I am currently writing while underway from Monuriki Island, where the movie Castaway was filmed, back to Malolo Lailai. In addition to Max, my sister Julie and her husband Silas are visiting this week so Sophie is a full and happy boat.

Over the last couple weeks we cruised northern Fiji and experienced village life. Our first stop was Rambi Island, inhabited by descendants of people from Kiribati. We stayed a few days in Albert Cove, which had a great beach and beautiful reef. We saw so many fish jumping out of the water. Even the dolphin stopped by to herd their lunch against the inside of the reef.

When we left Rambi, we had a perfect day for sailing to Mitangi, a small uninhabited island off the coast of Taveuni. Snorkeling was fabulous and I managed to remember my underwater camera this time.

We had hoped to stay overnight at Mitangi, but by the time I finished snorkeling the wind had shifted to the north and rollers were coming through the anchorage. We made a quick late afternoon decision to motor to Qamea before dark. This turned out to be a great call. We dropped the anchor at sunset in a totally protected and calm anchorage. Three other boats there left for the Lau group at first light, so we ended up being the only boat in the bay for four days.

In the morning, we dinghied in to the settlement for a sevu sevu ceremony with Moses, the chief, and met a few other people from the village.

The chief and his family welcomed us with open arms into the village and were extremely generous. They have no electricity other than a few solar chargers, and they are still waiting for government money to finish rebuilding from damage sustained in 2009 from Cyclone Mick that destroyed almost every structure on the island. Leo and Hazel had tons of fun playing with all of the kids, dogs and one of the pet pigs that had jumped over the fence of its pig pen and was running loose.

We really wanted to watch the opening game of the World Cup but that wasn’t going to happen in the village. It turns out there was a house across the bay owned by an American that had satellite TV, so the village spokesperson invited us to the caretaker’s house to watch the opening game of the World Cup. I baked some muffins to bring along.

A few local kids paddled out to Sophie to play with the kids. They loved the trampolines and jumping off the bows. The boys were so excited by our library on board that we ended up with five kids reading books in the fly bridge for a solid hour after lunch.

The next day more boys paddled out to Sophie to swim with the kids, but we were in the middle of Sophie School and it was raining, so we asked them to come back in the afternoon. A little while later Jamie went down to our room to straighten up and realized they had been under the boat the whole time, hiding from the pouring rain. Smart kids. We gave them chocolate chip cookies.

Moses, the chief, is also the pastor of the village. On Sunday he invited us to church followed by lunch with his family. The kids went to Sunday school and learned hymns in Fijian, which they sang during the service.

Following Moses uphill to church.

Singing during the church service.

Three of Moses’ grandsons.

Sunday school friends.

What an amazing meal we ate! Here is “Mama” preparing Bele leaves. Every dish was delicious. We think they fished all day Saturday to catch something big enough to host all of us. Their kindness and generosity were overwhelming.

Mama prepares lunch.

Sunday dinner at the chief’s house.

Sunday dinner.

Freshly caught waloo head.

Bele with fish, breadfruit, sea grapes with fish, and chicken with noodles.

Sea grapes with octopus.

On our last night, Mama brought the women, all the grandchildren, one of her sons, and the village spokesman to Sophie for a kava party. We made popcorn and drank several bowls full of local grog with them. It tasted slightly better than I remembered, less like dirt and more like pepper.

Making kava.

“Kava girl,” as she was nicknamed, served low tide, high tide and tsunami pours of grog.

The kids loved eating popcorn and otter pops, and even managed to play a few videogames in my bed.

By Sophie standards this was one memorable party.

Mama

We had such a wonderful time and were sad to leave this friendly community. It was one of the most positive experiences we’ve had on our trip and inspired us to invest more time in each village we visit and get to know the families we meet.

Getting a ride to school.

The chief’s family waving goodbye.

Villagers waving goodbye from their windows and doorways.

Going to work as we depart.

On our way back to Savusavu we caught a lot of fish. First up, this 18 pound Mahi Mahi:

Next we snagged this little barracuda that we let go.

We were about to pull in all our lines when we caught back to back Wahoo on our port hand line, 41 and 34 pounds. We gave a big chunk of one plus both carcasses to the local village.

