

March 6, 2010

We got up very late today, Mike didn’t sleep well during the night as it was hot and raining so we were opening and closing the hatch above our bed all night. We had coffee in bed and discussed Love Dare. We had brunch due to the late hour. Mike brought in the laundry that I left out all night and it got rained on. Then we moved to mooring #4, we were on #8 but Dolly told us they needed to add more to weight to that mooring as it had less weight than the rest. Now that is not what she said a few months ago when we moved to mooring #8. She says she only told us what she was told. While we went to Futuna with Charisma there was a tsunami warning and Sharazod went out to sea to make sure our boat would have more room. Not sure if it actually happened if we would have been safe on a mooring but another boat would be one less thing to hit. That was kind of Sharazod and safer for them too. Mike went to worship practice and I made cookies for the potluck tomorrow.

March 7, 2010

We went to church today, I walked and arrived too late for communion. After the service they had a board meeting and asked if Mike, Rod and Alan would sit in on it as advisors. Then there was tea and a second service where Malo preached his first ever sermon. It was nicely done and very short. Mike and I walked home and decided to have pizza at the Captain’s Café! Back at the boat we found 4 cockroaches, how to get rid of those things?

March 8, 2010

It is a beautiful morning. Alan stopped and said Suva has to review the file and he needs our passports again. Mike took the mattress cover to the laundry and gave them bleach to use when they washed it. They forgot to put the bleach in so they had to re-do it. Probably was a good thing to be washed twice. We let it dry in the hot sun. It had gotten wet with salt water when the hatch was open and was getting mildew on it. Mike worked on the dinghy engine and he needed a part to come apart that wasn’t made to come apart. But it was clogged. We soaked it all night, not sure that helped but he finally got it clean. I did a little email and killed cockroaches, now my daily routine!

March 9, 2010

Mike finished his dinghy engine project and now it runs great! Today we took our sheets ashore to be washed and when we got them back they were still soapy. Too bad you can’t use a washer to do your own wash! It is hard to do sheets by hand. Sharazod invited us over and made Banana strawberry drinks, where did they get strawberries? We all have too many bananas. The drinks were yummy! They made a huge bowl of popcorn too and we had a nice visit.

March 10, 2010

Today Kristen and I went to Glenis’ for the ladies group. When we got to the bus stop Ida was there too, she had to buy bread. Matilda gave a devotion on our self worth. We must remember we were made by God, and God don’t make no junk! Then Kristen, Glenis and I played cards until the bus came. We didn’t hear the bus and found out it had already gone by. Bummer, but Glenis gave us a ride to town. I felt bad she had to drive to town for us. Mike had cleaned the boat while I was gone, what a good boy! And he got a call from Vodafone and they were able to get Vodafone to work, which is wonderful. It was a technical problem at their office! So maddening as it took over a month to resolve. I made lunch, I had a headache and took some pain pills Glenis gave me, and I need a nap! But we are having Asana and Rondaniva for dinner so I have to get ready. It turned out that Rondaneva had to work so I invited Charisma since we had so much food. Asana still came and she brought us gifts, a Fijian dress for me and a Bula shirt for Mike and Plantain bananas and a woven bag. I couldn’t believe all the stuff she brought. And we only had dinner for her! She told us about the fish she catches, she fishes in the bay we are anchored in. She uses a Billy Billy, a raft, but someone recently stole hers. She is trying to get someone to make her another one, they are just bamboo tied together. We see whole families on them crossing the bay. Today is the last day of Love Dare.

March 11, 2010

At the end of the Love Dare book there were 20 questions you were to ask each other. We really were not surprised at our answers, it was a good exercise. Today we plan to clean the boat bottom some more, the water is clear today. Mike stretched himself, he borrowed Alan’s weight belt to help him dive deep enough to clean the keel. I tried but I spent all my energy just to get down there, I float so it was really hard. I scraped very little of the keel. Now the bottom is clean, way to go Mikey! We crossed it off our ‘to do’ list but added the mounting of the radar reflector. We keep thinking of things that must be done before our passage home.

March 12, 2010

Happy Birthday Mikey, 57 big ones and brother Lael is 55, double nickel as they say. For breakfast I made him oatmeal with velvet custard, bananas and caramel sauce. I think he enjoyed it plus it was a good way to use bananas! I went to Bula Re for coffee with Glenis and Kristen only to discover they shut the restaurant down. It was owned by an Australian and in Fiji you have to let the locals work, you can’t. She was quite often at the restaurant to make sure all is going well and it was construed as she was working and not letting the locals, so they closed her down. She was subjected to government corruption anyway, they would come in and expect free meals and take whole bottles of alcohol with out paying. Funny thing is that the locals that were employed no longer have a job. Amazing that this happens. There is a cyclone warning, they are expecting a direct hit on Savusavu in 48 hours, yikes! I went shopping to make sure we have enough food in case something happens. We looked at a satellite picture on line and we are in the cyclones projected path, although they can change course in a heart beat, so you can’t try to go in another direction to get away from it. We prayed God’s protection over Fiji! We went to the yacht club to wait for Glenis & Rod, and Kristen & Alan to go to the Surf & Turf for dinner to celebrate Mike’s birthday, finishing Love Dare and our leaving for America soon. Glenis made a birthday cake for Mike, and gave him a chocolate bar, very sweet! HA!

