Man, I love my boat! The work is coming along well. I found another 40’ Cheoy Lee Midshipman for sale. This one doesn’t have a modern aluminum rig like splendid though.
http://tinyurl.com/4vv599
She will look sooooooo good when I’m done with the decks, and house.
I got an email from my friends Chris & Maggie on “Contigo” (“With you” in Spanish) the other day and I’ve really been dreaming of sailing in the Pacific again. Check out their experience in Fiji:
Cheers! or as they say here “Bula!” We have been lazy in writing but have been thinking about you all the time. SinceSummer, our friends’ 17 yr old daughter, left on the 26th, we have been in theYasawas, an island group off the west side of the 2 main islands of Fiji, Viti Levuand Vanua Levu. We have visited villages and done “sevusevu.” Sevusevu meansbringing a gift to the village chief which should be kava or preferably, whaleteeth. But since whale teeth are hard to find, we brought kava. You buy the kavaroots at the market in the mainland, for about $20 a bunch. They look like a bouquetof dried grey roses wrapped in newspaper. The locals grind the roots into a powderthat they mix with water and drink it. Sharing with us is an honor. To visit thevillages you have to be properly attired. This means wearing clothes (both for themen and the women) that cover your shoulders and knees. Women should wear an anklelength skirt and men, long pants. Also, no hats or caps, nor sunglasses, norshoulder straps hanging form your shoulders. Whew! They’re pretty strict about ittoo! You walk into the village and ask for the 2nd in command and he takes you tothe chief. The chief welcomes you and asks you to sit on the straw mat in his bure(hut) and, because you are far away from your home and family, they tell you thatnow, their village is your home and the clan is your family. These people are thewarmest, most welcoming, happy people we have ever come across. In the village of Nambukeru, after we presented the sevusevu, they cooked awonderful meal of fish, octopus, root vegetables and bananas for us. They served uson a long table under the trees on the beach. It was set with a tablecloth, flowersand the meal was served family style. The women stand behind you and fan the foodand pass the serving dishes from one side of the table to the other while the menand us (the crew from MISS JODY and SERAFIN) ate. Once we were done, the women satdown to eat. We asked them to join us but they said that was not their custom – themen eat first. Good grief!! We also joined them for church service on Sunday where the women’s choir sang hymnsyou would recognize but they were all sung in Fijian, and the preacher prayed, inEnglish, for our safe travels on the ocean. The women all sit together, the childrenhave their own section and the men another. The next afternoon about 9 of them cameto see the boats. We had “open house” and ferried them, 3 at a time, to each of theboats. We had a blast! They ate cookies and Tang on CONTIGO, crackers and juice onSERAFIN and juice and Oreos on MISS JODY. (We all wanted to visit Miss Jody!!)Theyasked a million questions and we did the same. That evening they had a “meke” forus; a typical Fijian dance, where the men and women of the village performed songsabout fishing, the caves and the people from the different countries that havevisited them. They had Frangipani leis (yummy smelling!) for all of us and we evengot up and danced with them! I loved dancing with the men in grass skirts! As we pulled up our anchors and left this magical bay, they were on the beach wavingus goodbye and shouting “Mode manda sota tale!!” (Good bye and until we see otheragain!) We visited other islands where we swam in caves that looked like cathedrals, inNaviti we snorkeled with 5 giant manta rays that came to feed at high tide andperformed turns and underwater dances for us. We saw a humpback whale feeding theirbaby as we sailed from one island to another, visited another island where we wentto dive on a sunken WWII plane and had to cross through a 70 year old couple’s yard.They live on a beautiful piece of beach by themselves and were fixing their hutawaiting the arrival of their 17 grandchildren during school break this week. Webrought them canned meat, flour and sugar and they gave us beautiful nautilus shellsthat wash up on their beach. And if life is not measured by the amount of breathsyou take, but by the moments that take your breath away…one night we stood in aweand wonder as we saw most beautiful moon rise of our lives in our perfect anchoragein the Yasawas..and it took our breath away! We are now in Port Denerau in Viti Levu today. There are cafes and shops andtourists and the magic of the islands seems far away. Hopefully, on Monday, after weprovision and buy fuel, we will return to the magic. Peace, love and bula!!Magie and Chris I’m also posting a picture of my favorite little girl Guin. Check her out in her new fowlies. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the new DVD: If you want to watch the preview check it out here: /portals/0/videos/DVD2previewbig.wmv If you have been waiting for them to start shipping and want to buy one now, go to: http://neo.projectbluesphere.com/cart/ Buy the DVD “The Art of Cruising” its “Finding Freedom”, I just haven’t had a chance to fix it on the website yet. Cheers everyone. Sail Far and live slowly – Alex
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