Needless to say, our freezer is now completely full.

Wahoo bagged and ready to freeze.

Full freezer.

What’s left of our lure after Wahoo bites.

After a quick provisioning run to Savusavu, we made a quick crossing along the north shore of Viti Levu and arrived a few days later to Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai, just in time for Julie and Silas’ arrival. So far this week, we’ve paddle boarded, kayaked, swam, snorkeled, caught a huge sailfish and visited Monuriki and Yanuya, but more on this in our next post. Have I mentioned lately how lucky we are?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas summer! Today is the longest day of the year and official start of summer here in New Zealand.

It’s a little surreal for us that Seattle has a snow day while Leo and Hazel are sporting their togs and jandals, slathering on sunblock, and chanting “4 days to Christmas.” We’re going Kiwi-style! For the first time we will celebrate Christmas with just the 4 of us on the boat, and Sophie is ready.

The lights are LEDs of course. Inside, we have a cute little tree.
We only brought four ornaments with us, but ended up getting a few more to avoid looking like a Charlie Brown tree.

The kids have had so much fun at Opua School and made lots of holiday projects. They are quite proud of their calendars.

There is a Christmas Parade in Pahia and this year’s theme was fairy tales. Opua students could come as their favorite fairy tale character or their school uniform. Remember the one when Batgirl helps Cinderella find some lost forest friends? We do.

Leo donned his school uniform instead.

The Peter Pan float from Pahia Elementary was the most elaborate and won first prize.

Opua School had a small storybook float and most of the kids walked in front.

The little pig faces in the window were the cutest.

No Christmas parade is complete without some Maori cheer.

And of course Santa.

Apparently the real Santa is already on his way here.  According to Hazel it takes 17 days for reindeer to fly to New Zealand from the North Pole so the sleigh is en route. Here is her letter to him:

After the parade, the kids ate ice cream and went on the car ride. Leo kept hitting cones. After three warnings, he was banned from the ride. Best time ever.

One of our favorite sights are the Pohutukawa, or New Zealand Christmas tree. They were plain green when we arrived, but in the last few weeks have burst into bloom.

The path in Whangarei was red from so many petals on the ground.

We’ve also done some holiday baking. Leo and Hazel’s friends Bailey and Boston joined us on Sophie for a pizza party, cookie decorating, movie night and sleepover. Holly, you missed out on Home Alone. The gingerbread cookies turned out way better than I expected, and were pretty easy to decorate.

The kids did the ones around the outside, and I did the ones on the board.

In addition, we decided to make a gingerbread house, our first one from scratch. Hey, we’re on a boat and not working so if we don’t do this now, when would we? I found a recipe online, designed a paper pattern, and made three batches of dough.

Trimming the pieces a second time right after they came out of the oven worked great and made the house fit almost perfectly together. Royal icing took care of the rest. The kids decorated most of the house and garden and then our good friend Heidi helped with some of the finishing touches.

Here’s the completed house:

The gingerbread house didn’t last long. The kids brought it to school on their last day before summer vacation and it vanished within minutes.

Over the last couple days we’ve sailed from the Bay of Islands south to Auckland where we’ll spend the holidays. As I type, Jamie is playing Christmas music for the kids who are bouncing on the trampolines and getting soaked in the spray kicking up in 25 knots of wind right outside of Auckland.

Here is Hazel, post trampoline:

We’re excited to explore a new part of New Zealand and looking forward to having Christmas dins at our friend Misti’s house and then dressing up for the horse races on Boxing Day. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

You may have noticed that we haven’t posted to the blog in the last 4 weeks while sightseeing, hiking, taking kids to school, fishing, boat projects and hosting friends. We’re having an incredible experience so far here in New Zealand.

For the first couple months here we are on a dock at the Opua Marina. While I love anchoring out, I have to say the convenience of jumping off the boat without having to dinghy in to shore has been a big luxury. Also, with all the boat projects we’re catching up on, you can’t beat our location at the end of the Ashby’s Boat Yard dock.

When we arrived, we cleared customs Tuesday morning just before Game 5 of the World Series. Needless to say, our first priority was to find a place to watch the game. Six of us squeezed into a tiny beater of a car we borrowed and drove to the Roadrunner Tavern where we enjoyed some of the best burgers we’ve ever had and watching the Sox win.