March 13, 2010

It was calm last night, just a little rain. We looked at the satellite picture this morning and it still looks like it could hit us by Sunday. The cyclone was moving at 9KM and has speeded up to 13KM. Mike received many birthday emails which made him happy! His birthday is today in the US. We went to worship team practice and I went to Suzanna’s and showed her how to make cookies out of a cake mix. We gave them a cake mix for Christmas, this is a big treat for them, but she said they really don’t eat cake. I think she just didn’t know how to make a cake, we bring cake to potlucks and it is always all eaten. We made cookies and she said the boys really enjoyed them. After practice Wes, Lai and Malo walked to town with us. Not sure if we are going to church tomorrow with this possible cyclone hit. Right now we have 20 knot winds. We had fish N chips at Captains for dinner.

March 14, 2010

The cyclone is closer, 300KM away, not exactly sure but we are feeling a little anxious. It is moving between 10 -20KM. Mike took down the bimini and the OB engine off the dinghy and tied the kayak down upside down. We brought everything inside that was under the dodger. We each packed a backpack with a few clothes, medication etc. in case we had to abandon the boat. The winds are at 23 knots, and we are somewhat protected by a hill, not quite a mountain. We had a big breakfast and decided not to go to church. Just waiting. The winds are becoming stronger on the North side of the island. I made a nice dinner and went to bed but could not sleep. To top it off Mike wasn’t feeling good and wondered if he might be having a heart attack. I got up and got a medical book so I could compare his symptoms to the books definition of a heart attack. I didn’t think it was a heart attack, but he did take an aspirin. And I wondered what I would do if he needed help, our dinghy is tied down and the engine off as is everyone else’s. And the Fiji government said they would not be helping anyone during the cyclone, you need to take care of yourself. So even if I could get to shore there wasn’t anyone or any taxi available for a ride to the hospital, the police had cleared the streets and told everyone to go home. So I just prayed for Mike. I think he is just suffering from stress wondering if the mooring will hold our boat, the winds are 34 kts right now with even higher gusts.

March 15, 2010

Good news for Savusavu, the cyclone changed course. It is going on the East side of Taveuni and will hit the Lau group, which is not good news for those people! We pray they stay safe. It is bitter sweet that I say Praise God! While we were having breakfast, on the little island next to us we could hear the tree branches cracking and breaking. Imagine did not put their dinghy away, they thought it should be available in case they had to abandon ship however it flipped over engine and all. Not good. Then Stella Rosa a 60 ton cement boat broke off its mooring and floated across the bay hooking on Charisma, they got her off with little damage and then it hit another boat, the owners are out of the country. When it passed that boat tearing off the bow pulpit she hit the reefs. A man on a fishing boat got his dinghy in the water and was able to throw out the anchor from Stella Rosa to keep her anchored away from hitting any other boats. The wind was clocked at 43 knots and we were in our cockpits just watching the bay. Boats were sailing on the moorings and the water sprayed across the bay when picked up by the wind, Mike says it is quite fascinating. Several boats had near misses as they were sailing around on their moorings and telling each other to move to a different mooring, like there were any moorings available. Tempers are getting high as the wind increases. We heard 55 knots, but we believe we were shielded from some of the worst wind by the hills. Cyclone Tomas has lost speed and is moving at 5KM and may hit Taveuni by midnight tonight.

March 16, 2010

I woke up at midnight, it is pitch black the power seems to be out on shore, the wind is blowing 43 knots, it is pouring rain, the mooring ball next to us, without a boat on it is banging loudly on our hull and the engine room door is slamming open and closed and Mike is laying in the salon snoring! He must be very tiredJ. We had a very rockin and rollin night but we are alive and well, hallelujah! During the night Imagine’s mooring ball drug, so they had to keep the engine running and ready to move if it drug more as the reef is just behind them, they were waiting for daylight before moving. Several small fishing boats sunk just off the shore. There is lots of surf in the bay as the cyclone moves south. Everything is looking better by 11AM. Mike made pancakes for us this morning for breakfast and then served breakfast cookies (chocolate no bake cookies) for dessert, silly guy! J We got an email from Scarlett, Po Oina Roa and Bold Spirit, they were all in Vuda Point Marina, that was hit badly with cyclone Mick, they are all well and good. They really didn’t get affected by this cyclone.

March 17, 2010

This morning the water is flat, and the sunshine is very hot. We were going to have coffee in the cockpit but it was too hot since we didn’t have the bimini back up yet. Our primary bilge pump quit working so we need to get another one soon. There is a chandlery here but the owner had his roof blow off his house in the cyclone so the store is closed. Dolly was able to let us in to see if they have a bilge pump and they do but while it would work but it is not really the best one for our boat we need a little bigger one and it is very expensive. We will wait until we get to Vuda Point in a week or so, I guess we will hand pump until then!

March 18, 2010

It is my Dad’s birthday today, he is 75 I think! It was a calm hot night. Our plan is to leave for Vuda Point Marina via Lautoka Saturday morning pending the outcome of Customs and the Futuna fiasco. Dolly gave Alan the phone numbers for the American Embassy and the person in charge of Customs in Fiji. Kendra said Customs could have impounded our boat for this offense. Our boat is documented so I am not sure of that but this is certainly a bigger problem than we realized up front. We bought groceries to get ready to go, the can pop price increased by 20 cents per can, that is a lot! I went to the market to buy groceries and people had lots for sell of anything that grew on trees. During the cyclone the fruit was blown from the trees and would not last long so they need to sell it before it rots. Very sad as this is their main source of income. The same thing with produce grown in the ground, the flash floods during the cyclone washed their gardens away. Also we just found out that a French family cruising in a Catamaran was in the Lau Group during the cyclone and their mooring line snapped and there cat hit a reef and cracked completely in half. The family escaped but the boat is a complete loss. They were here in this bay a week ago. There is a major clean up going on in town today, it looks better than ever. I noticed on the internet Fiji is saying cyclone has not affected tourism so I think they are cleaning up the towns quickly to be ready for tourists. Several cruise ships come here each year.

March 19, 2010

Today Mike got up early as a number of guys are planning to pull Stella Rosa off the reef at high tide. I went to Charisma to watch and take pictures and their boat was closer to Stella Rosa for a better view. The police boat had the biggest engine available and they were allowed to use it. It took them about an hour but they were able to get her off the reef and through the coral heads, they had a diver in the water giving directions. Mike was at the helm of Stella Rosa, the engine wasn’t working so Mike steered and the police boat pulled and Betty Mac was in a big dinghy and pushed when necessary. Curly paid for pizza and beer for all the men that helped over at Captains Café to celebrate. Later in the day the police boat pulled up to our boat with about 8 young boys aboard and asked if they could borrow our can opener, he had to open corned beef to feed the boys. Kristen and I went to say good bye to D’Anna at Emmanuel’s. I gave her some emergency food that we had on the boat, we didn’t know how badly they were affected personally. She cried when we said good bye, we told her we are coming back after the boat is painted. I gave her the peanut butter cookie recipe that she wanted too. Then we took a taxi to Pastor’s house to see how Suzanna was as pastor is out of town for a month. She wasn’t there, so we left her some emergency food too. The devastation in just their yard was heart breaking. The papaya and banana trees were ripped out of the ground by the cyclone, all the limes and avocados had been blown off the trees. As we walked back to town we saw unbelievable upheaval and supposedly Savusavu had minimal hit compared to Taveuni and the Lau Group! Very sad, but most the people seem happy and just say they will replant and they don’t want to focus on any of the negative. We gave the rest of our emergency food to Dolly who had a way to send it to the Lau Group, they were the worst hit. Good to know that this food is being used! I sent an email to Mark who highly recommended we buy this food. I am glad we did. Well the word from Customs is that we have to pay a fine, it was $500 and has suddenly increased to $2500.00, they said in Nov. 2009 the fine was increased to $10,000. so we better just pay it. Alan can’t take his boat out of Savusavu until the fine is paid, so we split it! OUCH!

March 20, 2010

Last night Mike didn’t sleep well and was sleeping better this morning, in fact we were to let the mooring ball go at 8AM and Mike didn’t wake up until 7:45. Imagine and Charisma both passed us leaving. We couldn’t get our line off the mooring as it had twisted during the cyclone. Finally we headed out of the bay and the computer died, so Mike had to fix that. Then the bilge bump alarm went off, we had taken on quite a lot of water and the hand pump quit working! Finally all is well and we have sun and 15 knots of wind and have raised the sails. Even though we started last we passed everyone. We spent the night in Nabouwalu. Mike had to fix the exhaust pipe for the genset, not fun, he got filthy. Since we had done some motoring we had hot water so he could take a nice shower. I had to rub soap on his back and arms to get the oily dirt off.

March 21, 2010

We got up at 5:45 and had coffee. Mike had to work on the computer but it is working, thank you Jesus! It is a beautiful morning but there is no wind so we are motoring. Our knot meter started working, this is good. We have to keep pumping the manual bilge pump, when we are moving we take on water. There is a beautiful rainbow, God is good! The regulator isn’t working so Mike made a ‘work around’, he is so smart! Later this morning the wind picked to 7 knots so we could sail. I made a fruit bowl with pudding for breakfast, yum! The wind picked up to 18 – 20 knots, this is good! We sailed past everyone again. We had to go through the reef somewhere to get to the mainland. The pass Mike picked said ‘not recommended’ per Alan. Mike decided the sun was shining so we could see really well and it was low tide which helped the visibility too. There were supposed to be lots of markers but maybe they were lost by the cyclone, anyway there was one marker and we were able to get through pretty easily. The charts were off a bit so it was good we could see well. Surprised Alan’s chart said not recommended. Charisma and Imagine followed us. We went to Nacilau Bay and anchored in 10M for the night. It was a calm night. Mike smashed a cockroach that must have been pregnant, we could see 20 or 30 maggot like babies! Gross! We spray those with Hit Roach Killer to make sure they didn’t live!