And of course we went back two days later for the epic Game 6.

How could it get any better than a Red Sox World Series championship? David Murray, what a brilliant idea you had to watch it again while cooking on Thanksgiving. Wish we could have too.

It may surprise you to learn that Jamie has always wanted a minivan. I on the other hand, although I fondly remember great times driving one with my friends and sisters during high school, have always loathed the idea of getting another, so it figures that the best cheap used car here was a 2004 Kia Carnival, and we are now the proud new owners of this sweet ride.

With new wheels and a sense of adventure, we headed off to explore the Northland with Fred and Frank, our wonderful crewmates who stayed for some vacation in New Zealand after our crossing from Fiji.

We hopped a ferry to the quaint town of Russell and visited the museum, Pompellier Mission and Duke of Marlborough Tavern that served up some amazing local fried oysters.

Russell is also home to Christ’s Church, the oldest church in New Zealand.

The Pompellier Mission is remarkable. They still operate the tannery, printing press and book bindery that has been in operation since the 1800s. We got a demonstration of the entire process and history from a Maori guide. Leo and Hazel tried out scraping leather and typesetting.

The kids also ran the printing press.

In Kerikeri we stopped by the Stone Store, the oldest building in NZ.

It’s spring here and flowers are in bloom. Everywhere in the Northland looks like a gigantic English garden.

We headed to the west coast to see the giant Kauri trees. En route, we stopped near Opononi at the lookout over Hokianga Harbour for our first glimpse of the Tasman Sea.

On our way to Waipoua Forest, our “two day old” car lost power and then overheated going up a steep hill. We discovered the radiator cap blew off and had to wait for the car to cool down. We managed to go another few kilometers before it overheated again. Almost every car that passed us stopped to check and see if we needed help. Kiwis are so friendly! Luckily we broke down within a few kilometers of the only garage in the area, so we enjoyed a great lunch at Morrell’s Café in Waimamaku while the mechanic checked out our car.

It turned out that there was no coolant in the system, only water (Jake our used car guy rectified this and more back in Opua and also paid for our garage stop). The Carnival ride has run perfectly since, for a minivan that is.

We wanted to get the car back to Opua, but we were so close to the Kauri forest that we made a quick stop to see Tane Mahuta, the biggest Kauri in New Zealand. It is huge! The forest reminded us of our road trips last year to the Olympic and Redwood National Forests, only more tropical.

We made a second trip to Russell to watch the annual Russell vs. Waitaingi rugby match. Our bartender at the Duke of Marlborough plays for Russell and told us about the game, and they won!

Leo and Hazel got into the action too.

We spent a low key Halloween at the Opua Cruising Club here in the marina. The kids made their own costumes including drawing their own face paint. Some local friends aka supermoms we met at the Cruising Club took them trick or treating around the neighborhood in between dumping rain showers and then gave out little handmade bags of candy to everyone.

We heard such great reviews of the local school that we decided to enroll Leo and Hazel for the last 6 weeks of the term. Opua School is quite used to cruisers joining classes this time each year and they welcomed us with open arms.

The kids love being with so many children and learning about New Zealand culture. We were a little overwhelmed with school activities and being back on a schedule the first week. On their first day we learned that they needed costumes for Show Day the following day. Luckily we found some supplies at the two dollar store in Whangarei while the kids were at school. That night they designed and made their own costumes for the second time in less than a week.

Hazel went as a strawberry and Leo was a bunch of carrots.

The theme for Show Day was “5+ Fruits and Veggies a Day” and included a school-wide costume parade and dance party. Some students also decorated their bikes and scooters.

Show Day coincided with Guy Fawkes Night and the Melbourne Cup, so the kids got to stay up late with us to celebrate with dinner, horse racing, and fireworks at the Cruising Club.

Later that week Jamie and I attended the Opua School Tea Party fundraiser. Jamie won best dressed man (of course!) and a raffle basket of Christmas goodies. Without gloves and a fur, I didn’t stand a chance, but thanks to Becky Hoppins who brought me some beautiful vintage white gloves I could be a contender next time. The food was fabulous and all handmade from scratch by moms in the PTA. The school performed a Maori Kapa Haka for us and Jamie and Frank danced with some of the girls during the ballroom dancing demonstration.