March 22, 2010

It was a nice calm night. We were up at 6AM and ran the genset, had a big breakfast and ready to go. Mike went down to work in the engine room on some wiring and he accidentally disconnected the engine, while we were motoring through the reefs. Yikes! He got it fixed with no problem, just added a little excitement to the day. Nice morning, we got to Lautoka at 1PM so we had to wait until after lunch to check in, lunch is 1-2PM everyday and they close. So we had lunch and then went to shore. It was the easiest check in ever, they actually looked us up in the computer and asked Mike a few questions including did we have any alcohol, Mike said ‘no’ and he couldn’t believe it. He asked Mike three times. Mike only had to sign the form and show our passports, no big deal. We stayed on the boat the rest of the afternoon. We made roach cookies with bacon grease, flour and sugar and boric acid. Had dinner and watched a movie. During our movie we noticed many cockroaches on the cookies we made, I had no idea we had so many cockroaches on the boat. Hope the cookies kill them.

March 23, 2010

Charisma was gone when we got up at 7:45. After breakfast we headed to Vuda Pt. Marina to be hauled out. About half way there our engine over heated. Mike thought we may have sucked something up or had a bad impellor which usually happens. But that didn’t seem to be the problem. Imagine motored by and stopped and rafted to us and went down to see if he could help Mike and he noticed our fresh water alternator belt was missing. It broke and that is what had caused the problem. We had another one and it is easier to fix than an impellor. We were so happy Haakon stopped to help! They messed up the haul out schedule and now have to do it tomorrow. No big deal, they put us next to Bold Spirit which was nice! We had lunch at the café and then dinner on Bold Spirit along with Charisma, nice evening.

March 24, 2010

I got up and Mike was gone. I am on my second cup of coffee and I still can’t see him! He was chatting with John and Jerry and they ended up helping him when they hauled our boat out. I went to town to go with Kristen to the doctors, she has an infection and had to get a series of shots, one a day for 5 days. I went to the Chemist and bought more seasick pills and bought Mike some shorts that were on sale but they didn’t fit him. Mike was working on the bottom of the boat, we have a few blisters but overall looks great. Other than we found out 2 screws corroded and broke on the rudder bracket and bent the bracket. Mike is having Baobab fix it. Mike thinks that could have been the weird noise he was hearing back around Thanksgiving. Lucky we didn’t lose the rudder! So glad we found it before our passage home. We had dinner at the yacht club with Bold Spirit, Charisma, Imagine, Po Oina Roa and John on Scarlett. It won’t be long and we probably won’t see these friends again!

March 25, 2010

A hot night, no wind! Mike is getting his supplies ready to patch the blisters on the boat bottom that he ground out yesterday. The more you look the more you find. I went to town again with Kristen she went to the doctors and I traded Mike’s short and got some cash. I bought some more Hit to kill those roaches. And a new movie “Shutter Island”. We took the bus back to the marina, it is so confusing and there doesn’t seem to be any schedule for the buses posted anywhere. So I just kept asking the bus drivers where they were going. Finally we found a bus to Vuda Pt.

March 26, 2010

Another hot night, difficult to sleep. Mike continued to grind and patch the boat bottom and he was able to borrow a 220 extension cord from Alan so he could use his grinder. I worked on my Cost U Less order, I am planning to get as much as possible through them to hopefully last until Hawaii and beyond. They deliver right to your boat and it saves lugging heavy groceries from the store, to the dinghy to the boat, you know my sob story. Anyway my order totals $1250.00 but that is Fijian. I bought stuff like Krustez pancake mix, coffee and creamer, spam and maple syrup you can’t get anywhere else. I also went through my canned goods and looked at expiration dates and so I would know exactly what I had left. I made pizza and salad for dinner and we watched a movie and went to bed.

March 27, 2010

More of the same today except I played cards with Po, Ursa Minor, Charisma and Linda just watched and visited. We ate dinner at First Landing with Charisma, it was way too expensive and only okay food. We went there because there was a band at the yacht club and a $10 cover charge per person but I think we would have saved money still by eating and paying cover charge. Watched Shutter Island, very twisted strange movie.

March 28, 2010

We got up late, the time changed today. We called Lyn and talked to grandkids, it was 9AM here but 2PM there. The US springs forward and Fiji falls back so we go from a 3 hour time difference to a 5 hour difference. We had a great chat with each of them. Mike has a sinus headache today and I have taken IB Profen twice today myself. Mike is still working on Alan’s computer, he had a virus and has to have everything re-loaded. We had hot cross buns for usually made for Easter, for breakfast, not that great, but I bought bacon and it was great! Mike did more sanding and I did more work on provisioning, Judy on Ursa Minor gave me a more complete Cost U Less list.

March 29, 2010

Today I feel achy all over, took more pain meds. The Baobab guys came to wet sand, primer paint on epoxy spots and paint one coat of anti-foul paint today. I emailed my order to Cost U Less. Tonight we went to First Landing for Pizza with John, Linda, Steve, Kristen and Alan. Pizza night is only $10 per medium size pizza, cheap to make up for the other expensive night. We left early as I didn’t feel well.

March 30, 2010

No word from Cost U Less yet so I faxed my order and then called to confirm mine and Kristen’s order. So they should arrive sometime tomorrow. Mike installed zinc on the shaft but only one since we have only gone through two partial zincs in the last year. He also worked on cleaning and perfecting the prop. He really wants a 3 bladed prop but Baobab didn’t have the correct one. He cleaned the knot meter too. It is a hot Day. The bottom has two coats of paint on it so we should be able to “Splash” tomorrow. The girls played cards again, fun time. Mike is still working on Alan’s computer. We went to the Yacht Club with Kristen and Alan. Back at the boat we watched the newest Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Dep.

March 31, 2010

Rain, rain and more rain! They finished painting and we splashed about 11AM with the help of John and Alan. Since we were on the hard with no power our battery was dead and the engine wouldn’t start so they had to tow our boat into a slip next to Charisma. There were two dinghies helping. They had just tied Charisma up and then made them move to put us next to them. It made the whole process stressful. But we had lots of help which was good. I did one load of laundry and hung it up after the rain stopped. Since we had water for one day I scrubbed the deck, it was a sandy mess from being on the hard. And the cockpit, and filled the water tanks. Mike cleaned the bilge and installed the new bilge pump we bought a Rule 2000, $93US but $400.00F but if we shipped one from the states the price would be similar and we would have to wait. I received our Cost U Less order, it was only $996.00, and it was missing 33 items that were out of stock. This time I received two boxes of Jell-O that I was not charged for. Oh well. It took me quite a long time to put it all away. Kristen was quite upset that her order never came at all even after we confirmed it. I would have been really upset too, it is a lot of work to put an order together for a passage. We had a big cruiser get together at the yacht club to say good-by! Charisma, Scarlett, Po Oina Roa, Night Cap, Linda and us. Fun evening.

April 1, 2010

We had breakfast, did the dishes, scrubbed sinks, called Bud, check fuel, oil, dumped trash, bought ice and checked out. George untied our stern lines and Steve and Linda untied the bow lines and we slipped out of our slip, started the engine and we are off again to Lautoka to check out. All this checking in and out of ports makes me crazy! We arrived about 1PM, went to town and our first stop was to pick up a spare alternator belt. We brought the packaging from the old one and of course they didn’t have it and they don’t cross reference. So Mike went to the internet café and looked it up himself. What he found is how to read the size we need and he went back and was able to get that specific size. Very good! We went to lunch at the Chille Tree restaurant and ran into Owen. He sat with us and had coffee until it was time for him to go, he is taking a class across the street. Nice meeting. I went to MH to pick up a few groceries for our trip back to Savusavu. We then walked back to Customs and checked out. I hung up laundry that had gotten rained on. Happy Hour! We had dinner and did email.

April 2, 2010

It is finally April the month that cyclone season is supposed to end and the winds start to blow Southerly so we can head North for home! At 6AM had coffee, ran the genset and pulled anchor. The anchor wasn’t nearly as muddy as normal, it makes such a mess on deck. We headed out before Charisma, a first for us. We know they will soon pass us as we have to motor and they motor faster. The wind is blowing 15 knots on our nose. I made spam and eggs for Mike for breakfast, he is in a silly mood and happy today! We read Proverbs today - patience brings understanding!

April 3, 2010

Today it is raining hard! And just this morning our anchor drug 200 feet according to the anchor alarm. Glad it didn’t happen last night. Charisma left at 6:30AM but once they got outside the reef it was blowing 30 knots and rough seas so they came back inside the reef. We had breakfast and didn’t leave until 9AM as visibility was poor. With no visibility and if the GPS signal is lost it could be very dangerous. It is colder, raining and 15 – 25 knots of wind today. The refer motor won’t work again. We lost the GPS signal four times, but we got it back fairly quickly. We had to really pay attention to how much time we had between turns so when the GPS failed we would know where we were and when we should turn. We couldn’t see very far and couldn’t see the reef. Markers are few and far between. The weather was so bad we decided to anchor for the night at 1PM near Charisma. They came over for appetizers and to play cards. Mike and Alan discussed the weather report. The Fiji weather is quite different than Metvuw out of NZ. Before bed we watched sheet lightning from our cockpit. It was actually nice to watch. The things we do for fun!

April 4, 2010

Happy Easter, because He died and rose again, because He lives we can face tomorrow! Thank you Jesus! Beautiful morning, no wind and we left our anchorage at 7:30AM to cross over to Vanna Levu. We had coffee and apples and Mike had cereal too. Alan caught two fish this morning and wasn’t paying attention and almost hit us. We thought he was just coming over to show us his fish, but no one was at the wheel and they weren’t watching out for us. Good recovery and no hit! The wind picked up to 15 knots so we put out the head sail. We arrived at Nadi Bay which is fairly protected by the wind. It started pouring rain and we left our bedroom and galley windows open so things got a bit wet inside. We anchored at 3:15PM. We have 32 miles left to get to Savusavu. Mike was able to get the refer gong again. We ate soup and watched a movie before bed.