One weekend we walked on to the car ferry and hiked to the Omata Winery with Frank and our friends Jeff and Melody from Double Diamond, a Lagoon 440 from Kirkland, WA. The wine wasn’t our favorite, but the food and view were spectacular.

We are working our way through the AA list of 101 things all Kiwis must do. One must see is the Wairere Boulders, a valley of basalt rocks that claims to be the only place in the world where you can see basalt erosion. It was a beautiful hike and the kids loved searching for boulders that looked like animals.

See the dinosaur?

See the crocodile?

My favorite moment was when Leo stopped, looked down and said, “Mom, look! We’re where the red fern grows! Do you suppose they could belong to Old Dan and Little Ann?”

Jamie and I took the kids on another hike to Rainbow Falls in Kerikeri.

Hazel giggled nonstop while chasing chickens across the field.

One day I volunteered to help chaperone Leo’s class on a field trip to Adventure World, an amusement park in Pahia run by former circus performers. Leo and his friends absolutely loved it.

At first, Jamie and I weren’t sure what to do with all our “free time” while the kids are at school. We started with a deep clean and organization of everything inside Sophie and then some boat cleaning and maintenance projects. More on this in another upcoming blog post. We also started short day trips to hikes and restaurants. One day we ate lunch at the Duke of Marlborough Restaurant before streaming the Pats game.

Another day we walked from Opua to Pahia on the coast track (90 minutes one way) followed by lunch at 35 Degrees South, then walked back again following the beach almost the whole way since the tide had gone out.

Another day after morning boat chores we stopped at Marsden Winery for lunch. Feels like we’re dating again. We had just started tasting when Jeff and Melody walked in with a couple friends so we had lunch with them.

We also did the coastal drive to Whangaroa and hiked to the top of St. Paul’s Rock. Both have spectacular views in all directions.

We spent the week before Thanksgiving attending the All Points Rally in Opua, going to seminars, catching up with friends we’ve made across the South Pacific, and meeting a lot of other cruisers who came to NZ for the season.

We have been so fortunate this year to have so many friends and family join us for parts of our voyage. Becky Hoppins and Ian Campbell joined us for Thanksgiving (Becky also did our initial ocean crossing from Seattle to San Francisco last year). We hiked up Flagstaff Hill in Russell.

The next day while Jamie worked on the boat, I took Becky and Ian to Hokianga Harbour and the Waipoua Forest to see more of the Kauri trees.

On the way back, we stopped in Kawakawa to see the famous Friedensreich Hundertwasser toilets. Yes Frank, we finally made it there.

We hiked again to Rainbow Falls followed by oysters and white wine at lunch.

Hazel started an after school gymnastics class and just adores it.

The kids have also practiced the Kapa Haka and performed with their school at the annual welcome to cruisers at the Opua Cruising Club.

The weather has warmed up significantly since we arrived and it almost feels like summer again. After almost a month on the dock doing boat projects, we were so happy to take Sophie back out on the water for fishing one day while the kids were at school. Jamie caught our first red snapper and it was delicious.

Last year we spent Thanksgiving in Monterrey, CA on Sophie with just the four of us. We’re mostly observing local customs, but it didn’t feel right for the kids to just do a regular school day on American (or “amirican” as the Kiwis say) Thanksgiving, so we took them out for a couple days and anchored out in the Bay of Islands for a proper celebration. The dolphin seemed to like this. Becky and Ian did too.

We anchored at Urupukapuka Island, and the water was warm (enough). We have really missed the water!

We all hiked the loop track to the top of the island.

One other boat left shortly after we arrived, so we had the anchorage all to ourselves. This is apparently unheard of after school gets out for the summer.

There were oyster beds along the rocks so Jamie is now an expert oyster harvester and shucker. I think we’ve eaten at least 4 dozen in the past week.

In the morning we fished some more. Becky caught a spectacular red snapper and Jamie reeled in a four foot shark (let that one go).