April 5, 2010

Another beautiful morning. Mike made us what he called a hungry man breakfast pancakes, eggs, spam, apple and coffee. Very nice. The anchor was muddy this morning but I was able to use rain water in the dinghy to clean it up. And we had gallons of rain water in the dinghy! We had a calm peaceful night in the bay and pulled anchor at 7AM this morning. We arrived back in Savusavu at 1PM and were able to get on our same mooring. We went to shore and took showers and shared a burger. Alan called Rod and Glenis and they came down to visit but were having company for dinner so they couldn’t stay long. Kristen invited us over for dinner, so I made a pasta salad to take, it was very good. They served fish that was excellent with cream corn and chocolate bar for dessert! My pillow is calling me to bed!

April 6, 2010

It was way too hot last night, we did not sleep well! Mike checked us in with customs and I cleaned the cupboards looking for roaches as we haven’t seen many lately. I found three, they are dead dead dead now. J I put roach chock around under the sink and in drawers. This is war! Imagine emailed us and said they are back from Samoa and they have very few roaches left after using my roach cookies! Mike worked on batteries and they all seem to need replaced, bugger! The reefer started right up today, yesterday it wouldn’t. What is going on with these motors? Julie has surgery tomorrow so we prayed for her before going to bed.

April 7, 2010

We got up at 6:15AM to check email to see if there was any news of Julie. Kathy emailed and said “Julie is out of surgery and in recovery” and she will update as information is available. We can’t call because the internet we use for Skype is down, it is always down when we need it. The refer wont start today and Mike is so frustrated. He may not have attached all the wires after checking the batteries yesterday because now it works! He changed the genset and main engine oil today, I helped by mostly cleaning up the mess he made. He really is not meant to change oil, it is never good. He also got some fuel by gerry jugs, this is heavy work. He was able to buy 4 more 20 liter jugs that we can put fuel in but they are not UV protected so we need covers or to use them up first. He had to make lee boards to tie these new jugs to. This should add another day and a half to the three days we can already motor.

April 8, 2010

Today Mike filled the fuel tanks with the gerry jugs of fuel so now we need to make two more trips to get fuel and then top off just before we leave. I am working on updating our website journal I can’t believe I let it get 6 months behind. We helped Charisma get fuel at the Waitui Marina dock. That dock is in such disrepair and the owner owns a timber yard as well. Tying Charisma up you wonder if there is a wave if it will pull the dock apart. And it is very shallow, we draft a foot and a half more than Charisma so we can’t come here. The fuel station is across the road, they fill a 50 gallon drum and then roll it across the street and down the rickety dock and hand crank the fuel into Charisma’s fuel tanks. We are having dinner with Rod and Glenis so I made chocolate no bake cookies and buying ice cream on the way. Alan gave them fish to cook for dinner. It was pouring rain, the weather report said there would be flash flooding and the dirt roads had rivers running down them, I really didn’t think we could get there, but we did. Getting out of the taxi we got soak and wet. Us girls played GOLF while Rod and the guys BBQ the meat. We had a great time as we always do. When we got home we realized we left our bedroom windows open and our mattress was soaked. We took the mattress off and slept on the boat cushions which are very hard but they were not so hot.

April 9, 2010

After breakfast we had regular ladies meeting for coffee. Nati came this time and a couple of other women stopped by too. Glenis brought the cards a we played Golf again. Afterwards I went shopping and bought a few groceries. Mike was working on Alan’s computer still, he worked on it last night at Rod’s too. I made lunch and then we called Julie. She is doing well and we got to talk to Jayla and Darren too who seem great and so grown up these days! Hermoyne emailed us that the Good Samaritan building that Bud lives in has to close and Bud has to move. Gosh and we are not home to help and tickets are minimally $1500. to go home. Janis is going to go to Spokane to help out, that is great. Mike called Hermoyne to give her moral support and see if there was anything we could do from long distance. I think she was just glad he is tuned in.

April 10, 2010

Our server is down and Mark as always was kind enough to re-start it. It is a nice day, Mike took out the electric pump for the genset and replaced it with a self priming one, but it had issues. The lip seal didn’t seal but Mike was able to fix it with gasket seal, a spring and hard work. He got very dirty. I made him a hungry man breakfast. He went to shower on shore and when he finished he went to get a buzz cut, shorter than ever. Then he went to worship practice and played his trumpet, a busy day for him. While he was gone I cooked a chicken and did mending including a cockpit cushion. We had dinner and watched a movie.