We decided to have our Thanksgiving meal at the same time as everyone in the states (Friday here in NZ). We anchored at Roberton Island and ate fresh fried snapper for lunch and then paddle boarded and played on the beach while preparing Thanksgiving Dinner. Instead of turkey we had roasted lamb with baked kumara pie, stuffing and corn bread, and started with fresh oysters Jamie had just pulled out of the water plus some 1997 reds from the cellar.

On Saturday we hiked to the lookout on Roberton Island and then spent some more time in the water.

In her eagerness to see the stingrays, Becky inadvertently hooked her own foot while diving into the water. She didn’t notice until she got back to the boat. Luckily it was only skin deep and we were able to clip and remove the hook. In a surprising reversal of roles, Jamie played surgeon this time instead of me. Never a dull moment.

We watched some of the slideshows from our trip on Becky and Ian’s last night here. It struck us how much healthier we are now than when we left a year ago. “Who are those big people? Oh my, that was us.” Jamie is steady at 100 push-ups a day and I’m holding my own. After the slideshow, Becky told us the photos that we’ve posted to the blog aren’t nearly enough given all the amazing things we’ve seen so I promise more going forward.

It was sad to motor back to Pahia and say farewell to Becky and Ian. We had such an incredible time and miss you already! Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We feel so fortunate to have so many great people in our lives and hope all the rest of you can join us soon. Everyone should try cruising. We’re back at the dock in Opua, relaxing and playing games with the kids who have two more weeks of school before summer.

We are the luckiest people on earth and still loving every minute of this incredible journey.

Our time in Fiji is coming to an end after two months. What an amazing country.

On October 10th we celebrated Fiji Day, commemorating the anniversary of Fiji’s independence from British colonial rule, with tug of war, beach volleyball, water bailing relays, kava drinking, singing and dancing.

Hazel and Leo had their faces painted and loved playing all the games.

To round out our Fiji experiences, I finally had the opportunity to try kava. We even let Leo drink a little.

Jamie describes the flavor as “tea made from cigarette butts” and we all think that’s spot on.

We really enjoyed singing with the daughter of the chief.

The past two weeks have been very low key. The kids focused on Sophie School, swimming and playing with friends. I lost count of how many hermit crabs they found. Jamie and I caught up on boat projects and of course we watched Red Sox and Patriots games. What an amazing time we’ve had in Fiji.

Many of our fellow cruisers have already departed and now it’s our turn. Fred and Frank are here to help us crew. We cooked homemade lasagne, beef bourgignon, coq au vin, corned beef, and crepes for the crossing. And the weather window looks good.

We just checked out of customs and as I type this we are heading south. Next stop New Zealand!

Bula! We’ve seen and done a lot over the last six weeks here in Fiji. It’s an amazing place.

Regatta Week at the Musket Cove Yacht Club, visits from Troy & Maureen and Randy & Susan, Leo’s birthday, exploring the Mamanuca and Yasawa islands, sevu sevu ceremonies with village chiefs, provisioning in Nadi and Denerau, and much much more. Here is a long post to catch up.

Robinson Crusoe

We spent a great day anchored at Robinson Crusoe Island, a backpacker resort off the southwest coast of Vitu Levu. Guys in the fire dancing and knife tossing show had fun performing but even more fun teasing each other if they dropped their knives or fire batons.

Afterwards we all picked numbers for the hermit crab races. The kids love building sand castles for them too and trying to keep the crabs from escaping. This has become their nightly pre-dinner activity on the beach.

A 9 year old girl followed Leo everywhere for the afternoon. Something tells me this is going to happen all the time now. I’m not quite ready for Leo to be so popular just yet, but how can he help it with that hair! (He desperately needs a trim but avoids me whenever I bring this up.)

Malolo

Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai Island is where we’ve spent the most time. The yacht club claims it’s the most exclusive in the world because you can only become a life member if you have sailed to or from a foreign port to here. We’re now proudly flying the MCYC burgee below our SYC one.

People call this the vortex because it’s so easy here. That’s what everyone says, “It’s so easy,” and they are right. It’s a very protected anchorage which makes all the difference in 20-30 knot trades. The resort has a market, coffee shop, restaurant and big pool. We take the kids to the pool almost every day after Sophie School.

There’s an island bar with sandy beaches where the kids can play while grown-ups hang out sipping drinks, cooking over wood-fired barbecues every night. They supply plates and silverware and do the dishes. So easy. We have met so many new yachtie and kiwi friends here.

Regatta Week

Every September the Musket Cove Yacht Club hosts Regatta Week, seven days of non-stop festivities from 8am until late night.

We had an absolute blast with Troy and Maureen Batterberry who flew in from Seattle in time for the Pirate Day race to Beachcomber. It was more of a no holds barred water balloon fight than race. Troy constructed an incredible water balloon launcher for Sophie out of a funnel and surgical tubing, but we were down to our last balloon by the time it was finished. He managed one perfect hit to a neighboring boat.

We were greeted by a shuttle boat to shore when we anchored at Beachcomber. It was so hot that most people stayed in the water or in the bar except during tug of war.

Sophie won the best dressed boat and we enjoyed dancing with all the pirates.

Hazel loved hanging with her friend Sophia and managed to find another water balloon. Most of the ones the kids threw from the boat ended up in the water, missed their target or broke in their hands. They loved it!

Afterwards, we had a fantastic spinnaker sail back to Musket Cove.

…and champagne to celebrate.

There were a couple races during Regatta Week. For the next one it was a beautiful day, but we had almost no wind and ended up coming in dead last. Hey, it only took us 2-3 minutes to tack and an hour to finally make it outside the reef to the main legs of the race. It felt like a dead calm Thursday night Downtown Sailing Series race in Seattle. Sophie likes wind.

We had fun competing in the beach events too. Troy and Maureen made it past the first round in the Hobie Cat races.

Below, Jamie is examined by a judge in the hairy chest competition.

Our friend Dave from Lightspeed came in 1st and won a bottle of Bounty Rum that he shared with the crowd.

Maureen, Kathy from Lightspeed and I competed in our first wet t-shirt contest. You needed a 2-piece bathing suit to enter and then the rest was up to you. Given the dozen men with telephoto lenses plus my children on shore, we chose to leave our suits intact.

The winner, by unanimous vote of the judges and the crowd, was a 70+ woman named Hazel. She’s a very cool lady and our little H loves that there is another Hazel here.

We also need to thank our friends on Hydroquest, Orkestern and Ninita for introducing us to the golf course here on Malolo Lailai. It’s an easy 9-holes next to a grassy airstrip. If you miss on the first hole you climb out and play your ball from the runway. Jamie is addicted and we’ve now played 4 rounds.

The kids love riding in the cart with snacks and Leo has played a handful of holes and can sink the ball in 10-12 strokes. Hazel tried a few times too, but it’s hard for a leftie kid to wield an adult rightie club. We may saw off some used leftie clubs in New Zealand for her. Maureen had never played before and she was a natural.

It was close to sunset before we finished the fifth hole, so the manager asked us to come back the next day to finish up. We did, and had so much fun that we decided to play another round before dinner.

Seeing our friends happy makes us so happy.

To top off the day we ate dinner on the beach at Ananda’s Restaurant.

In the middle of all this we followed the America’s Cup and had the opportunity to watch races with about a hundred kiwis on a big screen at the poolside restaurant. They weren’t set up on the first race, but luckily we had our tablets with us and huddled around the small screen to watch live.

The first race was typically scheduled for 8:15am Fiji time so Sophie School started late on race days. The kids hung out a lot with new friends Harry and Jackson from Touché M’Dear on Sophie and on land, and patiently waited for races to finish so they could all jump in the pool.

Harry and Leo have the same birthday so we celebrated a few days early with cake one morning right after the Cup races. Breakfast of champions.

Sea Life

Although we were having tons of fun at Regatta Week, we also wanted Troy and Maureen to see more of Fiji, so we headed north to the Yasawa Island Group. Dolphin put on a great show for us.

And happy day, the fish were biting again!

Troy caught his first pelagic fish off Waya Island.

Not only did he catch dinner, but Troy was on a mission to fix our broken ice maker. What fun is Sophie without ice? The problem turned out to be a tiny motor that turns the ice tray that dumps out the cubes. That solved, cocktail hour was back in business and Troy took over as bartender.