April 11, 2010

It is Sunday and I am wearing a Fijian dress to church that Asana gave me. I was surprised it fit me, but boy is it hot with the floor length skirt. I took a taxi to church with Kristen who wore a Fijian dress too that she had bought, it is bright yellow, so you can’t miss her today. Asana was so pleased I wore the dress! There was a new format today, we only sang a couple of songs and then Esau preached. Church was over at 11:30AM, which is a surprise. After church I was talking to D’Anna who I gave some emergency food to, she said”Sister Cindy the food packets were not too tasty” HA! Well it is emergency food with a 20 year expiration date and lots of preservatives and vitamins. So I explained that to her. She said her eldest daughter liked it though and ate several bowls full. Mike and I didn’t stay for the potluck, I didn’t feel like cooking anything so we went out for pizza. We met some medical students from England at Captains. They were fun to talk to, we had met the last group of students too. They volunteer for 6 weeks to work at the hospital. What a great service. Mike researched batteries and found you can revive them with Epsom Salts but then you have to charge them for 24 hours. We have no way to do that so we pray they last until we get home.

April 12, 2010

It is raining out today, I am tired of writing it is raining but it is! That is all it seems to do lately, which is surprising since the ‘rainy season’ just ended. You can’t go anywhere without getting wet! Mike is researching LED lights, we think we will invest in some. We did buy a few in NZ they turned out to be a bad investment, but everyone seems to speak well of BeBe Lights by Michael at Waitui Marina. I emailed Rod to see if Wes could bring us some Epsom Salts and Sinus tabs from Labasa but there is a little pharmacy we didn’t know about that had both. Rod bought some and brought them to us, what a guy! We emailed home looking for crew and Maudie recommended a 60 year old salty woman, as it turns out she cant however she might be able to help us find someone, but Gary Barta said he might be able to crew. That would be great, maybe there would be trumpet duets on the way back home! Our sheets and pillow cases are suddenly disintegrating, is it all the salt and sweat?

April 13, 2010

Mike bought 4 LED lights and installed them, you wire them in your boat yourself. He bought 2 reading lights and 2 salon lights over the table. He did a check and they only draw .1 amps and the regular bulbs draw 1.6 amps. Huge power savings for us. And they give off a nice light. We put my old LED light in the galley for me to use. These new lights have a life time guarantee. I have been diligently working on our website journal for over a week. It really does take so much time to keep up.

April 14, 2010

Today Kristen and I went to the ladies group so we caught the local bus at 9:30AM. Today Mica was there from a village about 4 hours away by bus. He came as one of the leaders, soliciting donations for his village. After cyclone Tomas 20 homes were lost in his village. The Red Cross supplied blankets and a few things and the government supplied seeds to plant. But seeds take time to grow and most the gardens were wiped out too. His village has no food other than coconuts and fish they catch in the sea. Mica is hoping to get rice and flour for his people. The ladies group opted to donate $150 that is money not spent from fund raisers and now it seems they have a project as it will take these people some time to get back on there feet. Rice cost $1 per kilo so they bought enough to last a week in the village and then someone wants to go to the village to confirm the actual needs. This is a very sad situation. The people that lost their homes have moved in with other families and these houses are small and there is always family and extended family already living together. Mica says there is a lot of fighting. The government is planning to help rebuild the lost homes but this also takes a lot of time to coordinate. While I am working on this journal Mike tied a rope to my foot and then made a rope chain and then a monkey fist. He says I am attached to a ball and chain so I can’t get away from him!

April 15, 2010

Today is Kristen’s birthday so I called her on the radio and said get dressed we are going to coffee. So I dinghy over and pick her up. I gave her chocolate roses, her email address is ‘kristenlovesroses’ and she keeps saying she needs chocolate, so a perfect gift if I do say so. Then I took her to Emmanuel’s where I arranged for chocolate cake, no frosting and coffee. We had a nice chat and saw D’Anna too. We went shopping and then I took her back to the boat. It is a beautiful day, and not raining yet. Mike saved our photos on a DVD as a back up and to clean off my computer, I have 3 gig now. Hopefully it will run a little faster now. I made Mike breakfast and then worked on my journal some more. For dinner we went to Surf and Turf for Kristen’s birthday. Very nice.

April 16, 2010

We met the ladies for coffee again and I brought Ida some fishing line and hooks that Mike was giving her, she was a happy camper. I went shopping today. I was looking for raw sugar. White sugar is hard to come by in Fiji and expensive. Yesterday at Pots N things I found 10kg of raw sugar but that is way too heavy for me to carry. But I decided to get it anyway since I couldn’t find it anywhere else. But it was gone. They said they could bag me some and suggested 4kg, which would be great. But when they gave it to me it looked like brown sugar. I asked them if it was raw sugar and they just smiled. The last bag of brown sugar I bought is full of lumps and maybe bugs. I have to sift through it to use it. Looks like the same thing with this bag. Mike started the genset and it blew a fuse. He found that the shaft wouldn’t turn and he opened it up and it is all rusty. I went to town to leave him with his project. When I got back I bought him a Magnum Ice cream bar, I thought he deserved a nice treat and a break. After he ate his ice cream bar he started the genset, his hard work paid off it ran! Thank you Jesus! Earlier today he bought 7 jugs of fuel, heavy, I helped lift them up and then I cut my foot on the head sail car and it bled all over. We took showers to revive ourselves and get rid of the sweat!