We anchored with ten other boats off Drawaqa Island in the Naviti Group, right around the corner from the channel with the manta rays, near a cool backpacker resort that had a wood fired pizza oven at the beach bar. We read that the best time to swim with manta rays is an hour after high tide, so the next morning Jamie went out in the dinghy on a recon mission and came back in a hurry to get us. All of the tour boats were leaving as we pulled up and at first we thought we missed out, but after five minutes drifting in the strong current, we spotted our first manta ray, then another and another. Wow!

Swimming with humpback whales in Tonga was unbelievable, and this was a close second. We spent over half an hour watching them do what looked like a graceful ballet of flips and turns while they fed. There is an abundance of food in the channel, but rather poor visibility as a result.

It’s a little scary to have a pack of manta rays swim right towards you and then at the last minute circle around you. They did this over and over again, and it was a thrill every time.

Blue Lagoon

We expected a dead calm motoring day up to Sawa I’Lau to see the caves, but by the time we got outside the reef the wind kicked up to 20 knots on the nose so we decided to duck in to Blue Lagoon instead. Yes, that Blue Lagoon. We even watched the movie the first night and then found a few of the locations nearby.

We did our first sevu sevu ceremony with the local chief who welcomed us into the village. It was quick and easy. We were surprised and a bit relieved, given Jamie’s description that kava tastes like tea brewed from cigarette butts, that we didn’t have to drink it this time.

After days of non-stop activity, it was refreshing to just hang out and relax for a while. We explored Nanuya Lailai, swam and snorkeled, and continued Sophie School.

With only one day left for Troy and Maureen’s vacation, we decided to take a tour boat up to Sawa I’Lau for a quick morning swim in the caves.

En route, the longboat’s outboard sputtered and choked until our guide finally stopped on a reef and attempted to fix it. He managed to get it going again, barely, but we limped along until the motor died again. So much for our quick morning trip. After another hour of sitting there watching all the other tour boats zoom by, we finally persuaded him to give up and call another boat. A fast one this time.

Zipping along at over 20 knots, it only took a few minutes to reach the caves. The main chamber opens up to the sky and contains a blend of fresh and salt water.

There is an opening a meter underwater that leads into a neighboring pitch black chamber called the Spitting Cave. Our guide went first so we just had to follow his flashlight, but I’ve never done something like this before and was pretty scared going into the dark unknown. Leo, of course, dove right in and was the first one through, so I took a deep breath and followed. Luckily it was low tide so we only had to swim a few meters underwater. It was so cool. We swam through the dark to the very end of the cave where there is a narrow tube that goes up 30 feet. From directly beneath it you can look up to a small circle of sky. Our guide explained that this is a sacred place and for hundreds of years, villagers hiked up to this opening and spit down into the cave. Then he told us they decided this was a bad habit from their culture so they don’t do it anymore. Plus that wouldn’t work so well in a tourist brochure.

There isn’t much of an economy in the Yasawas except for tourism and some agriculture. There are no grocery stores or ATMs. The village that runs the caves makes all its money from cave entrance fees and selling crafts to tourists. This was Leo’s birthday so he got a couple souvenirs from the craft tables and a big kiss from the woman who sold them to us. It was well past lunchtime by the time we headed to Sophie. We devoured all of the pringles and cookies I brought for Leo and we were so grateful the fast boat made it back in 20 minutes.

We celebrated Leo’s birthday and Troy and Maureen’s last night with a traditional Fijian lovo (feast) and dance show at a nearby resort.

Troy and Maureen opted to fly back to Denerau from the Yasawas so they could maximize their time with us. You can catch a float plane that shuttles people to and from the Blue Lagoon at Turtle Island, a 5-star resort on Nanuya Levu Island.

We took the dinghy over to drop off Troy and Maureen. Hotel security greeted us at the dock and asked us all to wait out on the dock while he checked on the plane eta.

We stayed out of the rain on covered benches and they brought us fresh squeezed juice. After about an hour we learned that the plane had been diverted due to bad weather, but they were sending a helicopter instead. It landed right on the beach in front of the resort. Not a bad finale for the week.

Thanks for a fabulous time Troy and Maureen! We loved every minute with you.