April 17, 2010

Glenis was going to cut my hair today, so I hurried to shore to shower first but when I arrived she was on the dock. She had taken Ida to the market to sell the fish that she caught last night. Glenis said she needed girl talk but said I could take a shower first. Then we had girl talk and I listened a lot and she really wasn’t up to cutting my hair. It is Saturday the main shopping day and everything is very busy until one and everything closes. Mike went to town just to take photos. I went to buy a few things for dinner tomorrow with D’Anna, Malo and 4 kids. I made the kids a little goody bag with a toothbrush, lotion, toys and candy. It was fun to do. Back to the boat I made lunch and cooked up the meat for lunch tomorrow. Mike went to worship practice.

April 18, 2010

Today is Sunday. It rained very hard last night and filled our water tanks! Yea! We dressed in matching clothes that Asana gave us, as we got ready to go to church, left at 9:30, and took a taxi as it was raining. Even though everyone was in a hurry after church Mike still made time to hand out the candy he so enjoys giving. When we leave there won’t be any treats for the kids or the adults that are kids at heart. After church we walked D’Anna, Malo and family to our boat. I bought bread on the way. The kids had never been in a dinghy or a yacht so they were very excited. It took two dinghy trips as we had bread, bibles, trumpet and 8 people total. It was raining so we got wet. We tried to feed the fish but they weren’t biting today. I cooked the noodles for spaghetti and then gave the kids their gifts, they were very excited. I think they liked the candy best, I guess they are kids! I dished everyone’s plate, I thought it would be easier. The kids weren’t too much into corn but they all loved the pasta and cheese bread. D’Anna had two servings and Malo had three. Then I showed D’Anna and the two older girls how to make peanut butter cookies. She had asked me for the recipe a month ago I gave them the dough to take home to cook. I really doubt they will ever make cookies because they can’t even afford the peanut butter. She asked me to write down how to make pasta sauces and things she could do with pasta. I gave her a part bag of pasta to experiment with at home. Everyone got back in the dinghy and I took pictures of them, tomorrow I will try to print them for D’Anna, I doubt it if they have many photos of the kids. Then we borrowed Glenis truck and took them to the church and then Mike and I went to Glenis’ for the lovo a Fijian feast that Rod, Ida and Lai had made for us, this is hours of work. It was great they had my favorite Palusami, with Dalo leaves, coconut milk and onion, then they had taro, like a smoky potato, chicken, and fish that Ida caught and she was proud of how big it was. It was a great meal. Then Glenis cut my hair, very short, yikes! It was a wonderful time and sad because it could be the last time we see some of these people. Then we went to church for the ‘Tea Party” they are having for us. As we walked beside the church I slipped and fell in the mud and cut my hand and hurt my pride as everyone saw. Suzanna tried to wash the mud off my leg. She is so kind. I brought the hot wheels that the grandkids left on our boat so I hope they don’t mind that I gave them to the kids at church tonight. They were all ages 5 – 18 and they were all so excited to get a hot wheels car. The ladies made tea and pastries and had us sit at the head of the table. They had each of us give a speech and then others gave speeches and said many kind things about the contributions we have made to the church. Suzanna said “we came along with food when we didn’t know the cupboards were empty”, that broke my heart. They always feed us so we just try to give a little too. Kristen often brought food as well. They appreciated Alan as he is an engineer and helped them build a stage and they really were blessed by Mike’s trumpet playing. He played a solo today :’A Vessel of Honor”, almost made you cry it was so beautiful! And he contributed with a sound booth and fixed the microphone issues and was great inspiration. The evening ended when they presented us each with a sulu that said Bula Fiji! They said how much we will be missed but we will miss them just as much. The boys had a torch and walked us home until there were street lights. We know we are loved. Very busy nice day.

April 19, 2010

We were supposed to leave this morning for Tonga but Mike says the weather ‘evaporated’ so we are still waiting. I spent most the day working on my journal. So I worked on the laundry too since we had so much rain water. Mike bought and installed 3 more LED lights two for the galley and one more for the salon. Very nice! I printed 6 photos for D’Anna and put them in a plastic cover for her. Rondineva was supposed to come over today but he never showed up. We went to shore and took showers and waited for Pastor Clark and Nati to show up for her birthday party at Captain’s Café for pizza. And Glenis made a birthday cake with candles. We had a nice time. This time we remembered the bug spray.

April 20, 2010

Mike didn’t sleep well at all last night but I took sleeping pills so I was good this morning. I fixed cold cereal and bananas for breakfast and then got busy on this journal and now it is all caught up. Hallelujah! Mike went to the church to fix some things on the sound booth and he took D’Anna her photos, she was too busy to talk. When he got to church Suzanna made him tea and they talked a lot about the church and the new format. I sent chocolate cookies for tea too but Mike gave them to Suzanna. I did a little more laundry too. Mike installed another lee board on the other side of the boat, so we can put the containers on either side or he suggested getting another 4 jugs. We will see. We filled two buckets in very little time, it poured down rain tonight.