Sophie Adventure Cruises

After a quiet week of Sophie School we returned south to the Mamanuca Islands and made our way to Denerau to provision and await Randy & Susan’s arrival. Denerau is a manmade island with resorts and marina near Nadi that feels a lot like Fort Lauderdale, complete with US chain restaurants including a Hard Rock Café. There is an awesome Italian store and we splurged on a big leg of Parma ham, wedge of parmesan cheese and 1.5 kg of pesto. Randy & Susan joined us and we made a trip to the vegetable market and meat store before heading out.

Later, we dropped a hook at Beachcomber for drinks and to circle the tiny island fringed by a white sand beach that takes less than 10 minutes to walk around.

We had planned to get lunch on shore, but it turned out Beachcomber’s generator was broken so they weren’t really open except for beer, which they have to shuttle back and forth 10 miles from Denerau every day in coolers. They plan to reopen in November after the new generator is installed. Back on Sophie Jamie made us an awesome Italian spread instead.

The wind kicked up in the afternoon as we motored back to Musket Cove and we were glad to pick up a mooring and show R&S the Island Bar and DIY barbecue.

We sailed, swam, paddle boarded, snorkeled, played golf and went tubing. Randy and Susan even ran around Malolo Lailai. Jamie is quite the activities coordinator, and adopted the phrase “Sophie Adventure Cruises” as we packed in as much fun as possible each day. Sophie Adventure Cruises now includes drinks in fresh coconut shells thanks to a new cleaver we found at the grocery store in Nadi.

We made a couple trips to Cloud 9, a cool floating restaurant and bar anchored near Cloudbreak, one of the top 10 surfing breaks in the world.

They said the surf was relatively small when we were there, clearly not for beginners.

It was fun to lounge, watch the surf and eat some of our recently caught fish prepared by the Cloud 9 staff. Delicious!

Randy and Leo even dove off the roof.

Hazel loved wearing Susan’s hat and sunglasses.

Sophie Adventure Cruises never disappoints, and we had another dolphin show on our way back.

Randy joined the fisherman club with his first tuna.

There’s nothing like fresh sashimi. Pickled ginger and wasabi are a staple on Sophie.

We enjoyed some spectacular sunsets on the water too.

Happy 20th anniversary Randy and Susan!

It was an incredible visit. Thanks for joining us.

And finally, congratulations to the Red Sox advancing to the ALCS. What a nail biter at the end of game 1 today! Sophie School has of course been rescheduled around all the games. We have to stream the WEEI radio broadcast, then catch up on post game video highlights because we can’t get the MLB live video stream to work over our Internet dongles. Listening to the radio reminds me of when I was little and we’d listen to blacked out home games on days Fenway wasn’t sold out. I love the nonchalant “wicked awesome” in the Shaws commercials too. Go Sox!

Given all the fishing we’ve been doing lately, it may surprise some of you to learn that Leo had never reeled in a big fish on Sophie, until now. We left Suva harbor without fueling up, intending to sail to the Kadavu island group, about 50 miles to the south.

Out in the open water, however, we discovered the wind was on our nose instead of the predicted easterlies, so we turned west towards Beqa (pronounced “mbenga”) and surfed downwind on a reach in light air. A couple hours later Jamie yelled “Fish! Fish! Fish!” so I turned the boat upwind to slow down. Jamie grabbed the pole and moved over to the port steps while the fish ran a bit.  “It looks like a small mahi-mahi. Hey Leo, do you want to land this one?”

Oh yeah!

Leo grabbed the pole, braced himself on the deck and started to reel in.

Game on!

In the water, the mahi-mahi is a brilliant blue. It’s remarkable how quickly this fades to yellow after it’s caught.

This girl put up a good fight! Leo said it was hard and felt like the reel was stuck most of the time, even though the fish was getting closer. He asked me to title this post mahi-mahi attack.

Leo held steady while Jamie stood by with the net.

Success! One in the net.

It turns out this wasn’t such a small fish after all.

Over 10 pounds, Leo had trouble holding her up with one hand. I love his smile.

To celebrate we ate spice-rubbed mahi-mahi over watercress and cucumber salad with pickled ginger vinaigrette for lunch and made ceviche with the rest. Congratulations Leo on your first mahi-mahi take down!